Old footage for new intimidation from the Russian response to Operation Spiderweb

It is not true that the video footage shared in the post we are reviewing “shows the first attack on Ukrainian targets with Iskander missiles after Ukraine’s attack on Russian military bombers.” As Deutsche Welle’s fact-checkers write, after Ukraine carried out Operation Spiderweb striking targets deep inside Russia on Sunday, June 1, footage appeared across social networks purportedly showing the “Russian response,” but it is old footage, and so is the one in the post we are reviewing.
The video does show an attack by Russia on Ukraine, but the footage is old and dates back to July 2024, when Russia launched a massive attack on a children’s hospital in Kyiv.
It is true that on June 1, 2025, Ukraine carried out a successful operation striking targets deep inside Russia. Ukraine said that more than 40 bombers, or about a third of Russia’s strategic bomber fleet, were damaged or destroyed on Sunday, although Moscow said only a few aircraft were hit. The conflicting claims could not be independently verified, while the video of the attack posted across social networks shows only a few bombers were hit.
However, despite the post saying that “Russian nuclear forces are now on full alert and awaiting only the order to launch,” this information is not based on anyone’s statement, nor announcement, but on an assumption without evidence. The Atlantic Council’s analysis states that most observers expect some kind of response from the Kremlin to the Ukrainian attack, and “while some unhinged Russian war bloggers are calling for the use of a tactical nuclear weapon, it is more likely that Moscow will respond along current operational lines—for example, by conducting even more massive air attacks.”
When it comes to Putin’s calculations in this war, nuclear weapons are principally a rhetorical tool to intimidate Western leaders from backing Ukraine more firmly, the analysis states.
Al Jazeera’s analysis, however, states that the Ukrainian operation is weakening Russia’s image. Strategic bombers were used to launch ballistic and cruise missiles from Russian airspace to hit targets across Ukraine, causing extensive damage and civilian casualties.

The attack inadvertently “helped the West because it targeted [Russia’s] nuclear potential”, Lieutenant General Ihor Romanenko, former deputy head of the Ukrainian military’s general staff, told Al Jazeera.