Ukraine Drone Attack: Russian Nuclear Bomber Attacks Ukraine? 2024 Video Shared With False Claim

A 54-second video is going viral across social media with the claim that Russia has launched its strategic “nuclear bomber” plane, Tupolev TU-95, against Ukraine, resulting in massive explosions across the country amid its defences failing and sounding of air raid sirens.

“…Those Who Provoked The Bear Are Now Paying The Price. World War III Has Begun,” read one such post sharing the video, coming on the heels of a large-scale drone attack by Ukraine, targeting significant Russian military airbases deep within its territory. The archived version of the post can be seen here.

Operation ‘Spider Web’

An operation by Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) using first-person-view (FPV) drones smuggled deep inside Russian and hidden inside trucks has reportedly hit 41 Russian nuclear-capable long-range bombers, including the A-50, Tu-95 and Tu-22 M3, at four airfields across the country. The operation — codenamed “Spider web” and a year-and-a-half in the planning — appears to have dealt a major blow to the aircraft Moscow uses to launch long-range missile attacks on Ukraine’s cities.

Fact Check

Newchecker first ran a keyword search for “Russia launches nuclear bomber”, which did not throw up any credible news reports of such a Russian response to Ukraine’s drone attack, at the time of publishing this article on June 2, 2025, raising our doubts on the video.

A reverse image search led us to this TikTok post, dated November 23, 2024, sharing a similar video, captioned, “Russian ‘Oreshnik’ Flight trail”. A date stamp on the video read, “21.11.2024”, along with the text, “Russian ‘Oreshnik’ IRBM”.  A similar X post from November 22, 2024, can be seen here.

A relevant keyword search led us to this X post, dated November 27, 2024, sharing a video stating that on November 21, 2024, Russia used its Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile for the first time to strike the Pivdenmash plant in a “political demonstration”, without any military significance. “On November 21, 2024, Russia struck the Pivdenmash aerospace factory in Dnipro, Ukraine, with six warheads delivered by an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM). Each warhead dispensed a group of six non-nuclear, kinetic submunitions. The attack, in retaliation for Ukrainian strikes on Russia using the American Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) ballistic missiles and British Storm Shadow cruise missiles, appears to introduce a new level of conventional capability with greater range, penetration, and destructiveness,” read a Global Security Review article, dated December 23, 2024.

The excerpt from the viral video, starting from 00:39, was traced to this 15-second Facebook video, dated November 24, 2024, headlined, “Is the World on the Verge of World War III as Long-Range Missiles are Used by Russia and Ukraine against Each Other?”, which further confirms that the viral video predates the Ukrainian drone attack on Russian airbases on June 1, 2025.  We came across this November 21, 2024 Daily Mail post on X, sharing the same video. “Security cameras caught the moment several projectiles streaked through the night sky and triggered a series of explosions in the city of Dnipro where the plants of state-owned aerospace and defence manufacturer Yuzmash [now known as Pivdenmash] are located,” read a Daily Mail report, dated November 21, 2024, further confirming that the viral claim is false.  A similar Eurasian Times report, dated November 22, 2024, can be seen here.

Also Read: Did The Karnataka HC Declare Tipu Sultan A ‘Jihadi’? Here’s The Truth Behind Viral Claim

Conclusion

2024 video of Russia striking an aerospace factory in Ukraine shared as the former using its nuclear bomber in response to Ukraine’s drone attacks on June 1, 2025.

Source
Tiktok post, November 23, 2024
Daily Mail post, X, November 21, 2024
Global Security Review article, December 23, 2024
Eurasian Times report, November 22, 2024