Kyiv’s patsies Mediazona confirms the identities of the five truckers who unwittingly transported Ukrainian drones to Russian airfields in ‘Operation Spiderweb’
On June 1, Ukraine struck military airfields across four regions of Russia in a surprise drone attack dubbed “Operation Spiderweb.” The drones had been concealed inside prefabricated homes, transported by five long-haul truck drivers. The Telegram channel Astra published the names of four drivers the day after the operation. Journalists at Mediazona have now confirmed the truckers’ identities. One was killed in an explosion during the attacks, while four others have been arrested. The Ukrainian military claims the drivers were unaware of the drones hidden in their vehicles.
Operation Spiderweb
Ukraine’s “Spiderweb” drone strikes hit four Russian airfields: Olenya (in the Murmansk region), Belaya (the Irkutsk region), Ivanovo-Severny (the Ivanovo region), and Dyagilevo (the Ryazan region). The drones were concealed in the roofs of prefabricated homes, loaded onto trucks moving across Russia. The Ukrainian military remotely activated the drones as the trucks neared their targets. Officials in Kyiv maintain the truck drivers did not know what their cargo contained.
According to President Volodymyr Zelensky, the operation damaged 41 Russian aircraft, half of them beyond repair. Kyiv’s Western allies estimate the number of aircraft destroyed to be between 10 and 13 warplanes. Meanwhile, Moscow claims none of its aircraft were destroyed — only damaged.
Russian officials reportedly consider Artem Timofeev, a native of Donetsk, a key suspect in orchestrating the airfield attacks. Timofeev and his Kyiv-born wife, Yekaterina, have been placed on national wanted lists. The Telegram channel Baza, which has close ties to Russia’s security agencies, reported that Timofeev owned the four commercial trucks that served as launch platforms for the Ukrainian drones. Several days before Operation Spiderweb, the Timofeevs left for Kazakhstan, according to the outlet Mash.
Vasily Pytikov, 62. Killed when his truck exploded in the Amur region.
Mediazona concluded that Ukraine’s military had initially intended to target five airfields. However, in the Amur region, the plan failed when the drone-bearing truck bound for Russia’s Ukrainka base caught fire on the highway. The driver was Vasily Pytikov, a long-distance trucker from Chelyabinsk, one of his former Chelyabtransavto colleagues told Mediazona.
“Vasya’s birthday was May 31, and I’d just spoken with him,” the source told Mediazona. “He was sitting there, his truck broken down and still 600 kilometers [374 miles] from Blagoveshchensk. He said the job was decent, that they were moving modular trailers [parts for prefab houses]. I’d done the same work across the country for nearly eight years. If they’d given me one of those trailers, I’d have loaded and hauled it just the same. You can’t even get inside — everything’s sealed tight. No one’s going to start pulling the walls apart!”
Mediazona’s source also recognized Pytikov in a video of the truck explosion in the Amur region, released June 1 by pro-war blogger Kirill Fedorov, who claimed the vehicle was transporting Ukrainian drones. The ex-colleague said Pytikov had been living alone since his wife died three years earlier from COVID complications. Mediazona’s source insisted that Pytikov “was a patriot all his life” and would never have agreed to that haul had he known what he was carrying.
Pytikov’s body was withheld from his family for three weeks. A memorial service was held in Chelyabinsk on June 22, after which he was cremated and his ashes were buried on June 27.
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Mikhail Ryumin, 55. Arrested in the Ivanovo region.
Vasily Pytikov knew one of the other drivers identified by Mediazona: Mikhail Ryumin, who was hauling a similar prefabricated house from Chelyabinsk to the Ivanovo region. The two started the work together after hearing about it at a truck stop, said Mediazona’s source, who added that both men had “faced some difficulties” at their previous job.
“It was their first haul at the new place,” the source said of Ryumin and Pytikov. “The trucks were secondhand, and their boss was Artem [Timofeev], or something like that. They did repairs on the trucks, and he paid them a steady wage, which made them happy. As long as the money kept coming and we were fixing trucks, we were set to work.”
Ryumin’s wife, Galina, told journalists that for two months before their first haul, her husband and Pytikov had been repairing the trucks assigned to them, “taking those vehicles to the shop,” with their employer paying them a monthly salary of 50,000 rubles (about $600).
Despite all the repairs, Galina said, Ryumin’s vehicle also broke down on the highway. He called Timofeev, who told him he was in China and promised to sort things out when he returned. Galina said her husband called her as soon as he saw drones flying out of his truck: “He managed to tell me: ‘Drones — from my truck,’” she recalled. “And I told him, ‘Call the police!’ He was in complete shock.”
The federal agents who arrived on the scene promptly arrested Ryumin, accusing him of participating in a terrorist act as part of a group. Officials later raided his home. Ryumin’s wife said an investigator had promised her that he’d be released after two months, but he remains in custody to this day, represented by a court-appointed attorney.
According to Galina, the lawyer called her and spoke dismissively about her husband’s case, saying her husband could face life in prison. “Are you even aware that he’s in pretrial detention?” he asked her. Their daughter later broke down in tears when she called the attorney herself, Galina said.
Galina is convinced her husband is innocent and insists he has no connection to the Ukrainian military. “He was in the Pioneers and the Komsomol [Soviet youth organizations]. That’s the kind of people we are,” she said. “When the war started, we really mourned. Some of our friends’ boys died, and we went to their funerals. These were people we knew — and now they’re gone. [Ryumin] wanted to go fight, too, but I told him no. Our daughter needs him, and his health isn’t great anyway. I told him, ‘Where would you even go?’”
Ryumin sometimes calls his family from the detention center to ask how they are. “He calls and asks, ‘How are the dogs? How’s the granddaughter?’” Galina told Mediazona. “He’s crazy about his dogs. He says, please don’t give them away, I’ll be back.”
Andrey Merkuryev, 61. Arrested in the Irkutsk region.
Mediazona confirmed the identity of another driver from Chelyabinsk, Andrey Merkuryev. It was his truck that appeared in a viral video showing truckers and bystanders hurling rocks at drones as they launched from his truck bed. Reports indicate that Merkuryev himself was quickly arrested, and it remains unclear whether he was one of the men trying to stop the drones from taking off.
Merkuryev’s ex-wife, Maiya, did not explicitly confirm his arrest, but told Mediazona that she had received calls from investigators, including the Federal Security Service. Maiya said the two have been divorced for several years, adding that his legal troubles “aren’t her concern.”
Through his attorney, Merkuryev reached out to his daughter, though — as Maiya noted — she “hadn’t seen him in two years.” The lawyer asked family members for support in the form of money, clothing, and medicine, indicating that it would be for his client’s elderly mother. Maiya and their daughter declined to help. The charges against Merkuryev remain unclear.
Mediazona studied leaked records and learned that Merkuryev was born in 1963 in Uzbekistan. He and his ex-wife have two children, a son and a daughter. In 2008, Merkuryev was convicted of making death threats and physically assaulting a woman. His ex-wife says, “He got off with some kind of fine.”
Alexander Zaitsev, 56. Arrested in the Murmansk region.
Alexander Zaitsev, also from Chelyabinsk, worked as a taxi driver and at the Serov Ferroalloy Plant before starting his own transportation business, which closed in summer 2024, according to Mediazona. His Instagram profile picture shows him with his two daughters.
On June 3, the Olenegorsk City Court ordered the arrest of a truck driver identified as “defendant Z.” He was placed in pretrial detention in connection with a case opened on June 1 for “a terrorist act committed by an organized group in the Murmansk region.” On June 25, the Murmansk Regional Court upheld the detention of “defendant Z.” Mediazona believes this individual is Zaitsev. His wife did not directly confirm his arrest, noting only that Alexander “is no longer in Olenegorsk pretrial detention.”
Sergey Kanurin, 47. Arrested in the Ryazan region.
Seven years ago, Sergey Kanurin worked as a taxi driver. His social media includes photos and videos from his hauls as a trucker. In 1999, Kanurin was placed on a wanted list for abandoning his military unit in Volgograd. In recent years, he has accumulated several debts with Russia’s Federal Bailiff Service.
According to Mediazona, Kanurin and Zaitsev were acquainted and had communicated at least as recently as May 2024. Both men followed each other on Instagram.
For several months, Kanurin’s wife, Anastasia, ignored messages and calls from journalists. In early September — presumably after her husband’s detention was extended — she finally agreed to a phone call. However, on the day of the scheduled call, Anastasia blocked Mediazona’s correspondent. The specific charges against her husband remain unclear.