The strange thing about all the stories of the 2025 Ukrainian Operation Spiderweb using smuggled-in drones to destroy Russian assets on the ground is how no-one seems to have made the connection with the Leipzig airport drone incident - and many others for that matter.
'Smuggling' drones into another country so they can then be remotely deployed against military assets seems like a relatively easy thing to do especially within the EU with its infamous 'open borders'.
Ukraine has set the precedent and now operation spiderwebs are being suspected in all sorts of events including the alleged Iranian 'terrorist' attack on RAF Fairford in the UK.
But this is a serious pandora's box that Ukraine's action has opened.
Until anti-drone protection has become much more sophisticated, military assets (like aircraft) and facilities like bases or weapons factories anywhere in the world are essentially under threat from simple remote-controlled internal action rather sophisticated external air, drone or missile attack.
Historian Damien Lewis made the comparison between Spiderweb and the the Long-Range Desert Group's attacks on Rommel's aircraft in the desert in WW2.
Operation Spiderweb—Ukraine’s bold June 2025 drone strike deep inside Russia—has drawn striking comparisons to the sabotage missions carried out by Britain’s SAS during the Second World War, according to British military historian Damien Lewis, speaking to BFBS Forces News on November 6.
But now the template has been established, anyone can do it, not just Ukraine.