Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks with ABC News journalist Martha Raddatz. Photo: Office of the President of Ukraine

The drivers of trucks from which the Ukrainian intelligence services launched devastating attacks on multiple Russian military airfields on Sunday were completely unaware of their deadly cargo, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told ABC News in a preview of a full interview posted by the US broadcaster on Saturday.

Speaking to Martha Raddatz in an exclusive that is due to go out on This Week with George Stephanopoulos on Sunday, Zelensky said that the Russian truck drivers did not know that the 117 drones used in Operation Spider’s Web had been stowed inside their cargo beds. “They didn’t know anything. They were just doing their job.”

The drones were hidden inside special containers with retractable roofs, and after being loaded into their positions, their roofs were remotely opened, after which the drones flew out to carry out the strikes, ABC News reported.

The Ukrainian president added that Ukraine had only used domestically manufactured weapons and equipment to carry out the audacious attack on strategic Russian warplanes at bases in central Russia, the Russian Arctic, and the Russian Far East on Sunday.

“I wanted very much to use only what we produce and to have the separation [be] very clear,” Zelensky said, clearly aware of reports that the attack was seen by the Trump administration as counterproductive, taking place as it did just one day before delegations representing both Russia and Ukraine were due to meet for a second round of peace talks in Istanbul.

The Security Service of Ukraine has said that the operation, which had been in the works for over a year and a half, had taken out 34% of Russia’s military aircraft and caused approximately $7 billion of damage.

When Raddatz asked Zelensky to respond to comments made by US President Donald Trump characterising the war in Ukraine as akin to two children fighting in a park, Zelensky said that “This isn’t about President Trump … We are not kids with Putin at the playground, he is a murderer who came to this park to kill the kids.”