Donald Trump was not informed in advance about Ukraine's unprecedented drone strike, which destroyed a large fleet of Russian planes on Sunday, The Independent reported on Monday, citing reports.

Ukrainian security sources told CBS News that Ukraine’s "large-scale" drone attack penetrated deep into Russian territory, destroying military bombers and striking five bases. The attack, personally supervised by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, took a year and a half of planning.

Ukrainian authorities did not provide prior warning to the Trump administration about the attack, according to statements from both Ukrainian and US officials to Axios.

According to a Ukrainian official who spoke to Axios, Ukraine's security service carried out the operation by deploying drones from trucks secretly positioned near Russian air bases, with some of these trucks reportedly located as far as Siberia, thousands of miles from Ukraine. 

Ukraine attacks Russian airbases, destroys 40 Tu-95 bomber jets

A source within Ukraine's security services revealed that Ukrainian forces have eliminated around 40 Russian warplanes stationed at air bases located thousands of miles behind the front lines, marking one of Kiev's boldest and most complex counteroffensive operations since the war began.

Footage from multiple Russian military airfields showed destroyed aircraft and planes burning intensely, while the complete scale of the damage had yet to be determined, and among the over 40 aircraft reportedly struck were Tu-95 and Tu-22 strategic bombers.

BreakingNews ⚠️#Ukraine just hit #Russia’s nuclear-capable bomber bases 1,800-4,000km deep inside 🇷🇺
Targets: Tu-22M3, Tu-95MS, Tu-160.

Method
FPV drone swarms launched from stealth truck-mounted cabins.

Result: 40+ aircraft claimed hit.
Massive retaliation is expected from 🇷🇺 pic.twitter.com/QEtI1r8wRl

— BELAL 𓂆🇵🇸 (@sbqureshii) June 1, 2025

The source reported that the mission involved drone strikes targeting locations across a vast expanse of Russian territory, including the Belaya airbase, positioned nearer to Japan than Ukraine, and the Olenya base near Murmansk within the Arctic Circle.

According to Ukraine's SBU domestic intelligence agency, the strikes inflicted an estimated $7 billion in damages and targeted 34% of Russia's strategic cruise missile carriers stationed at its primary air bases.

The security source said that the operation, which took over 18 months to prepare, utilized drones that were covertly transported into Russian territory and concealed within wooden mobile homes mounted on trucks, before their roofs were opened remotely and the drones were launched to execute their strikes.

Ukrainian President Zelensky revealed that 117 drones were deployed in the attacks, which were portrayed as both a strategic military success and a propaganda victory for Ukraine, while also noting that the operation had taken Russia by surprise.

The Ukrainian president commended the country's Security Service for what he described as a "brilliant operation" targeting Russian military facilities.