Russian court releases truck drivers linked to drone launches after evidence falls short

The four drivers — 56-year-old Mikhail Ryumin, 62-year-old Andrei Merkuryev, 56-year-old Aleksandr Zaitsev, and 47-year-old Sergei Kanurin — have now been released from custody.

Russian authorities accuse them of transporting explosives as part of an organized group and of participating in a terrorist act that caused major damage. The maximum combined sentence under those charges is 30 years in prison.

Investigators claim the drivers were part of a group of agents recruited by Ukraine’s SBU Security Service to carry out sabotage. Some of them had reportedly worked for businessman Artem Timofeyev, a native of Ukraine whom Russian investigators consider the main suspect in the case and who allegedly acted together with the SBU. Others, according to the Russian side, were carrying out a private transport order for him.

The drivers deny any wrongdoing and say they themselves called police when they saw drones launching from the trucks.

iStories reported that First Deputy Prosecutor General Anatoly Razinkin last week refused to approve the charges because investigators had not found direct evidence of the drivers’ guilt.

The case materials were sent back for further investigation, but Russia’s Investigative Committee appealed Razinkin’s decision.

SBU Operation Cobweb

On June 1, 2025, Ukraine’s SBU Security Service carried out Operation Cobweb, a large and highly unusual strike that destroyed 41 Russian strategic aviation aircraft.

Ukrainian drones struck the following airfields inside Russia: Olenya in Murmansk Oblast, Belaya in Irkutsk Oblast, Dyagilevo in Ryazan Oblast, and Ivanovo in Ivanovo Oblast. The strike on Belaya was the first Ukrainian attack on military targets in Siberia.

The operation took a year and a half to prepare. The SBU first smuggled FPV drones into Russia and then transported mobile wooden huts. The drones were hidden under the roofs of those structures, which were mounted on trucks. At the chosen moment, the roofs were opened remotely and the drones launched to attack Russian aircraft.

In January 2026, NV sources citing Western intelligence said that even after six months, Russia had still been unable to make up for the losses inflicted on its strategic aviation fleet.