The fall guy. Mediazona learned the name of the Russian trucker charged with terrorism over Ukrainian “Spiderweb” attack

An Ivanovo court has upheld the detention of Mikhail Ryumin, a 55-year-old truck driver from Chelyabinsk, on charges of committing a terrorist act as part of an organised group, under Clause “a” of Part 2 of Article 205 of the Russian criminal code.

The decision was published in an appeal ruling on the Ivanovo regional court’s website on June 26. The document notes that Ryumin, who has “worked as a driver for a long time”, was first placed under arrest on June 2.

A colleague of Ryumin’s, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed to Mediazona that he was the driver of a truck used to launch drones on June 1 as part of the Ukrainian “Operation Pautina”, or “Spiderweb.”

In that operation, Ukrainian drones struck the multiple military airbases deep within Russian territory which house Russia’s long range bomber aircraft. The drones were launched from the roofs of prefabricated houses being transported by the trucks, positioned in close proximity to the airfields across Russia. The drones were launched and operated remotely; President Volodymyr Zelensky added that the truck drivers had been unaware of their cargo.

Ryumin’s colleague said that shortly before his arrest, the driver had changed jobs and accepted an order to transport components for the houses from Chelyabinsk to the Ivanovo region in a rented truck.

“It was their first trip in the new job,” the source told Mediazona. “They got second-hand trucks. Their boss, Artem or whatever his name was, well, they were repairing the vehicles themselves. He paid them a salary and they were happy. As long as the salary was paid, they were happy to fix up the trucks, ready for the work to start”.

According to Baza and Mash, two Telegram channels with links to Russia’s security services, the trucks used in the operation belonged to a man named Artem Timofeev. On June 2, authorities in the Irkutsk region published a wanted notice for a 37-year-old Ukrainian-born man of the same name, describing him as “possibly involved” in the attack; the post was later deleted.

Ryumin’s colleague was adamant that the driver could not have known drones were hidden in the roofs of the houses. “Misha is from the old Soviet school,” he said. “He got caught up in this by accident, for nothing. I transported the same kind of huts, we call them modular buildings, for almost eight years all over the country. If I’d been given a hut like that, I would have loaded it up and transported it just the same. You can’t even get inside them; they were all sealed shut. You’re not going to start taking the walls apart, are you?”.

Citing sources in the SBU, the Ukrainian news outlets Suspilne, Hromadske, and Babel reported that the targets of the June 1 drone attacks were airfields inside Russia. The SBU claimed that 41 Russian military aircraft were damaged in the operation. Open-source intelligence analysts later confirmed from satellite imagery that at least 12 aircraft had been destroyed at the Belaya and Olenya airbases.

According to Shot, another pro-Kremlin Telegram channel, four truck drivers were detained following the airfield attacks. Russia’s ministry of defence, however, only reported the detention of “some of the participants” in the attacks.