Something Just BROKE Across Russia's Frontlines… Total COLLAPSE & Other Ukraine War Stories

00:00:00 - Ukraine Just Targeted EVERYTHING... Russia’s Entire Strategic Supply is WIPED OUT
00:18:03 - Ukraine RIPS Through Russian Front... BRUTAL 3km Breakthrough Into Pokrovsk
00:33:32 - Ukraine BROKE Russia at MALA TOKMACHKA... Putin's BIGGEST Defeat
00:49:16 - Ukraine Just LIBERATED Stepnohirsk and DERUSSIFIED it Overnight

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Transcript

00:00:00The spring has arrived, and Russia is supposed to be making its war-ending offensive.

00:00:05Finally, cover is appearing and the weather is getting better,

00:00:08but the same old story is playing out for Putin.

00:00:10He orders advances and his soldiers die.

00:00:14Russia just had its worst month of the entire war,

00:00:17and Ukraine had its best,

00:00:18as the spring offensive has collapsed and Russia's war machine burnt.

00:00:23Record casualties, a new milestone reached,

00:00:25and an advance rate so humiliating that Russia may as well have spent March doing absolutely nothing,

00:00:31are all lowlights for Putin that we're going to explore as the video goes on.

00:00:35But we're going to start with what Ukraine has done directly to make March 2026

00:00:39the worst month of the war so far for Putin's forces.

00:00:43And we can sum that up in three words.

00:00:46Ukraine hit everything.

00:00:48As Russia begins its spring push that is supposed to deliver the inevitable into Putin's lap,

00:00:53Ukraine has been amplifying its deep-strike strategy to a level that Russia never expected.

00:00:59Strategic targets have been hit all over Russia in what Euromiden Press dubs a

00:01:03March harvest.

00:01:05Five factories, ten oil refineries, oil plants, and air defenses have all been destroyed,

00:01:10with Ukraine's Ministry of Defense itself stating that March 2026

00:01:14has been one of the largest months in terms of the sheer number of strategic targets

00:01:17that Ukraine has hit inside Russia itself.

00:01:20Let's start with the factories then.

00:01:21Five of Russia's key factories have been hit over the course of the month,

00:01:25starting with the Kremlin plant, which is in the border region of Bryansk.

00:01:30Known as one of Russia's largest microelectronic enterprises,

00:01:33this factory is where Russia makes the microchips that are later placed inside its

00:01:37Iskander ballistic missiles, as well as in its air defenses.

00:01:40Ukraine has ruined this factory by taking out a production building and a component warehouse

00:01:44used to store the equipment that Russia needs to make its missile chips.

00:01:49Russia's entire missile supply chain fell apart with this one strike.

00:01:53For the next six months, Russia won't be able to make the microchips it needs for many

00:01:57of its missiles.

00:01:59Repairs have to be completed, and with Bryansk being so close to the border with Ukraine,

00:02:03we're willing to bet that the Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, is watching and waiting

00:02:07for Russia to get just about so far with its repair work before another drone or 10 is launched

00:02:12to take out the Kremlin plant once again.

00:02:15But that's just one of five.

00:02:16In Ulyanovsk, Ukraine hit the Aviastar aircraft plant, taking out a climate-controlled shelter

00:02:21and several of the Il-76 and Il-78 aircraft being stored at the plant.

00:02:26Aviastar makes and maintains heavy transport aircraft, Eurymideon press reports,

00:02:31so losing it has a crippling effect on Russian logistics.

00:02:34No heavy cargo aircraft means a slowdown in the shuttling of equipment and troops throughout

00:02:38Russia and Ukraine.

00:02:40Plus, Ukraine took out a plant that keeps Russia's aerial refueling tankers in good condition,

00:02:45so we'll see an impact on Russia's aerial power too.

00:02:48The hits keep on coming with the 123rd aircraft repair plant, which is in Staraia Rusa in

00:02:53the Novgorod oblast of Russia.

00:02:55Yet more of Ukraine's rain down and they hit hangars storing Il-76 aircraft, along with

00:02:59hitting missile defense aircraft, and the storage facilities Russia uses to keep its anti-aircraft

00:03:04missile safe.

00:03:05This was yet another blow against Russia's aircraft maintenance facilities, which, in

00:03:10turn, puts even more pressure on Russia's internal logistics.

00:03:14Next up was Alchevsk and the metallurgical plant that carries the region's name.

00:03:18Ukraine's strike caused a massive fire at the facility, which builds artillery shell casings

00:03:23and is involved in the production of the armored steel that is used in a lot of the military

00:03:27equipment required by the Russian armed forces.

00:03:30So bye-bye mechanized assaults.

00:03:32And finally, there's Sevastopol, where Ukraine hit granite.

00:03:35Why does that matter?

00:03:37Granite is an innovation center, and according to Ukraine's Ministry of Defense, it's the

00:03:42only center that Russia has in Crimea that is capable of repairing S-400 air defense systems.

00:03:47You can guess what this means.

00:03:48More strikes against Crimea are incoming, and Russia won't be able to do much about them

00:03:53as its S-400 network falls apart.

00:03:55This is bad for Russia, and we're just getting started.

00:03:59The Kremlin is already responding to Ukraine's strikes by trying to move its production facilities

00:04:04as far away as possible.

00:04:05That's what's happening with the Roscosmos facility.

00:04:07That was in Kimke, which is in the Moscow region.

00:04:10That facility is being moved to Omsk, which is in Siberia, and the Ural Mountains region

00:04:15of Perm.

00:04:16In what Roscosmos is trying to frame was a move being made to increase efficiency.

00:04:20That makes sense.

00:04:21We all know that efficiency is achieved by moving your production plants as far away from

00:04:25the places where they're most needed.

00:04:27It's all nonsense, of course.

00:04:29Roscosmos is moving its plant away from the Moscow region because it's been watching what

00:04:32happened in March, and it knows that Moscow is well within range of Ukraine's drones.

00:04:37This isn't a move made for efficiency.

00:04:39It's literally running away from the problem.

00:04:41And can you blame Roscosmos?

00:04:43After all, it's not like Ukraine is showing any signs of slowing down with its strikes against

00:04:47Russia's industrial complex.

00:04:48On April 4th, United24 media reported that SBU drones had scored another successful strike

00:04:54against the Alchevsk metallurgical plant that we just mentioned.

00:04:57That's the second hit in a month, and it shows us that Ukraine has a strategy in place.

00:05:02Everything that Ukraine has hit once is, probably, going to be hit again.

00:05:06And if there's anything that shows us how effective that particular strategy is, it's

00:05:10what Ukraine has been doing to Russia's oil sector throughout March.

00:05:14Ports and refineries are burning.

00:05:16In Afipsky and Albashineft, a pair of refineries were hit by Ukraine's drones.

00:05:21Both made diesel fuel, which is transported from the facilities to Russia's southern military

00:05:26group in Ukraine.

00:05:27In Novorossysk, Ukraine hit the Sheskaris oil terminal and launched a devastating attack

00:05:32against Port Kavkaz.

00:05:33Those are hubs that Russia relies on to transport oil via the Black Sea to its customers, as

00:05:38well as to get fuel to the warships in the Black Sea fleet.

00:05:41In Saratov, another refinery was hit.

00:05:43And the same happened in Kirishy and Yaroslavl.

00:05:46What we see here is the whittling away of Russian resources that are responsible for creating

00:05:50aviation fuel, along with other products that stabilize Russia's domestic fuel sector.

00:05:55Then there were the headline strikes.

00:05:58Primorsk and Ust-Luga.

00:06:00Both are homes to ports Russia needs to keep its oil exports flowing throughout the Baltic

00:06:04Sea and onto its customers around the world.

00:06:06And both have been hit again and again by Ukraine during the latter half of March.

00:06:11Remember, this is the strategy we told you about.

00:06:13Hit it once.

00:06:14Let Putin know that the drones can reach it.

00:06:16And before Russia can do much of anything to respond, hit it over and over again until

00:06:21it's gone.

00:06:22Ust-Luga was hit five times in March, with strikes being recorded on March 22nd, 25th,

00:06:2727th, 29th, and 31st.

00:06:29Reuters reports that Ukraine has hit the Primorsk oil terminal so many times that at least 40%

00:06:35of the terminal's oil storage facilities have been lost forever.

00:06:38Back in Ust-Luga, the terminal was still on fire seven days after Ukraine carried out its

00:06:43first strike, as highlighted in pictures shared on X by the special Kherson Cat open-source

00:06:49intelligence account.

00:06:50There is no chance for Russia to claim that this was a minor strike, or that Ukraine's

00:06:54drone debris did a little bit of damage.

00:06:57One of Russia's most important ports is a smoke-filled, fiery hellhole, and no matter

00:07:01how hard the fires are fought, they keep on growing and are being made worse with every

00:07:06strike that Ukraine completes.

00:07:08Here's where this gets really serious for Russia.

00:07:10In a March 25th report, the Kiev Independent called what was happening a historic low, as

00:07:16Russia's oil exports plummeted off a cliff.

00:07:18Bear in mind that there were more Ukrainian drones to come, especially at Ust-Luga.

00:07:22Ukraine had essentially halted 40% of Russia's entire export capacity with its attacks against

00:07:28Primorsk, Ust-Luga, and others.

00:07:30Stopping Russia from selling its oil at a time when the war in Iran has led to prices for a

00:07:34single barrel, rocketing up to and beyond $100.

00:07:38Russia should be raking in the cash right now, but instead, it's dealing with fires of indescribable

00:07:43magnitude at the very ports that were meant to be its liquid gold lifelines.

00:07:47On the refinery front, the Moscow Times reported on March 30th that Russia now faces a fuel production

00:07:53crunch.

00:07:54Ukraine has intelligently combined its destruction of at least 40% of Russia's export capacity

00:07:59with attacks against facilities that make the fuel that Russia is trying to sell or send

00:08:03to its troops.

00:08:05And here's where it gets really clever.

00:08:07Ukraine's attacks against Primorsk and Ust-Luga prevent Russia from shipping its oil.

00:08:11That has a knock-on effect against the stricken refineries.

00:08:14Even if they're able to produce their products, Russia has nowhere for those products to go.

00:08:19They have to be stored at the refineries until the logjam clears, and there's only so much

00:08:23space for that storage before the refineries have to shut down and simply wait for everything

00:08:27to clear up.

00:08:28This is an indirect shutdown to go along with the chaos of the drone strikes.

00:08:32And if Ukraine keeps on hitting the oil terminals in places like Novorossysk, Primorsk,

00:08:36and Ust-Luga, Russia is going to have a whole lot of fuel and oil with nowhere to go.

00:08:41Oh, and one more thing before we move on to Russia's wrecked air defenses.

00:08:44On April 1st, the Kyiv Post reported that Rosneft, which is one of Russia's oil giant

00:08:50companies, had reported that its net income fell by 73% in 2025.

00:08:55A combination of high taxes on profits, high interest rates, and one-off factors, which

00:09:01roughly translates to sanctions and drones are wrecking our operations, led to the company

00:09:06making just $3.6 billion last year.

00:09:08I'm sure this sounds like a lot of money.

00:09:10But that figure representing a 73% decline is bad for Rosneft, which makes it bad for

00:09:16Russia.

00:09:16Less oil being sold means less revenue for the Kremlin to tax.

00:09:20And now that terminals and refineries are burning, Rosneft is staring down the barrel

00:09:25of a 2026 gun that is ready to fire in its face.

00:09:28We haven't even gotten to the air defenses yet, and it's already clear that March 2026

00:09:32has been a horrendous month for Russia in its war against Ukraine.

00:09:36There's a lot more coming.

00:09:37But before we get to that, this is a quick reminder that you are watching The Military

00:09:41Show.

00:09:41If you haven't subscribed yet, now is the perfect time to hit that button so you don't

00:09:46miss one of our videos.

00:09:47Now back to air defenses.

00:09:49Russia lost a lot of them to Ukrainian strikes in March.

00:09:52A dozen S-300 and S-400 air defense systems were taken out during the course of the month.

00:09:57These are both long-range air defense systems that Russia relies on to take out drones and

00:10:01missiles.

00:10:02Granted, they haven't been doing their jobs very well.

00:10:05Ukraine wouldn't have been able to hit Russia as hard as it has in March if they were.

00:10:09But Russia would rather have them than not, and now it doesn't.

00:10:12Adding to these losses was the destruction of 10 of Russia's medium and short-range air

00:10:16defense systems, including TOR, TOR-M1, Pantsir-S1, Tunguska, and various versions of the Buk

00:10:22air defense units.

00:10:23All are being used in Russia's near and deep rear to fend off Ukrainian drones.

00:10:27The irony, of course, is that it's the very drones that these air defenses are supposed

00:10:31to be stopping that are taking them out of the war.

00:10:34Plus, remember Crimea.

00:10:36You'd be forgiven for forgetting, as we've been rattling off so many March strikes that

00:10:40it's easy to lose track.

00:10:41But Ukraine also took out a repair and maintenance facility that keeps Russia's S-400s up and

00:10:45running.

00:10:46So we're seeing Ukraine take out multiple layers of Russian air defenses, and not just

00:10:50in terms of destroying units across the range spectrum.

00:10:53Ukraine is also hitting the means of repair and maintenance, meaning that Russia's damaged

00:10:58units aren't going to be making it back out onto the battlefield.

00:11:01The strikes against air defenses are important because they open the door for everything else

00:11:05we've talked about in this video.

00:11:07Factories and oil refineries are burning because Ukraine spent as much of March carving out safe

00:11:12aerial corridors as it did on hitting those key facilities.

00:11:15This is a complex strategy, and it's one that Ukraine is employing against the occupied territories

00:11:20as much as it is inside Russia itself.

00:11:22The Kyiv Independent highlights that, noting that an analysis of 1,530 verified Ukrainian

00:11:29strikes in Russia and the occupied territories carried out between June 2025 and March 2026

00:11:35revealed that 492 of those strikes targeted air defense infrastructure.

00:11:40Several hundred more targeted anti-access and aerial denial assets such as electronic warfare

00:11:45units and command systems.

00:11:47This is a clear degradation of Russia's air defenses.

00:11:49And we're seeing the impact in Russia's burning oil terminals and its shattered factories.

00:11:54And just to rub a little salt in the Russian air defense wound, all of this happened to

00:11:58Russia in a month when Ukraine's air defenses performed better than they have in months.

00:12:03According to the Defense of Ukraine X account, Ukraine's air defense efficiency has increased

00:12:07by 9.7 percentage points over the last four months.

00:12:10Right now, Ukraine is at 89.9% efficiency, having been at 80.2% back in December.

00:12:16And it has a target of reaching 95% efficiency through its combination of Western air defenses

00:12:22and homegrown assets, such as the Interceptor drones that it's been deploying against Russia's

00:12:26Shahid-type drones.

00:12:28Ukraine is getting better at defending against aerial threats, while Russia faces more of

00:12:32those types of threats than ever before.

00:12:34And that's why March 2026 was the worst month of the war for Russia so far.

00:12:39Gotcha.

00:12:39There is even more to cover, as Russia's woes in the skies are being compounded by an absolutely

00:12:45disastrous start to the spring and summer offensive that is supposed to lead to Russia taking the

00:12:50Donbass and large swathes of Ukraine's southern territory.

00:12:54Putin would have hoped he could console himself with gains in Ukraine even as factories, oil

00:12:58infrastructure, and air defenses burn.

00:13:01Putin was wrong.

00:13:02Heading to the ground, we see that March 2026 was the first month in two and a half years

00:13:07that Russia made precisely no net gains on the ground in Ukraine.

00:13:12That's according to The Independent, which points out the same month saw Ukraine recapture

00:13:17nine square kilometers or about 3.47 square miles of its own territory, as Russia's ground

00:13:22assault has been rattled by continued communications problems caused by the loss of Starlink and

00:13:27Putin's own campaign against the Telegram messaging app.

00:13:30What this tells us is that the spring offensive, which has been marked by Russia launching more

00:13:34assaults against Ukraine's defenses in March than it has at any other time in 2026, has

00:13:39gotten off to a bad start.

00:13:41Scratch that.

00:13:42This is the equivalent of an Olympic sprinter hearing the starting gun and running backwards

00:13:46before falling flat on their face.

00:13:48If Putin were paying attention, he might have seen this coming.

00:13:51Russia's gains in Ukraine have been slowing down for a long time, as the Institute for the

00:13:55Study of War pointed out in a March 31st assessment of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

00:14:00It says that the period between October 2025 and March 26 saw Russia seize just 1,929.69

00:14:08square kilometers, or about 745.06 square miles.

00:14:13That's already a low figure, but it even pales in comparison to the October 2024 to March 25

00:14:19period, when Russia was able to capture 2,716.57 square kilometers, or about 1,048.87 square

00:14:27miles of Ukraine.

00:14:29Russia's forces are stalling out on the ground, even as the spring offensive officially gets

00:14:33underway.

00:14:34And they've just hit the grimmest of milestones.

00:14:37As Putin feeds more meat into the grinder, Russia has surpassed 1.3 million casualties in

00:14:43the war.

00:14:44That's according to Minfin, which puts its official figure out 1,303,550 casualties as

00:14:50of April 5th.

00:14:52That's a catastrophic number of losses.

00:14:54It's certainly more than the losses experienced by any modern military.

00:14:58For context, the US and its coalition allies suffered 3,486 deaths during Operation Enduring

00:15:05Freedom in Afghanistan, per the UK's Help for Heroes charity.

00:15:09That was an operation that lasted for 13 years, between October 2001 and December 2014.

00:15:16Russia hasn't even hit a third of that time in its Ukraine invasion, and it's suffered

00:15:19a casualty count that makes it seem like Putin is waging a war against his own military.

00:15:24March was a big contributor to getting Russia over the line in reaching a new milestone that

00:15:28no modern military should ever reach.

00:15:30March 17th saw Russia record a record-breaking day as it lost 1,710 of its soldiers, which is

00:15:37the most recorded in 2026 so far.

00:15:40It's only going to get worse for Putin.

00:15:42As Russia's latest offensive intensifies, it seems almost inevitable that we're going

00:15:47to see several days where Russia burns through more than 2,000 of its soldiers in 24 hours.

00:15:52Compounding this issue is that March was yet another month when Russia's volunteer recruitment

00:15:57was lower than its losses on the battlefield.

00:15:59Confirmed Russian losses were 89,000 between January and March 2026.

00:16:06United24 media reported on April 1st.

00:16:08The real number is likely much higher, perhaps even veering above 100,000, as these are only

00:16:13losses that Ukraine has been able to confirm on camera.

00:16:16The same period has seen Russia recruit just 80,000 new soldiers the same outlet reports.

00:16:22That means it's well behind its target of recruiting 409,000 by the end of 2026, and it's falling

00:16:28below target at a time when its casualty count is on the rise.

00:16:31Yes, none of this is good for Putin.

00:16:34So how has Russia's failing president responded?

00:16:37If you think he's going to change Russia's approach or do anything that could reverse

00:16:40the flow of losses on the battlefield and inside its own territory, then you haven't

00:16:44been paying attention for the last four years.

00:16:47Putin has no new ideas.

00:16:49But what he and his Kremlin cronies do have are threats.

00:16:53Hilariously, Russia has looked at the shambles that March 2026 has proven to be and decided

00:16:58that now is the perfect time to tell Ukraine that it needs to cede the Donbass.

00:17:02On March 31st, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reported that Ukraine has been told

00:17:07by Russia that it must withdraw its forces from the Donbass within the next two months.

00:17:11Putin's mouthpiece, Dmitry Peskov, has doubled down on this demand, stating that Zelensky should

00:17:16make this decision for the sake of Ukrainian troops right now to save them from the horror

00:17:20that Russia is going to inflict.

00:17:22Has Putin been watching the same war as everybody else?

00:17:25Russia has its worst month of the Ukraine war ever in March 2026, and it decides that

00:17:30now is the time to make demands of Ukraine.

00:17:33Withdraw from the Donbass and Russia promises to stop losing record amounts of troops and

00:17:37air defenses and will also be gracious enough to allow Ukraine to stop hitting our oil infrastructure

00:17:42and factories.

00:17:43It's a ridiculous demand and it shows how disconnected the Kremlin is from the realities of what's

00:17:48happening on the battlefield and inside its own territory.

00:17:51This is Russian desperation, and if March 2026 is any indication, there will be no withdrawal,

00:17:57just more firepower delivered to Russia by a Ukrainian military that is in a very clear

00:18:02resurgence.

00:18:03Pokrovsk was supposed to have fallen.

00:18:05The Donetsk-based city was meant to be in Russia's control and it was being used as a

00:18:10push-off point for assaults deeper into the region.

00:18:13But that just changed.

00:18:14Something extraordinary is happening in Pokrovsk as Ukraine just pulled off an insane three-kilometer

00:18:19breakthrough in the region.

00:18:21Russia just got caught with its pants down.

00:18:24But the bigger story is that Pokrovsk is just one example of what is happening all across

00:18:28the front lines as deep strikes and counter-attacks give Ukraine all of the momentum.

00:18:33Let's start with what happened in Pokrovsk.

00:18:35On May 19th, the spokesperson for the Ukrainian volunteer army, Serhive Brachuk, revealed that

00:18:40Ukraine's assault teams have managed to wedge themselves deep into the Pokrovsk region that

00:18:44Russia claims to control.

00:18:46A brutal push took the Ukrainian defense forces up to three kilometers deep through the Russian

00:18:50defense lines, as a series of counter-attacks showed that Ukraine has the perfect answer

00:18:55to the reserves that Putin is pumping into the Pokrovsk region right now.

00:18:58Those reserves are poorly trained and ill-prepared for what the more experienced Ukrainian fighters

00:19:03bring to the table.

00:19:05Ukraine just showed Putin why that's a problem, with Brachuk labeling what has just happened

00:19:09as being, more than ordinary tactical actions.

00:19:12Brachuk revealed what he could to UATV.

00:19:15If we're talking about Pokrovsk, I cannot name the exact location for obvious reasons,

00:19:19but here the defense forces manage to carry out not just tactical counter-attacks, they

00:19:23can be called breakthrough actions, Brachuk declared before adding, because in some locations

00:19:28our forces manage to wedge themselves three kilometers into the depth of the Russian occupier's

00:19:32defense.

00:19:32Then he delivered the last message that Putin wanted to hear, and the operation continues.

00:19:37As Russia tries to prioritize Donetsk, Ukraine is launching clever counter-attacks in the

00:19:42regions where Putin's forces are weakest.

00:19:44Pokrovsk now appears to be one of those regions, and if Brachuk is right, what we've just seen

00:19:49isn't a one-off, it's a starting point for more operations that Ukraine will use to push

00:19:53deeper into the Russian defensive lines, which, in turn, has massive ramifications for what

00:19:58Putin is planning for the rest of Donetsk.

00:20:00And there's more.

00:20:01We gained a little insight into what Ukraine's Pokrovsk push looked like from Ukraine's 413th

00:20:07Unmanned Systems Forces Regiment, otherwise known as the RAID Regiment.

00:20:10In a post on X, RAID shared a video of one of their drones scoring direct hits on a Russian

00:20:16command post nettled in the remains of a high-rise building in Pokrovsk.

00:20:20The video is interesting.

00:20:21As each drone follows the last, we see the command post degrade to the point where it's

00:20:25a flaming wreck.

00:20:25That command post was being used by the 9th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade, or SMRB,

00:20:31of the 51st Army of the Russian Federation, RAID revealed, and it's been deliberately

00:20:35set up in the ruins of a high-rise building, because Russia hoped that this would make the

00:20:39post impossible to detect.

00:20:41Russia was wrong.

00:20:42The destruction of the command post of the 9th SMRB from the 51st Army will weaken the

00:20:46enemy's capabilities to plan and coordinate offensive actions in the Donbass, RAID declared.

00:20:51That's a little hint about why Ukraine's push into Pokrovsk is so important.

00:20:54But what will really devastate Putin is that Bratchett reveals that the Ukrainian counterattack

00:20:59in Pokrovsk is just one of several similar operations happening all over Donetsk.

00:21:04Beyond Pokrovsk, Ukrainian forces are pushing in the Myrnyad, Liman, and Konstantinivka directions,

00:21:10where they are slowly reversing Russian gains that took Putin's forces months to make.

00:21:14This is a campaign that impacts all of Donetsk, as Ukraine is shattering the Russian lines in

00:21:19what is now supposed to be the rear, which is crippling Russia's attempts to push deeper

00:21:22into Donetsk.

00:21:23But hold on a second, you might be thinking.

00:21:25How could any of this be possible?

00:21:27Pokrovsk was supposed to have fallen to Russia a long time ago.

00:21:30Now we're almost halfway through 2026.

00:21:32Surely that region should be under Russia's full control.

00:21:35That's certainly what Putin and his cronies wanted you to think.

00:21:38But the reality is far more complex.

00:21:40Russia does indeed claim to hold Pokrovsk.

00:21:43The Kremlin has been making that claim for a while now, stretching back to when the Chief

00:21:46of Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, said that Pokrovsk was under Russia's

00:21:50control on December 1st, 2025.

00:21:53Gerasimov was so eager to spread this news that the Kremlin even announced it on Telegram,

00:21:57and he even reported the news directly to Putin.

00:22:00Not coincidentally, the news of Russia's capture of Pokrovsk arrived just at the right time for

00:22:05Putin to use it as leverage in peace talks that were held a few days later.

00:22:08It wasn't long before the Russian lies were exposed.

00:22:11A day after Gerasimov's claims, the Institute for the Study of War, or ISW, claimed that

00:22:16it hadn't seen any evidence to suggest that Russia had completed the seizure of Pokrovsk.

00:22:20The ISW also cast doubt on whether the city, assuming that it fell, would actually serve

00:22:25as the good base for the rest of Russia's plans in Donetsk that Putin claimed it would

00:22:28be.

00:22:29At the time, Ukraine still had fortifications in the west, north, and northeast of Pokrovsk

00:22:33that were complicating Russia's attempts to advance through the region.

00:22:36Of course, all of this was reported at the end of 2025.

00:22:39Russia has made more progress since then, and there are no illusions about the Pokrovsk

00:22:42situation being good for Ukraine.

00:22:44But it's also not as cut and dry as Russia wants it to appear.

00:22:47There is still fighting ongoing in that region, as well as in the city that Russia claims to

00:22:52hold.

00:22:53We know that due to comments made by the commander-in-chief of Ukraine's armed forces,

00:22:56Alexander Siersky, who claims that Russia has amassed around 99,000 soldiers in the Pokrovsk

00:23:02direction, which amounts to the largest Russian grouping across the entire front in Ukraine.

00:23:06That's a lot of soldiers, sure, but these are soldiers who should be amassed around the

00:23:10Donetsk fortress belt, and particularly the city of Konstantinivka.

00:23:13The fact that they are built up in the Pokrovsk region tells us two things.

00:23:16First, Pokrovsk isn't quite the good base for launching new attacks that Putin claimed

00:23:20it to be.

00:23:21If it were, those 99,000 soldiers would be pushing much deeper into Donetsk, bringing

00:23:25Putin closer to his stated goal of taking the Donbass by September.

00:23:29That seems like an impossible deadline, especially now that Ukraine is pushing back in Pokrovsk.

00:23:33And second, the troop buildup in Pokrovsk tells us that Russia is concerned about losing ground.

00:23:38Russia is setting up defensive lines in a region that it claims to fully control because it

00:23:42knows that portions of that control are far weaker than Russia wants to admit.

00:23:46Now, the Kremlin doesn't have to admit anything.

00:23:49Ukraine just showed the world that it can make progress in Pokrovsk.

00:23:52So the situation in Pokrovsk isn't as good for Russia as the Kremlin claims.

00:23:56But it gets so much worse when you start to look at what's happening behind the lines.

00:23:59A three-kilometer counterattack is great news for Ukraine.

00:24:02It shows that there are weaknesses in Russia's Donetsk defenses that can be exploited.

00:24:07But behind the problem, there is a much bigger issue.

00:24:10Before we dig deeper into that, this is a reminder that you are watching The Military Show.

00:24:13If you're getting insight from the channel, then make sure that you are subscribed.

00:24:17You break it down like this every single week.

00:24:20Putin's much bigger problem in Pokrovsk is this.

00:24:22The strikes in the rear are as dangerous, if not more so, than Ukraine's counterattack on the front.

00:24:28Bratshuk highlights this, telling UATV,

00:24:30There were strikes deep into the temporarily occupied territory against what is connected to enemy logistics,

00:24:35and this affects the intensity of combat operations and Russian ability to continue the aggressive war.

00:24:40It's the middle-range campaign that is really hurting Russia in Pokrovsk and the wider Donetsk region.

00:24:45The destruction of the command post that we highlighted earlier offers an example, but it goes much deeper than that.

00:24:50As The Independent points out, Ukraine has been pouring a huge amount of resources into being able to execute strikes

00:24:56in the range of 30 to 180 kilometers behind the front lines.

00:24:59These attacks target things like command posts, as we've already seen, along with military vehicles, air defenses, and logistics.

00:25:05These types of attacks won't change the course of the war on their own.

00:25:08But what they do is open up opportunities for assaults elsewhere.

00:25:12That's what we've likely just seen in Pokrovsk.

00:25:14Using its new generation of middle-range drones, Ukraine has battered the Russian rear in the Pokrovsk region.

00:25:19The beating that Russia took will have led to some of its front-line troops losing support, and perhaps even

00:25:24communications capabilities with their commanders.

00:25:26Chaos ensues.

00:25:28Russia's defenses become less organized.

00:25:30And that's when Ukraine's assault teams are able to strike, taking out the scattered Russian troops to dig deep into

00:25:35the defensive lines.

00:25:36Brachuk claims that these middle-range strikes won't reduce Russian assaults.

00:25:40He may be wrong about that, as you'll learn in a few minutes.

00:25:43But even if he were right, the main point he makes is that Ukraine's middle-range strategy, when combined with

00:25:47its counter-attacks and the fearsome defenses it has set up elsewhere in Donetsk, is forcing a level of attrition

00:25:52that Russia simply can't handle.

00:25:54However, the problem for them has become, in particular, replenishing the losses that they are sustaining, Brachuk says of Russia's

00:26:00forces in Donetsk.

00:26:01The enemy's daily losses are steadily reaching around 1,000 killed and wounded.

00:26:04These are heavy losses for the Russians.

00:26:06They are forced to use strategic reserves for other purposes, to plug their own gaps instead of trying to break

00:26:11through to us.

00:26:12Again, we likely saw this in Bukhovsk.

00:26:14As massive as a gathering of 99,000 soldiers in that region may be, it doesn't mean much as an

00:26:19offensive force when Russia is losing so many soldiers that those troops are being used to close gaps in the

00:26:24lines rather than to launch assaults.

00:26:26Let's hone in on Brachuk's comments about Russia's losses for a moment.

00:26:29There are some interesting figures coming out of the last couple of months that lend some context to how bad

00:26:33things really are for Russia.

00:26:35According to Siersky, Russia is now losing 3.5 times more soldiers than Ukraine across the entire front.

00:26:41The ratio gets even worse for Russia when comparing the number of soldiers killed on each side.

00:26:45On some days, Siersky claims, Russia is losing between 7 and 9 soldiers to death for every one Ukrainian soldier

00:26:52that is killed.

00:26:52That alone highlights the lack of sustainability that Brachuk discusses.

00:26:57Dead soldiers can't be cycled back onto the battlefield, whereas wounded soldiers may be able to recover and fight again.

00:27:03But we can go even deeper.

00:27:04According to Ukraine's Ministry of Defense, Russia's military losses for April amounted to 35,203 killed or wounded.

00:27:11Similar losses were recorded in March, giving us a total of around 70,000.

00:27:16Now, let's apply Siersky's ratio to that total.

00:27:18What we see is that Ukraine has lost about 20,000 soldiers to death or injury between March and April,

00:27:24compared to the 70,000 that Russia lost.

00:27:26And again, remember that Russia is losing a lot more soldiers to death than it is to injury.

00:27:31On March 10th, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that 62% of Russia's casualties amount to kills achieved by Ukraine,

00:27:38versus 38% wounded.

00:27:40So, 70,000 casualties in two months amounts to 43,400 soldiers that Russia will never get back.

00:27:46That's more than twice the number of total Ukrainian casualties for the same period.

00:27:50Brachuk appears to have a point.

00:27:52Russia is losing soldiers at a rate that can't be sustained.

00:27:55And somehow, we can go even deeper into the maths to highlight just how bad things are for Russia in

00:27:59Donetsk.

00:28:00On April 8th, United24 media reported that Russia is losing 316 soldiers per square kilometer that they capture in the

00:28:07Donetsk region.

00:28:08There are about 6,000 square kilometers of that region left to capture.

00:28:12If we're talking about sustainability, then the maths here is a problem for Putin.

00:28:16At this rate, Russia will have to sacrifice almost 1.9 million soldiers to finally take Donetsk.

00:28:21It's not looking good for the 99,000 troops gathered in Pokrovsk.

00:28:25Russia will have burned through all of those soldiers in a matter of months.

00:28:28Then it will need more and more.

00:28:30Donetsk still won't have fallen.

00:28:32Bro, Ukraine making gains in Pokrovsk into the mix, along with all of the medium-range strikes that Ukraine is

00:28:37conducting.

00:28:37And the situation goes from bad to worse for Russia.

00:28:40Ukraine pulled off the extraordinary in Pokrovsk.

00:28:43Russia was caught with its pants down, and it's going to spend the next few months getting a spanking.

00:28:47And the craziest thing about all of this is that Putin is going to continue to order his troops to

00:28:51march cheek first into the Ukrainian paddle.

00:28:54The deputy head of the Ukrainian president's office, Pavlo Pallisa, says that Donetsk is going to be Russia's main point

00:28:59of focus as the failed spring offensive moves into summer.

00:29:03Putin's goal is still to reach the Donetsk administrative border, and that means he needs a stable Pokrovsk from which

00:29:08to launch assaults and a collapsed fortress belt.

00:29:11He has neither.

00:29:12He's not even close to having these two things.

00:29:14But Putin will still order attacks, which are growing weaker by the month as Ukraine shatters the Russian rear and

00:29:20regains ground in Pokrovsk.

00:29:21Russia will continue to push, but the situation is starting to crumble.

00:29:26And that brings us nicely back to Bradtrick's comments about Russia maintaining its level of assaults.

00:29:30That may not be accurate.

00:29:32On May 19th, Siersky revealed that Ukraine has reached parity with Russia in terms of the number of assaults it's

00:29:37conducting, and on some days, it's Ukraine that comes out ahead in that area.

00:29:41For example, yesterday, the general did not specify the exact day.

00:29:45The situation was characterized by the fact that the number of our offensive actions for the first time exceeded the

00:29:50number of offensive actions by the enemy, Siersky claimed in an interview with Militanyi.

00:29:55Now, Siersky didn't state when yesterday was.

00:29:57The interview was published on May 9th, but it may have been filmed before then.

00:30:00But the takeaway here is that Ukraine is hitting Russia harder than Russia is hitting Ukraine.

00:30:05That isn't supposed to be happening.

00:30:06And it's an insane achievement for Ukraine when Russia has gathered 99,000 troops in Pokrovsk.

00:30:11The pressure is starting to be put on Putin's forces.

00:30:14And three kilometers gained in Pokrovsk is proof that the pressure is starting to pay off.

00:30:19Zelensky also has plenty to say about what we're now seeing in Pokrovsk, Donetsk, and the entire battlefield.

00:30:24In his May 19th daily address to his people, Ukraine's president said that the tide is turning across the front.

00:30:30This month has brought a shift in the dynamics in our favor, in Ukraine's favor.

00:30:33We are holding more positions and inflicting more damage.

00:30:36The impact of our long-range sanctions against Russia has been especially significant.

00:30:40Zelensky also confirmed that he has approved Ukraine's long-range plans for June.

00:30:45We'll get back to why that's important after we highlight something else that is shifting in the Ukraine war.

00:30:49Military reforms are underway that are designed to make Ukraine an even more powerful fighting force than it already is.

00:30:55In his interview with Militanyi, Siersky said that new contracts are being created,

00:30:59higher pay is going to be offered to Ukraine's soldiers,

00:31:02and better mechanisms are being put in place to govern the dismissal from service for soldiers who have fulfilled their

00:31:07contracts.

00:31:08In particular, more financial incentives are going to be offered to soldiers who fill the most urgent positions on the

00:31:12battlefield,

00:31:13which will do wonders for morale.

00:31:15Ukraine's push into Pokrovsk and its counterattacks elsewhere have already created a buoyant mood

00:31:19as Ukraine feels momentum shifting in its favor.

00:31:22These reforms have been timed perfectly to enable Ukraine to build on its successes.

00:31:26Now the deep strikes, what makes them so important?

00:31:28Zelensky is so keen to highlight that he has approved plans for Ukraine's deep strike campaign

00:31:32because they play into what we've already discussed,

00:31:35the gradual whittling away of Russia's strength in the rear.

00:31:37In the occupied territories, middle-range drones are shattering the support system that Putin's patsies on the front require,

00:31:43which is creating the opportunities for Ukraine to launch the sorts of counterattacks that we're now seeing in Pokrovsk.

00:31:48However, the broader picture encompasses Ukraine's strikes deep into Russia itself.

00:31:53Ukraine's attacks on Russia's heartland have been causing serious problems.

00:31:56Ahead of the Pokrovsk breakthrough, Ukraine unleashed hundreds of drones against Moscow and mainland Russia,

00:32:01including a strike against the Perm oil refinery that is 1,500 kilometers away from Ukraine

00:32:07and has been hit several times in May.

00:32:09Ukraine's long-range campaign has become so massive

00:32:12that the Atlantic Council felt confident enough to say that Ukraine is winning the drone war in the May 19th

00:32:17piece.

00:32:18Ukraine's strikes against Russia's oil refineries and ports have limited Russia's ability to profit from its most valuable product,

00:32:24in addition to causing issues with getting fuel and other oil products to troops operating in Ukraine.

00:32:29Every attack against an air defense system inside occupied Ukraine opens up aerial pathways

00:32:33that Ukraine can use to launch more attacks against Russia.

00:32:36And even Ukraine's FPV drones have extended ranges,

00:32:39with some reaching distances of more than 70 kilometers to strike behind Russian lines.

00:32:44It's a death-by-a-thousand-cuts strategy, and we're now starting to see it pay off.

00:32:48As impressive as Ukraine's counterattack in Pokrovsk is,

00:32:52it's just one example of many pushbacks that Ukraine has pulled off in 2026.

00:32:56Territories being liberated in the south and the east.

00:32:59Russia's forces on the front are being weakened as their direct support in the occupied territories is destroyed,

00:33:04and Ukraine's long-range strikes intensify.

00:33:06The very foundation of the spring and summer offensive that was supposed to take Donetsk has crumbled.

00:33:12Ukraine is now ripping through the Russian front,

00:33:14and we may now be seeing the start of a wider counteroffensive that will expose Putin for the useless tactician

00:33:19that he really is.

00:33:20No matter where Putin looks, whether it's at the drones, the number of assaults being launched on the front,

00:33:25or even the amount of territory being taken, Ukraine is coming out on top.

00:33:29And now Russia's leader knows that not even his capital city is safe.

00:33:33Malatok-Machka is a tiny village in Ukraine's Zaporizhia region.

00:33:37It's only three square miles, or eight square kilometers in size,

00:33:41and before the war began, it was home to around 3,000 people.

00:33:45It's one of countless other small Ukrainian settlements that have come under attack by the Kremlin's war machine.

00:33:51Yet, unlike so many others, Malatok-Machka has not been taken,

00:33:55despite the Russians throwing everything they have at this place for over four years.

00:33:59This tiny town that almost no one in the world has ever heard of

00:34:03has become the site of one of the longest-running sieges in history.

00:34:07It's also turned into Russia's most embarrassing front-line dead end.

00:34:12How did this happen?

00:34:13To understand that, we have to look at the full story of Malatok-Machka

00:34:17and find out what has made it such a tricky place for the Kremlin's forces to conquer.

00:34:21Situated in the Polihy district in central Zaporizhia,

00:34:24this place is no stranger to warfare and tragedy.

00:34:27It was founded in the late 18th century, during the days of the Russian Empire,

00:34:31by a mixture of settlers who came from Kiev, Chernihiv, and Poltava regions

00:34:35in search of a fresh start and a better life.

00:34:39In the centuries that followed, the village witnessed the horrors of World War I

00:34:42and the bloody battles of the Ukrainian War of Independence,

00:34:45changing hands several times in the process.

00:34:48Malatok-Machka also survived the Holodomor, otherwise known as the Ukrainian Famine,

00:34:52one of the most tragic events in Ukraine's history, in which an estimated 3.5 to 5 million

00:34:58Ukrainians died.

00:35:00281 of them were from this village.

00:35:02During World War II, the area came under the occupation of Nazi Germany,

00:35:05before eventually being liberated by the Red Army,

00:35:08leading to the construction of a monument to honor the soldiers who saved the village.

00:35:12None of that, however, could have prepared Malatok-Machka for what came next.

00:35:17Even through all of those challenges, this tiny town managed to survive and even thrive,

00:35:21to a certain extent.

00:35:22As far as Ukrainian villages go, it was a reasonably prosperous one,

00:35:26with its own local industry, infrastructure, and one of the region's larger penitentiaries,

00:35:30which helped to create jobs and opportunities for the villages.

00:35:33But when 2022 came along and Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began,

00:35:38Malatok-Machka soon suffered the same grim fate as many other Ukrainian settlements

00:35:42across the country's eastern regions.

00:35:44It was seized by the Russians in the initial assault.

00:35:47And while Ukrainian troops managed to force the Russians out just a few months later,

00:35:52the village's ordeal was far from over.

00:35:54In June 2022, mere months into the war, Russian artillery fire struck the village.

00:35:59Numerous structures that had been standing for decades were wiped out in the blink of an eye.

00:36:03The village's council building, for example, was taken out by Russian shelling,

00:36:07and the penitentiary was severely damaged only a few weeks later.

00:36:10It didn't take long for the village's population to plummet as locals fled for their lives.

00:36:16Soon, fewer than a hundred people remained,

00:36:18mostly those who were too old or unwell to evacuate,

00:36:21or simply unwilling to leave their lifelong home behind.

00:36:25With Russian forces quickly capturing ground in the Zaporizhia region,

00:36:29Malatok-Machka was only a mile from the front lines,

00:36:31so it soon became a top target for the Kremlin's troops.

00:36:34They took control of other nearby settlements, and for a time,

00:36:37it appeared inevitable that Malatok-Machka's days were well and truly numbered.

00:36:42But by May 2023, the village was a shadow of its former self.

00:36:46Reports mention how Malatok-Machka's central square was pockmarked by Russian shells.

00:36:51Pieces of shrapnel littered the streets,

00:36:53and the school's facade had been quite literally blown away.

00:36:57The people who remained had to make do without any gas, water, or power for more than a year.

00:37:01Many of their homes had been blown to bits by Russian munitions,

00:37:04and they were forced to spend much of their time hiding out in their basements,

00:37:08which had all effectively been turned into shelters.

00:37:10Only nine miles, or 15 kilometers away,

00:37:13Russians seized the town of Polohy,

00:37:15and began forcefully evacuating civilians and sending children off to the Kremlin's so-called rehabilitation camps.

00:37:22It seemed that a similar fate awaited Malatok-Machka,

00:37:25and Russia's commanders likely saw the village as a highly strategic location to take,

00:37:29given the fact that it was only about a mile away from Orokiv,

00:37:33and roughly 23 miles, 37 kilometers, from Zaporizhia itself.

00:37:37Taking control of this place would allow the Russians to establish a foothold

00:37:41from which they could push on towards bigger and more important objectives,

00:37:45piling pressure on the region's capital.

00:37:47But then in June of 2023, everything changed.

00:37:50Having withstood the initial invasion and the first year of fighting,

00:37:54and having received an array of powerful new weapons from their Western allies,

00:37:57Ukraine's forces managed to orchestrate a huge counter-offensive effort,

00:38:01aimed at pushing the Russians back and recapturing lost land.

00:38:04This counter-offensive was particularly prominent in the southern regions, like Zaporizhia,

00:38:09where Ukraine was eager to force the front lines further away from the larger cities

00:38:12and delay the Kremlin's advances.

00:38:15It didn't start off particularly well.

00:38:17Indeed, the first attack, which was carried out by Ukraine's 47th Assault Brigade

00:38:21and 33rd Mechanized Brigade, was a veritable disaster.

00:38:25One of Ukraine's tank columns came under anti-tank missile fire

00:38:29while attempting to traverse a minefield just outside of Malatoch-Machka.

00:38:33Reports revealed that up to 25 Ukrainian vehicles were either damaged or destroyed in the assault,

00:38:37including at least five of the country's German Leopard 2 tanks.

00:38:41This led to a wave of worry in the media and among military analysts,

00:38:45with many fearing that Ukraine's much-talked-about summer counter-offensive

00:38:48was about to fall flat before it even began.

00:38:51Fortunately, they were wrong.

00:38:53Ukraine regrouped, reorganized, and even managed to recover some of the damaged vehicles.

00:38:57Following a more careful and cautious strategy in the days and weeks that followed,

00:39:01they soon began to enjoy some success, with Brigadier General Alexei Hromov

00:39:05reporting that the country's forces had gained nearly two miles of ground near Malatoch-Machka

00:39:10since the offensive began.

00:39:12They were never fully able to push the Russians back as much as they wanted,

00:39:15but they at least managed to stabilize the front

00:39:17and prevent the village from falling into the enemy's hands.

00:39:20From there, a long period of positional fighting began,

00:39:23during which both sides effectively poked and prodded at one another,

00:39:26but without making any major breakthroughs or gains.

00:39:29The Russians remained committed to capturing Malatoch-Machka

00:39:32and did all they could to achieve that goal,

00:39:34using the likes of tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, assault squads,

00:39:38and drones as the war progressed and evolved,

00:39:40but nothing was ever enough.

00:39:42Why was this?

00:39:43Well, military analysts point to two big reasons underpinning the Ukrainian defense of Malatoch-Machka.

00:39:48The first is the fact that, while they may seem quite small and simple on the outside,

00:39:53many villages just like this have actually become strongholds in the Russia-Ukraine war.

00:39:58Indeed, all along the front lines, there have been similar stories of certain villages,

00:40:02some of which are barely even dots on the map,

00:40:04made up of little more than a single road with a few dozen homes along either side of it

00:40:08that have proven remarkably difficult for Russia to capture.

00:40:11In other words, Malatoch-Machka isn't an outlier, it's part of a trend.

00:40:16Ukraine has found ways to make these places almost impenetrable.

00:40:19They've laid mines in the surrounding fields, for example,

00:40:22which effectively funnels the Russians along obvious, predictable routes into the villages.

00:40:26They've also made good use of drones, especially later on in the war,

00:40:30to help them track enemy troops and armor movements.

00:40:32They can effectively preempt Russian attacks and organize their defenses accordingly.

00:40:36In addition, despite large parts of it being destroyed, the village has been heavily fortified.

00:40:42Old homes and datchers have been turned into secure bunkers, for example,

00:40:46while choke points have been established in narrow lanes,

00:40:49making any attempt at assault dramatically more difficult for the invading force.

00:40:52The second big benefit that works in Malatoch-Machka's favor is its geography.

00:40:57The village is almost entirely surrounded by elevated ground,

00:41:00and while war may have changed a great deal over the ages,

00:41:02one truth has always remained.

00:41:04Whichever side holds the high ground holds the advantage.

00:41:08Because even as armies have developed incredible new weapons and defenses,

00:41:11they've never been able to rewrite the rules of physics.

00:41:14When you have an elevated position, you can see further all around,

00:41:18which makes it much easier to spot any enemies approaching

00:41:20and attack them before they get too close.

00:41:22This effectively means that it's impossible for the Kremlin's commanders

00:41:25to plan any sort of surprise attack on Malatoch-Machka.

00:41:28However, Ukraine's defenders will always be two steps ahead of them,

00:41:31with artillery, drones and other defenses locked on

00:41:34and ready to strike at the slightest sign of movement.

00:41:37And that's exactly how it played out for quite a long time,

00:41:40over the latter half of 2023, throughout 2024 and into 2025 as well.

00:41:45Then the situation changed once more,

00:41:48and the fate of the village hung in the balance.

00:41:50Before we look closer at that, there's more where this came from.

00:41:53So if you're getting value from the military show,

00:41:55don't forget to subscribe.

00:41:58Towards the latter half of 2025,

00:42:00after months of failed assaults and pathetic progress

00:42:03along many frontline locations,

00:42:05Russia's commanders decided it was time for a change.

00:42:07They organized a new, large-scale offensive in key areas,

00:42:11focusing particularly on southern Ukraine

00:42:13and even more acutely on the Zaporizhia region.

00:42:16The orders came down from above.

00:42:18Russia needed to make progress,

00:42:20and it needed to make it quickly.

00:42:22This was all part of a concerted effort

00:42:24by the country's military leadership

00:42:25and its president, Vladimir Putin,

00:42:27to paint the picture that Russia was winning the war

00:42:29and that its total victory was inevitable.

00:42:32This, in theory, would give the Kremlin

00:42:34a much stronger position at the negotiating table

00:42:36when dealing not just with Ukraine,

00:42:37but with the United States and even the European Union.

00:42:40The more land the country could claim,

00:42:42the more cards it would hold.

00:42:44So additional assault squads were assembled

00:42:46in order to advance.

00:42:48Russia's commanders hoped that the sheer weight of these attacks

00:42:51would eventually prove sufficient

00:42:52for them to break through Ukraine's defensive lines

00:42:55and capture those key settlements

00:42:56that had eluded them for so long,

00:42:58like Malatoch-Machka itself.

00:43:00And so in October and November,

00:43:03the area came under increasingly heavy assault.

00:43:05One massive mechanized attack after another hit the village,

00:43:09which was valiantly defended

00:43:10by members of Ukraine's 118th Separate Mechanized Brigade,

00:43:14part of the 10th Army Corps.

00:43:16One of the brigade's press officers

00:43:17has described the village's guardians

00:43:19as the Cyborgs of Malatoch-Machka,

00:43:21referencing the iconic Ukrainian servicemen

00:43:24who heroically defended Donetsk Airport

00:43:26from May 2014 to January 2015.

00:43:29Despite being almost entirely surrounded

00:43:31and forced to fight in extreme conditions,

00:43:33including sub-zero temperatures

00:43:35and continuous artillery bombardments,

00:43:37these brave soldiers survived,

00:43:39earning their Cyborg nickname

00:43:40and cementing their place

00:43:42in Ukrainian military history.

00:43:43They may not be as well known

00:43:44as the original Cyborgs,

00:43:46but the incredible personnel

00:43:47stationed in and around Malatoch-Machka

00:43:49have shown the same extraordinary spirit

00:43:51and resilience in fending off

00:43:53repeated Russian attacks

00:43:54and maintaining control of the village.

00:43:56On October 20th, 2025, for example,

00:43:59Russia organized one of its largest ever assaults.

00:44:02A huge force was assembled,

00:44:04including units from the Kremlin's

00:44:0571st Motor Rifle Regiment,

00:44:07two additional motor rifle companies

00:44:09and around 26 armored vehicles,

00:44:11including tanks,

00:44:12infantry fighting vehicles,

00:44:14Tiger vehicles,

00:44:15and armored personnel carriers, APCs.

00:44:17In theory, a force of that size and strength

00:44:20should be able to take out an entire town,

00:44:22let alone a tiny village,

00:44:23but that's not what happened.

00:44:25Instead, Russia's huge assault

00:44:27was a spectacular failure.

00:44:29Ukraine's defenders dug in

00:44:31and did what they do best,

00:44:32making the most of the weapons

00:44:33and defenses at their disposal

00:44:35to lay waste to the attackers.

00:44:36The day ended with 30 Russian troops dead,

00:44:39others wounded,

00:44:40and an estimated 21 vehicles

00:44:41completely destroyed.

00:44:43Despite all of this,

00:44:44perhaps out of embarrassment

00:44:45or simply as some sort of propaganda tactic,

00:44:48Russian officials seem to claim

00:44:49that their efforts have been successful.

00:44:51On November 16th, 2026,

00:44:53the country's Ministry of Defense

00:44:54announced that Malatov-Machka

00:44:56had been completely captured,

00:44:57with the Defense Minister Andrei Belusov

00:44:59stating that the village was

00:45:01fully liberated

00:45:02and that Moscow's forces

00:45:03were well on their way

00:45:04to achieving their larger long-term goal.

00:45:07Ukraine, of course,

00:45:07refuted any suggestion

00:45:09that Malatov-Machka had been taken,

00:45:11and days later,

00:45:12Russian officials appeared

00:45:13to quietly backtrack

00:45:14on their initial statement,

00:45:15as they once again started reporting

00:45:17heavy fighting around the village,

00:45:19which doesn't exactly line up

00:45:20with the idea of it being

00:45:22fully liberated.

00:45:23As the weeks and months have passed,

00:45:25more assaults have reportedly taken place,

00:45:26but each one has been stopped

00:45:28in its tracks by Ukraine's defenders.

00:45:30Russian media figures

00:45:31have repeatedly claimed

00:45:32that the village is on the cusp

00:45:33of being captured,

00:45:34and the story of Malatov-Machka

00:45:36has even become something

00:45:37of a meme in military communities.

00:45:39Ukrainians online

00:45:40have stitched together clips

00:45:41of Russia's military expert

00:45:43talking about successes in the area,

00:45:45while humorously pointing out

00:45:46that the world's second army

00:45:48has still failed to take a village

00:45:49of just a couple of hundred people.

00:45:51Some Russian universities

00:45:52have even reached the point

00:45:53of threatening to expel students

00:45:55who mention Malatov-Machka

00:45:56in any sort of mocking way,

00:45:58or dare point out

00:45:59their country's military failures.

00:46:01But make no mistake,

00:46:02this is a failure

00:46:03of truly historic proportions.

00:46:05In mid-May 2026,

00:46:07United24 media pointed out

00:46:09that the Russian siege

00:46:10of this tiny village

00:46:11had officially lasted

00:46:12over 1,500 days.

00:46:14That makes it one of the longest sieges

00:46:16of a single location ever recorded.

00:46:19Longer than the siege of Carthage

00:46:20by the Romans, for example,

00:46:22which lasted around 1,100 days.

00:46:24Longer than the great siege of Gibraltar,

00:46:26which lasted an estimated 1,320 days.

00:46:29Longer than the sieges of Leningrad,

00:46:31Rome, Alexandria,

00:46:32Jerusalem, and Constantinople.

00:46:34History is littered with examples

00:46:36of supposedly great armies

00:46:37coming up against

00:46:38seemingly impenetrable fortresses

00:46:40and sending countless men

00:46:42to their deaths

00:46:42in a bid to conquer them.

00:46:44Most of those examples, however,

00:46:46revolve around huge cities

00:46:47with massive castle walls,

00:46:49great gates,

00:46:50and veritable armies of defenders.

00:46:51Many of them also took place

00:46:53literally centuries ago,

00:46:55before the modern era of tanks,

00:46:57infantry fighting vehicles,

00:46:58fighter jets, drones,

00:46:59and howitzers,

00:47:00when armies had to make do

00:47:01with far simpler weapons

00:47:02like swords, spears,

00:47:04bows, and catapults.

00:47:05And this only serves

00:47:07to make Russia's attempts

00:47:08to take Malatok-Machka

00:47:09even more humiliating.

00:47:11This is not a great city.

00:47:12It's not a fortified capital.

00:47:14It's not home to tens of thousands of people,

00:47:17nor does it have its own army to defend it.

00:47:19It's an almost insignificant village,

00:47:21a burned-out, crater-strewn settlement

00:47:24where very few buildings

00:47:25are still standing.

00:47:26It should not be this hard to capture,

00:47:28especially not for an army like Russia's,

00:47:30which has built up

00:47:31such a fearsome reputation over the years.

00:47:34For decades before the war began,

00:47:36countries across the globe

00:47:37were terrified of the Russian army.

00:47:38They feared its seemingly endless stockpiles

00:47:41of tanks and fighting vehicles,

00:47:42its massive number of soldiers,

00:47:44and its almost unparalleled strength.

00:47:46They watched and saw

00:47:47as Kremlin officials

00:47:48boasted about groundbreaking capabilities

00:47:50of their latest and greatest missiles,

00:47:52or showed off their newest tank

00:47:54in grand military parades.

00:47:56They thought that the unstoppable

00:47:57Russian war machine

00:47:58would steamroll almost any opponent

00:48:00in its path.

00:48:01But all of that mythos,

00:48:02all of that aura,

00:48:03all of that power

00:48:04the Kremlin was so desperate to project

00:48:05is now being undermined as we speak.

00:48:08Because stories like this prove

00:48:10that the Russian military

00:48:11is nowhere near as strong

00:48:12as the world once feared.

00:48:13It can't even capture

00:48:15a single village.

00:48:16It has spent over four years

00:48:18trying to do so,

00:48:19and it's lost an estimated

00:48:202,000 soldiers in the process,

00:48:23along with literally dozens of vehicles,

00:48:25potentially tens or even hundreds

00:48:26of millions of dollars worth

00:48:27of military hardware and personnel,

00:48:29all for nothing.

00:48:31The village is still in the hands

00:48:32of Ukraine's 118th Mechanized Brigade.

00:48:35They still dig in to this day,

00:48:37making smart and strategic use

00:48:39of drones, mines, and more

00:48:40to repeatedly outwit

00:48:42and outplay their opponents.

00:48:44Meanwhile,

00:48:44even hardline Russian propagandists

00:48:46have been forced to own up

00:48:47to their country's embarrassing inability

00:48:49to take control of the area,

00:48:51with one of them going as far

00:48:52as comparing Malatoch-Machka

00:48:54to Troy or Verdun,

00:48:55referencing the sites

00:48:56of some of the most legendary

00:48:58battles in history.

00:48:59In truth, however,

00:49:00the only thing legendary

00:49:01about Malatoch-Machka

00:49:02is how well Ukraine is defending it.

00:49:04Even if it does eventually fall,

00:49:06which appears unlikely

00:49:07based on recent history,

00:49:09this tiny village

00:49:09will forever be remembered

00:49:11in the history books

00:49:11as the place that shattered

00:49:13the myth of Russia's

00:49:14military superiority forever.

00:49:16It was a settlement

00:49:17that Russia claimed

00:49:18to have taken in late 2025.

00:49:20Russia was lying then.

00:49:22It has been defeated now.

00:49:24Ukraine just liberated

00:49:25Stepnohirsk,

00:49:26de-Russifying it overnight

00:49:28in a spectacular display

00:49:29of the sort of

00:49:30counter-attacking genius

00:49:31that we've seen

00:49:32from Ukraine's forces

00:49:33during most of 2026.

00:49:35But this isn't any old victory.

00:49:37Stepnohirsk is one of the most

00:49:38strategically important settlements

00:49:40in Ukraine

00:49:41for a simple reason.

00:49:42It's key to the total liberation

00:49:44of Zaporizhia.

00:49:45On May 18th,

00:49:47the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine,

00:49:48or HUR,

00:49:49broke the news

00:49:49that Ukrainian special forces

00:49:51had completed an operation

00:49:52that Russia never saw coming.

00:49:54Those forces hadn't just gained

00:49:55a little bit of ground

00:49:56in Stepnohirsk.

00:49:57They had completely overrun

00:49:58the settlement

00:49:59in a series of coordinated

00:50:00assault operations

00:50:01that pushed almost all

00:50:02of Putin's patsies

00:50:03out of their fortified positions.

00:50:05Russia's soldiers

00:50:06went running for any scrap of shelter

00:50:08that could protect them

00:50:08from Ukraine's forces.

00:50:10In the process,

00:50:11they abandoned key locations

00:50:12in Stepnohirsk

00:50:13to Ukrainian control.

00:50:14This was a capitulation

00:50:16of epic proportions,

00:50:17and much of it

00:50:18was caught on camera.

00:50:19Shared on Telegram by HUR,

00:50:21the footage tells the tale

00:50:22of Russia's Stepnohirsk failure.

00:50:24We see Ukrainian tanks

00:50:25rolling toward the settlement

00:50:26wrapped in cages

00:50:27that are designed

00:50:28to detonate incoming kamikaze drones

00:50:30before they can do

00:50:31their dangerous business.

00:50:32Rounds are rattled off.

00:50:34We see fire directed

00:50:35at Russian positions

00:50:36and coordinated

00:50:36by Ukraine's assault forces

00:50:38in tanks and armored vehicles.

00:50:39As the video goes on,

00:50:41we see Ukraine's armor

00:50:42rolling into Stepnohirsk itself.

00:50:44Troops on the ground

00:50:45engage in urban combat,

00:50:47searching for Russian infiltrators

00:50:48and then destroying them.

00:50:49Drones drop bombs.

00:50:51Tanks fire more rounds.

00:50:52Piece by piece,

00:50:53the settlement is retaken.

00:50:55This is a loss

00:50:56beyond measure for Russia.

00:50:57But behind this problem

00:50:58is another major issue,

00:51:00as losing Stepnohirsk

00:51:01means that all of Putin's plans

00:51:02for Zaporizhia

00:51:03have crumbled into dust.

00:51:04But before we get to that,

00:51:06HUR has plenty more to say

00:51:08about what its operatives did

00:51:09leading up to May 18th.

00:51:11HUR revealed

00:51:12that this lightning-fast operation

00:51:13was carried out

00:51:14in close coordination

00:51:15with other Ukrainian units

00:51:17with the goal

00:51:17of stabilizing the situation

00:51:19in Stepnohirsk

00:51:20while eliminating

00:51:21the Russian soldiers

00:51:21who had created defenses

00:51:23in key parts of the settlement.

00:51:24A combination of

00:51:26aerial reconnaissance

00:51:27and precision fire

00:51:28was used to achieve

00:51:29Ukraine's victory,

00:51:30as noted by Viktor Tokotyuk,

00:51:32who is the commander

00:51:33of the RTAN unit

00:51:34that perhaps played

00:51:35the largest role

00:51:35in Ukraine's Stepnohirsk success.

00:51:38The comment tells us

00:51:38that drones,

00:51:39as has so often been the case,

00:51:41played a key role.

00:51:42But rather than flying

00:51:43into targets

00:51:43and dropping bombs,

00:51:44though we're sure

00:51:45that also happened,

00:51:46those drones provided Ukraine

00:51:48with an aerial view

00:51:49of the settlement

00:51:49as its troops moved through

00:51:50and recaptured territory.

00:51:52Tokotyuk continues, stating,

00:51:54Every building was checked

00:51:55for surprises

00:51:56and remnants of enemy manpower.

00:51:58We do not rule out

00:51:59that the enemy

00:51:59will continue attempts

00:52:00to enter the city again,

00:52:02but we are ready for this.

00:52:03This wasn't

00:52:04some off-the-cuff operation.

00:52:05It was deliberate,

00:52:07well planned,

00:52:08utterly lethal

00:52:09in its execution.

00:52:10The outcome of all of this

00:52:11was even worse

00:52:12than Russia expected.

00:52:13Not only were its troops

00:52:14almost entirely forced

00:52:15out of Stepnohirsk,

00:52:16but Ukraine also

00:52:17intelligently cut off

00:52:18almost every supply line

00:52:20that Russia has

00:52:21that it could use

00:52:21to support the few

00:52:22infiltrators that remain.

00:52:24A bridge into the settlement

00:52:25was destroyed.

00:52:26There is one road

00:52:27to the east of Stepnohirsk

00:52:28that appears to still remain,

00:52:30though using that road

00:52:31forces Russian equipment

00:52:32through a crossroads

00:52:33that puts them directly

00:52:34in the Ukrainian firing line.

00:52:36Putin now has

00:52:37a major problem on his hands.

00:52:38The few Russian soldiers

00:52:40who remain in Stepnohirsk

00:52:41have to be written off.

00:52:42There is no support

00:52:43coming for them.

00:52:44The best they can hope for

00:52:45is to take out

00:52:45one or two Ukrainian troops,

00:52:47though the reality is

00:52:48they are more likely

00:52:49to surrender

00:52:49or be destroyed.

00:52:51However,

00:52:51Putin's larger problem

00:52:52is that Ukraine

00:52:53cutting off the supply lines

00:52:54into Stepnohirsk

00:52:55makes it incredibly difficult

00:52:57for Russia

00:52:57to launch any sort

00:52:58of full-scale assault

00:52:59into the town.

00:53:01Russia will have to continue

00:53:02to rely on infiltrators,

00:53:03and we just saw

00:53:04how well that worked out.

00:53:06Of course,

00:53:06Russia attempted

00:53:07to defend its positions

00:53:08in the face of

00:53:09the relentless Ukrainian assault,

00:53:10but that defense was weak,

00:53:12suggesting that Russia

00:53:13hasn't been supplying

00:53:13its Stepnohirsk infiltrators

00:53:15for quite a while.

00:53:16The best they could muster

00:53:17was an FPV drone

00:53:18waiting in ambush

00:53:19for Ukraine's tanks

00:53:20and armored vehicles.

00:53:21That drone

00:53:21didn't even get close.

00:53:23United 24 Media reports

00:53:24that it was detected

00:53:25and destroyed

00:53:26before it could hit any target.

00:53:28Hold on a second.

00:53:29One FPV drone?

00:53:30Did Russia really think

00:53:31that it would be able

00:53:32to defend Stepnohirsk

00:53:33with a single drone,

00:53:34or were its troops

00:53:35in the settlement

00:53:35so starved for supplies

00:53:37that this drone

00:53:37was all they could muster?

00:53:39It hardly matters now

00:53:40as the settlement

00:53:40has been liberated

00:53:41and de-Russification

00:53:42can begin.

00:53:43What we see here

00:53:44is the sum total

00:53:45of a year's worth

00:53:46of failed Russian attempts

00:53:47to take Stepnohirsk,

00:53:48as revealed by the head

00:53:49of the office of the president

00:53:50of Ukraine,

00:53:51Kirill Budanov.

00:53:52For more than a year,

00:53:53the enemy has been

00:53:54unsuccessfully trying

00:53:55to occupy Stepnohirsk,

00:53:56throwing significant resources

00:53:57into it,

00:53:58but suffering enormous losses,

00:54:00Budanov declared,

00:54:01before giving credit

00:54:02where it was due

00:54:02to Ukraine's fighters.

00:54:03I thank the special forces

00:54:05of the HUR

00:54:06of the Ministry of Defense

00:54:06of Ukraine

00:54:07and all the units

00:54:08of the Defense Forces

00:54:09of Ukraine,

00:54:09who throughout this time

00:54:10have demonstrated

00:54:11professionalism and courage,

00:54:13held the lines,

00:54:14and destroyed the Russian occupiers,

00:54:15Budanov said.

00:54:16He then concluded

00:54:17with the message

00:54:18that will sting Putin

00:54:19more than anything else,

00:54:20Russia now has no chance

00:54:21of threatening Zaporizhia.

00:54:23We'll be coming back

00:54:24to why that matters,

00:54:25but for now,

00:54:26Pravda reports

00:54:26that all key locations

00:54:27in Stepnohirsk

00:54:28are under the control

00:54:29of Ukraine's military.

00:54:30Russia will be getting

00:54:31flashbacks

00:54:32and not to other

00:54:32major victories,

00:54:33such as the liberation

00:54:34of Kupyansk

00:54:35toward the end of 2025.

00:54:37No, Russia will see

00:54:38what just happened

00:54:38in Stepnohirsk

00:54:39and it will know

00:54:40that HUR's impressive

00:54:41operation

00:54:41is a direct follow-up

00:54:43to something else

00:54:43that Ukraine had done

00:54:44just a couple of days before.

00:54:46On May 15th,

00:54:47United24 media reported

00:54:48that Ukraine's forces

00:54:49had shattered

00:54:50the Russian defences

00:54:51in the Kharkiv region,

00:54:52leading to the liberation

00:54:53of the village of Odradna,

00:54:55along with 22 kilometers

00:54:56of territory.

00:54:57The strategy is clear.

00:54:59Ukraine's active defense

00:55:00is all about identifying

00:55:01Russian weak points

00:55:02and hitting them hard

00:55:03to complete the Russification.

00:55:05We saw it in the Kharkiv region

00:55:06on May 15th

00:55:07and now we've seen it

00:55:08in Stepnohirsk.

00:55:09Putin can't even console himself

00:55:10with the belief

00:55:11that what Ukraine

00:55:11has achieved

00:55:12is a one-off

00:55:13or a two-off.

00:55:14It doesn't matter.

00:55:15What does matter

00:55:16is that Russia's leader

00:55:17will be crying

00:55:17into his vodka

00:55:18because what he just saw

00:55:19in Stepnohirsk

00:55:19is part of a pattern

00:55:20that shows how

00:55:21the grand spring offensive

00:55:22that Russia launched

00:55:23in early March

00:55:24has fallen utterly flat

00:55:25on its face.

00:55:27Ukraine is just building

00:55:28on the back of an April

00:55:29that was already wildly successful

00:55:30on the counter-attacking front.

00:55:32A May 2nd report

00:55:33by the Institute

00:55:34for the Study of War

00:55:35or ISW revealed

00:55:36that Russia suffered

00:55:37its first net loss

00:55:38of territory against Ukraine

00:55:40since the August 2024 incursion

00:55:42into Russia's Kursk region.

00:55:43If we take that incursion

00:55:45out of the picture,

00:55:46the story gets even worse

00:55:47for Putin.

00:55:48Russia hasn't had a net loss

00:55:49since Ukraine's 2023

00:55:51so I'm a counter-offensive.

00:55:52Every single month since,

00:55:54barring August 2024,

00:55:55the Kremlin has been able

00:55:56to crow about territorial gains,

00:55:58no matter how meagre

00:55:59they might have been.

00:56:00There was no Kremlin crowing

00:56:02in April.

00:56:02And the way that May

00:56:03is shaping up

00:56:04as Ukraine liberates settlements

00:56:06and Putin's forces

00:56:07continue running

00:56:07into a brick wall of defences

00:56:09in the Donbass,

00:56:09we may be on the verge

00:56:10of seeing another

00:56:11Russian net loss.

00:56:12If we do,

00:56:13Stepnohirsk will be the highlight.

00:56:15And it,

00:56:16along with all of the other gains

00:56:17that Ukraine has been making

00:56:18over the past few months,

00:56:19signals to Putin

00:56:19that the momentum

00:56:20on the battlefield

00:56:21is shifting in Ukraine's favor.

00:56:23The ISW says

00:56:24that data from the battlefield

00:56:25has been indicating

00:56:26that a turnaround

00:56:27was about to happen

00:56:28for a while.

00:56:28The Russian rate of advance

00:56:29across the battlefield

00:56:30has been steadily declining

00:56:31since November 2025

00:56:33as continued Ukrainian ground attacks,

00:56:35Ukrainian mid-range strikes,

00:56:36the February 2026 block

00:56:38on Russia's use

00:56:39of Starlink terminals

00:56:40in Ukraine,

00:56:41and the Kremlin's

00:56:41throttling of Telegram

00:56:42have exacerbated existing problems

00:56:44within the Russian military,

00:56:46the ISW pointed out

00:56:47in its May 2 report.

00:56:49Russia hasn't been able

00:56:50to counter any of these problems.

00:56:52Now,

00:56:52what CNN dubs

00:56:53Russia's winning streak

00:56:54in Ukraine

00:56:55is officially over.

00:56:56Ukrainian soldiers

00:56:57are starting to feel it too.

00:56:59The tide has turned,

00:57:00claims an officer

00:57:01named Kirillobondarenko

00:57:03when speaking to CNN.

00:57:04He notes that

00:57:05the Russian forces Ukraine

00:57:06now fights

00:57:07are exhausted

00:57:08and that their morale

00:57:09has been sapped.

00:57:10Well,

00:57:10that's what happens

00:57:11when Putin churns

00:57:12through every semi-talented

00:57:13soldier that Russia has.

00:57:14All that's left

00:57:15is the disorganized,

00:57:16poorly trained meat

00:57:17that doesn't want

00:57:18to be in Ukraine

00:57:19in the first place.

00:57:20Cannon fodder

00:57:21doesn't win wars,

00:57:22no matter how much

00:57:23of it Putin has

00:57:24at his disposal.

00:57:25Ukraine has just proven

00:57:26that one well-coordinated

00:57:27counter-attack

00:57:28can counter a year's worth

00:57:29of effort made

00:57:30by Russian forces.

00:57:31But Stepnohirsk

00:57:32is just the first step

00:57:34to the rest of Zaporizhia.

00:57:35Before we explain why,

00:57:37this is a quick reminder

00:57:38that you're watching

00:57:38the military show.

00:57:39If this is the kind of insight

00:57:41that you want to see,

00:57:41make sure that you're subscribed

00:57:42to the channel

00:57:43so you don't miss any of our videos.

00:57:45Now,

00:57:45on the surface,

00:57:46Stepnohirsk may not seem like much.

00:57:48It's a tiny rural settlement,

00:57:49the likes of which

00:57:50Russia's massive military

00:57:51should be able to overrun.

00:57:53It clearly hasn't managed that.

00:57:54But Ukraine's liberation

00:57:55and de-Russification

00:57:56of this settlement

00:57:57has ramifications

00:57:58that stretch far beyond a village.

00:58:00Stepnohirsk was vital

00:58:01to Putin's plans for Zaporizhia.

00:58:03And here's why.

00:58:04When it comes to the chaos

00:58:05that Russia has been trying

00:58:06to create across the front lines

00:58:08with its infiltration groups,

00:58:09Stepnohirsk represents

00:58:10an opportunity for Ukraine

00:58:12to stabilize

00:58:12and straighten the front line.

00:58:14Ukraine now has a focal point

00:58:15that it can use

00:58:16to organize deeper pushes

00:58:17into the occupied portions

00:58:19of Zaporizhia.

00:58:20And that focal point

00:58:21is also what Russia

00:58:22has just lost.

00:58:23Before Ukraine liberated

00:58:24Stepnohirsk,

00:58:25the village was being prepped

00:58:26as a potential staging ground

00:58:27for future Russian advances

00:58:29into Zaporizhia.

00:58:30That's why Russia spent

00:58:31over a year trying

00:58:32and failing

00:58:33to capture the settlement.

00:58:34It's a launch pad,

00:58:35a pushing off point

00:58:36that is also perfectly positioned

00:58:38to lend whoever controls

00:58:39Stepnohirsk fire control

00:58:40over the surrounding

00:58:41logistics routes.

00:58:42Do you remember

00:58:42the crossroads

00:58:43that we mentioned earlier

00:58:44that now represent

00:58:45Russia's sole remaining route

00:58:46back into the village?

00:58:47Those are the sorts of routes

00:58:49that Ukraine can now

00:58:49pelt with artillery

00:58:50whenever Russian forces

00:58:52are forced into

00:58:52assaulting Stepnohirsk.

00:58:54The settlement

00:58:54is also important to Putin.

00:58:56He may not say so,

00:58:57but at the end of 2025,

00:58:59Russia's leader made it clear

00:59:00that a push deeper

00:59:01into Zaporizhia city

00:59:02was a priority

00:59:03for the Russian military.

00:59:04On December 29th,

00:59:05Reuters reported

00:59:06that Colonel General

00:59:07Mikhail Toplinsky,

00:59:08who is one of Russia's

00:59:09leading commanders

00:59:10in the Dnieper military grouping,

00:59:12had told Putin

00:59:12that Russia's forces

00:59:13were just 15 kilometers

00:59:15outside of Zaporizhia city,

00:59:16which is the jewel

00:59:17in the crown of the region

00:59:18that lends the city its name.

00:59:20By that point,

00:59:21Reuters added,

00:59:21Russia already held

00:59:22about 75%

00:59:23of the Zaporizhia oblast,

00:59:25including the region's

00:59:26nuclear power plant.

00:59:27But the city

00:59:28has always been the main goal,

00:59:30and Putin confirmed

00:59:31that in December

00:59:32by telling his army

00:59:32to push on

00:59:33in its efforts

00:59:33to take Zaporizhia.

00:59:35Stepnohirsk was key

00:59:36to achieving that goal

00:59:37as it was the type

00:59:38of staging ground

00:59:39that we mentioned earlier.

00:59:40Psychologically,

00:59:41this is a huge blow

00:59:42for Russia.

00:59:43A year of assaulting

00:59:44the settlement

00:59:44has gone down the drain,

00:59:45but strategically,

00:59:47the blow is even worse.

00:59:48With Stepnohirsk

00:59:49under its control,

00:59:50Ukraine can now focus

00:59:51on pushing deeper

00:59:52into the Zaporizhia region,

00:59:53with Hulia Pola

00:59:54likely to be Ukraine's

00:59:55next target.

00:59:56That isn't to say

00:59:57that Ukraine is on the verge

00:59:58of retaking Hulia Pola.

00:59:59We'll explain why soon.

01:00:00But what this means

01:00:01for Putin is that

01:00:02the launch pad

01:00:02that was supposed

01:00:03to propel Russia's forces

01:00:04towards Zaporizhia city

01:00:05can now be used by Ukraine

01:00:07to force Russia

01:00:08to divert troops

01:00:09away from operations

01:00:09in the east

01:00:10of the Zaporizhia oblast.

01:00:12That's a problem for Putin.

01:00:13It means that Stepnohirsk

01:00:15has become Ukraine's

01:00:16first step toward

01:00:16liberating a region

01:00:17that has been under

01:00:18constant Russian assault

01:00:19since the start

01:00:20of the invasion.

01:00:21Coming back

01:00:22to the psychological blow

01:00:23inflicted on Russia,

01:00:24Stepnohirsk is an interesting case.

01:00:26Toward the end of 2025,

01:00:27Russia was making

01:00:28a whole lot of false claims

01:00:29about capturing settlements

01:00:30in the build-up

01:00:31to a renewed round

01:00:32of peace talks with Ukraine.

01:00:33Guess which settlement

01:00:34Russia claimed

01:00:35that it had captured

01:00:36during that period?

01:00:37That's right,

01:00:38Stepnohirsk.

01:00:39Russia claimed

01:00:40to have taken the settlement

01:00:41toward the end of December,

01:00:42along with supposedly

01:00:43taking Hulia Pola

01:00:44and Kupiansk.

01:00:45We saw how those claims

01:00:46turned out in Kupiansk,

01:00:47and we just saw them

01:00:48get rubbished in Stepnohirsk,

01:00:49and now Russia's forces

01:00:50in Hulia Pola

01:00:51have to be worried.

01:00:52Those who might have

01:00:53believed Russia's claims

01:00:54will also be wondering

01:00:55what's going on.

01:00:57Stepnohirsk was supposed

01:00:57to have been long taken,

01:00:59giving Putin more leverage

01:01:00in peace talks.

01:01:01Now it's fully

01:01:02in Ukraine's hands.

01:01:03We talked about momentum earlier,

01:01:05and this liberation

01:01:06shows the world

01:01:06that Ukraine

01:01:07has the wind in its sails.

01:01:08If and when

01:01:09peace talks happen again,

01:01:10Ukraine can point

01:01:11to settlements

01:01:11like Stepnohirsk

01:01:12and say,

01:01:13look, Russia claimed

01:01:14it had taken this settlement.

01:01:15It was lying then,

01:01:16and it's been booted out now.

01:01:17So don't let Putin

01:01:18fall you into thinking

01:01:19that Russia is

01:01:20some all-conquering military.

01:01:21Who knows?

01:01:22Stepnohirsk

01:01:23and settlements like it

01:01:24may end up playing

01:01:24a larger part

01:01:25in peace talks

01:01:25than anybody

01:01:26could have anticipated.

01:01:27Still,

01:01:28anybody who had been

01:01:29paying attention

01:01:29to what was really

01:01:30happening in the settlement,

01:01:31even before Ukraine's

01:01:32de-Russification efforts,

01:01:34would have seen

01:01:34through Russia's lies.

01:01:35In February,

01:01:36which is two months

01:01:37after Russia claimed

01:01:38to have captured Stepnohirsk,

01:01:40the reality of what was

01:01:41happening in the village

01:01:42was brought to life.

01:01:43Russia hadn't captured anything.

01:01:45Stepnohirsk had been

01:01:46turned into such a lethal

01:01:47kill zone

01:01:47that Russian soldiers

01:01:49sent into the settlement

01:01:49were lasting an average

01:01:50of 12 minutes

01:01:51before they were hunted

01:01:52down and eliminated.

01:01:54Now that Ukraine

01:01:55controls Stepnohirsk,

01:01:56that type of kill zone

01:01:57can be created elsewhere.

01:01:59Bit by bit,

01:01:59Ukraine can push deeper

01:02:00into the gray zones

01:02:01where Russia claims

01:02:02victories that it hasn't achieved.

01:02:04That brings us back

01:02:04to what happens next

01:02:05in Ukraine's likely push

01:02:07in the direction

01:02:07of Hulia Pola.

01:02:08Russia's offensive

01:02:09in that direction

01:02:10already wasn't going

01:02:11especially well.

01:02:12Remember,

01:02:13Russia has already claimed

01:02:14the capture of Hulia Pola

01:02:15back in December 2025.

01:02:16But by April,

01:02:17the new voice of Ukraine

01:02:18was reporting

01:02:19that Russia had prioritized

01:02:20a push toward the settlement,

01:02:21which isn't the kind of thing

01:02:22you need to do

01:02:23when you've already

01:02:24captured something.

01:02:25Even then,

01:02:25Ukraine's counterattack

01:02:26were wreaking havoc.

01:02:27The Ukrainian push

01:02:28in the Oleksandrovka direction

01:02:30had forced Russia

01:02:31to redeploy reserves

01:02:32intended for Hulia Pola.

01:02:33And that's the point.

01:02:34Weak points in the Russian lines

01:02:35were being created,

01:02:36even in April.

01:02:37Now,

01:02:38this doesn't mean

01:02:38that the capture of Stepnohirsk

01:02:40means that Hulia Pola is next.

01:02:41There are several dozen kilometers

01:02:43between the two settlements

01:02:44so one doesn't lead into the other.

01:02:46Russia has also managed

01:02:47to create a stronger

01:02:47defensive line

01:02:48in the Hulia Pola region

01:02:49than it has elsewhere

01:02:50in the Zaporizhia direction.

01:02:52However,

01:02:53what Ukraine can do now

01:02:54is start to counterattack

01:02:55against other small settlements.

01:02:56Russia has been sending

01:02:57infiltrators all over,

01:02:59just as it did in Stepnohirsk.

01:03:00A renewed Ukrainian push

01:03:02in the direction of Hulia Pola

01:03:03likely won't reach

01:03:04that settlement just yet.

01:03:05But it will distract,

01:03:07it will force redeployments,

01:03:08and all of that means

01:03:09that Russia won't be able

01:03:10to push on as it intends

01:03:11towards Zaporizhia city.

01:03:13And here's the kicker,

01:03:14Russia already knows

01:03:15that its plans for Zaporizhia

01:03:16in 2026 are done.

01:03:18When Putin planned

01:03:19the 2026 spring offensive,

01:03:21Donetsk and Zaporizhia

01:03:22were the two major goals.

01:03:24Now it's just Donetsk.

01:03:25That's according to

01:03:26a May 19th report

01:03:27by the New Voice of Ukraine,

01:03:28which quoted the deputy head

01:03:29of the office

01:03:30of the president of Ukraine,

01:03:31Pavlo Pallisa,

01:03:33as noting that Russia

01:03:33has so far

01:03:34failed to meet

01:03:35any of their deadlines.

01:03:37Donetsk is supposed to fall

01:03:38by early September,

01:03:39Alisa revealed.

01:03:40But the glacial pace

01:03:41of Russia's progress

01:03:42in that direction

01:03:43means that deadline

01:03:44will come and go

01:03:45long before Donetsk falls.

01:03:47The byproduct of that failure

01:03:48is that Russia won't be able

01:03:49to strengthen its push

01:03:50into Zaporizhia.

01:03:51It will still try,

01:03:53but reserves will have

01:03:54to go toward Donetsk.

01:03:55And when Ukraine

01:03:56is de-Russifying places

01:03:57like Stepnohirsk,

01:03:58the odds climb higher

01:03:59that we'll end up

01:03:59seeing either a stalemate

01:04:01or even a Ukrainian advance

01:04:02deeper into Zaporizhia

01:04:03by the end of 2026.

01:04:04The broader picture here

01:04:06is that Ukraine

01:04:07has once again

01:04:07completed a successful

01:04:09counterattack.

01:04:09That was never

01:04:10in Putin's plan.

01:04:11A May 9th report

01:04:12from the ISW

01:04:13says that Russia's

01:04:14spring offensive

01:04:15has practically stalled out

01:04:16as Russia has failed

01:04:17to make any significant

01:04:18operational breakthroughs

01:04:20for an entire year.

01:04:21What territory

01:04:22has been taken,

01:04:23especially in 2026,

01:04:24is limited

01:04:25and strategically insignificant,

01:04:27the ISW adds.

01:04:28Compounding that problem

01:04:29and soon to be an issue

01:04:30for Russia

01:04:31dozens of miles

01:04:31behind the new

01:04:32Stepnohirsk front

01:04:33now that Ukraine has control

01:04:34is Ukraine's

01:04:36mid-range strategy.

01:04:37Ukraine is combining

01:04:38the rocket strikes

01:04:39using systems like

01:04:40HIMARS

01:04:41that have helped it

01:04:41strike the Russian

01:04:42nearer in the past

01:04:43with a new generation

01:04:44of mid-range drones

01:04:45that are wrecking

01:04:46Russian logistics

01:04:47and command

01:04:47behind the front.

01:04:48Ukraine's

01:04:49mid-range drone strikes

01:04:50had already doubled

01:04:51in April compared to March

01:04:52as Ukraine increasingly

01:04:53hit targets

01:04:54up to 180 kilometers

01:04:56behind the front.

01:04:57That's another danger

01:04:58for Russia

01:04:58and its Zaporizhia ambitions.

01:05:00Ukraine may not be

01:05:01in a position

01:05:02to push for Huliopoli yet,

01:05:03but with Stepnohirsk

01:05:04as a new staging ground

01:05:05it can unleash

01:05:06middle-range drones

01:05:07on the settlement

01:05:08and surrounding territories

01:05:09to disrupt Russia's push

01:05:10towards Zaporizhia

01:05:11for a distance.

01:05:12And each strike

01:05:13weakens Russia.

01:05:14Every time Russia is weakened

01:05:16opportunities for more

01:05:17counter-attacks

01:05:17present themselves.

01:05:19Russia has no answer.

01:05:20It never expected

01:05:21any of this to happen

01:05:22in the first place.

01:05:23An unbelievable

01:05:24overnight victory

01:05:25for Ukraine

01:05:25may end up being

01:05:26the first step

01:05:27toward the total liberation

01:05:28of Zaporizhia.

01:05:29And elsewhere

01:05:29in Ukraine's

01:05:30east and southeast

01:05:31the liberation march

01:05:32goes on.

01:05:33It's a story fit

01:05:34for a Hollywood script

01:05:35with intrigue,

01:05:36covert planning

01:05:36and assaults

01:05:37carried out

01:05:37under the cover of Fog.

01:05:39Check out our video

01:05:39to see the full story unfold.

01:05:41And if you enjoyed this video,

01:05:43remember to subscribe

01:05:44to The Military Show

01:05:45so you never miss our coverage

01:05:46of Ukraine's latest victories

01:05:47against Russia.

01:05:48And thank you as always

01:05:49for watching.

Something Just BROKE Across Russia's Frontlines… Total COLLAPSE & Other Ukraine War Stories

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