Drone attack on Russia wasn't unprovoked, not 'Pearl Harbour': Ex-Ukrainian marine

On June 1, Ukraine launched a clandestine attack and reportedly destroyed close to 40 aircraft deep inside the Russian territory.

Amid chatter on social media equating Ukraine's June 1 drone attack on Russian airbases to that of Pearl Harbour attack, several Ukrainian supporters have been pointing out how the drone strike, codenamed "Spider Web," had no other similarities with the 1941 Japanese assault on the US except that it happened on a military base.

In what observers are calling one of the most ‘sophisticated and spectacular' operations of the war between the two nations, since the Russian invasion in 2022, Ukraine launched a clandestine attack and reportedly destroyed close to 40 aircraft deep inside the Russian territory.

Responding to the strike and "Russia's Pearl Harbour" trending on social media, a former British soldier and Ukrainian marine, Shaun Pinner, said it would be wrong to use the terminology on Russia.

"Pearl Harbour was an unprovoked attack. Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014 and fully in 2022. This isn’t Pearl Harbour and Russia aren’t the victims. Don’t fall for this propaganda," he replied to British politician George Galloway who said that "just like Pearl Harbour," the Russian response will be swift and terrible.

Pearl Harbour was an unprovoked attack.Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014 and fully in 2022This isnt Pearl Harbour and Russia arent the victims.Dont fall for this propaganda. pic.twitter.com/TYddfGLwLf
Shaun Pinner (@olddog100ua) June 1, 2025

Another X user El Guátqui (@JordanGuatqui) commented, "Comparing this even remotely to Pearl Harbour is pure, unfiltered Kremlin propaganda, and you should be ashamed for puking it out. Pearl Harbour 'started' US's involvement in WWII. This Ukrainian operation comes three years and hundreds of thousands of deaths 'after' Russia brutally invaded them."

The Pearl Harbour attack of 1941

The attack on Pearl Harbour was a surprise military strike carried out by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service against the US naval base at Pearl Harbour, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. At the time, the US was officially neutral in World War II.

The attack was a complete surprise and profoundly shocked the American public. The day after the attack, then US President Franklin D. Roosevelt famously declared it "a date which will live in infamy" and the US declared war on Japan, thus entering World War II. The strike climaxed a decade of worsening relations between the US and Japan.

Four years later, on August 6, 1945, the US dropped its first atomic bomb, "Little Boy," on Japan's Hiroshima. It caused immense destruction and an estimated 140,000 deaths by the end of 1945, according to Britannica. Three days later, the US dropped a second atomic bomb, "Fat Man," on Nagasaki, leading to an estimated 74,000 deaths by the end of that year.

These two atomic bombings led to Japan's unconditional surrender on August 15, 1945, officially ending World War II.