For over 50 years, Russia built one of the largest energy networks on Earth — a vast industrial machine designed to fuel its economy, military, and global influence. But now, Ukraine’s drone campaign is tearing that system apart. From massive refinery fires to crippled fuel logistics, cheap UAVs are exposing the hidden weakness at the heart of Moscow’s war machine. In this video, we break down how Ukraine’s strikes on Russian oil infrastructure could reshape the war — and potentially decide its outcome.
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00:00for 50 years moscow built one of the biggest energy networks on earth gigantic oil refineries
00:07countless kilometers of pipelines vast storage facilities and a labyrinth of road and rail
00:13networks linking everything together different pieces of the same puzzle all with one unifying
00:19purpose to power the largest country on the planet generations of soviet and then russian planners
00:26constructed a system of almost unprecedented size and scale generating enough fuel to not
00:32just keep the lights on in tens of millions of homes but to support and strengthen the nation's
00:37entire economy as well as its military imbuing russia with incredible power and influence on
00:43the global stage for decades that same system was without doubt one of the country's biggest strengths
00:49and it retained that strength even through times of hardship it survived the breakdown of the soviet
00:55union it withstood economic crises and international sanctions it stood firm through periods of
01:01political upheaval and it became even bigger and better as the years went by an unparalleled
01:07industrial behemoth fueling one of the largest armed forces on earth but that monster may have
01:13finally met its match as a system that once seemed unshakable is quite literally crumbling
01:17and it's all thanks to ukraine in the month of may alone kiev's forces struck multiple major russian
01:24oil facilities with the likes of refineries and critical logistics sites being set ablaze
01:29and it didn't even require high-end bombers or expensive missiles relatively cheap and simple
01:34long-range drones were more than enough to get the job done the result isn't just an economic crisis
01:40for moscow to contend with but an existential one as the very foundations its country has been built on
01:45begin to fall apart for ukraine meanwhile this may be how the war is won not by destroying russia's army
01:52but by breaking the very system that allows it to exist before we look at the impacts of ukraine's
01:57campaign we must first look at what it's actually targeting the headlines focus mostly on oil
02:03refineries and fuel tanks but it's actually much much more than that the soviets didn't spend decades
02:08simply constructing oil plants they built a vast and complex industrial machine a machine that extends
02:15across thousands of square miles of land from the oil fields of siberia to towns cities and military
02:21bases many miles away the first pieces of this machine were put into place in the aftermath of
02:26the second world war as the soviet union was emerging as a global superpower those in the highest
02:31positions of power realized something important something that would define geopolitics around the
02:37world for generations to come fuel is power military vehicles needed civilian vehicles needed factories
02:45needed entire economies needed and the soviet union was lucky enough to be sitting right on top of some
02:51of the world's biggest reserves of oil and gas they didn't need to look far to find the energy that
02:56would make them rich and powerful but they did need to come up with ways to exploit and transport it
03:01so began one of the grandest infrastructure projects the world has ever seen it took years decades in
03:08fact but one piece at a time the soviets brought their vision to life they made refineries pumping
03:13stations oil terminals processing centers and so much more new facilities sprang up across the more
03:19than 6.6 million square miles that make up the russian federation today and the soviets didn't just
03:25want this system to power their peacetime economy they needed it to be able to withstand a war as well
03:31because they'd seen what had happened during the second world war they saw how supply chains buckled
03:36and broke beneath the weight of invasion and they'd seen the clear connections between countries
03:40industrial resilience and their ability to survive periods of conflict and crisis so to make their
03:46system as war proof as possible they made it layered and interconnected with resiliency and
03:50redundancy in the form of backup systems and fail safes the various nodes of the system were also
03:56linked up rail links connected to depots depots to pipelines and pipelines to refineries and by the
04:02heyday of the cold war this system was rapidly becoming one of the biggest and best on earth
04:08and it wasn't just being used for soviet homes businesses and industries but as an increasingly
04:13important economic advantage too oil exports were ramping up with every passing year funneling vast
04:19amounts of money into moscow's coffers then the soviet union collapsed but it didn't actually matter
04:26at least not to the energy sector even though it was a period of enormous change and political
04:31upheaval for russia on the whole and the other former soviet nations all the infrastructure that
04:35had been built up to that point as well as all the potential for power and wealth it represented
04:40remained the newfound russian federation effectively inherited a fully functioning economy
04:45powered by those pipelines refineries and other facilities they made some changes as the years
04:50passed of course names changed so did the companies owning and operating these facilities
04:55many were expanded and modernized as time passed too but the bones of the system were there to begin
05:00with and can still be seen today many of the country's biggest refineries have been standing for decades
05:06like the omsk refinery for example which was commissioned way back in 1955 all russia had to do was build
05:13on that bedrock improve the existing infrastructure make it more efficient more productive and better
05:18aligned with the changing standards of the modern era and the man to take charge of such a mammoth
05:23task was none other than vladimir putin himself who came to power at the turn of the millennium
05:27around that time cracks were starting to show in the soviet infrastructure pipelines were getting a
05:33little rusty and refineries were showing their age mostly making low quality heavy fuel oil rather than
05:39the higher quality forms of diesel and gasoline that the world was transitioning towards putin was eager
05:44to stop the slide so over the 2000s and into the 2010s the kremlin poured literally tens of billions
05:50of dollars into the country's facilities energy giants like gazprom and look oil even brought in some of
05:56the western world's best engineers to carry out an extensive overhaul of the infrastructure they worked
06:01tirelessly to integrate more advanced equipment into the aging frameworks breathing new life into facilities
06:06that looked to be on their last legs it was an extremely expensive and time-consuming project
06:12but it worked all of a sudden russia's refineries were churning out some of the finest fuels and the
06:18country was no longer exporting just raw materials but actively powering large parts of europe itself
06:23supplying a massive percentage of the continent's diesel while still having plenty left over to power its
06:29own industries and military machines this veritable miracle of modern engineering had been more than
06:3450 years in the making but it was at last complete and appeared destined to be the beating heart of
06:41russia's economy and expansion for decades if not centuries to come but there was a hidden flaw in this
06:48machine a flaw that nobody could have seen certainly not the soviets who would never have anticipated the
06:53types of military technologies the 21st century would bring they built their system around a relatively
06:58small number of massive refineries each responsible for a large part of the country's overall fuel
07:04production rather than a large number of smaller facilities that matters because if there were
07:10dozens or even hundreds of smaller refineries dotted across the russian map each taking on a small
07:15percentage of the total production it wouldn't necessarily make that much difference if a few of
07:19them were damaged or destroyed during a war but when you have these enormous mega complexes that are so
07:25important and influential they become equally enormous targets for any enemies that might want to damage
07:30your economy the soviets thought these facilities were safe since many of them were built deep into
07:36russia's regions dozens or even hundreds of miles away from international borders the idea of any
07:41military opponent being able to target them would have seemed absurd at the time especially with russia
07:46being such a large military power but then along came ukraine and along came the age of drone warfare
07:53and everything changed it didn't happen right away in fact when russia launched its full-scale
07:59invasion of ukraine in february 2022 it was able to leverage the wealth and power of its incredible
08:04oil industry not just for the opening exchanges but for the first couple of years of the conflict
08:09indeed the kremlin's energy sector was for a long time its biggest advantage it didn't just have a
08:14much bigger army than ukraine but it had a colossal amount of infrastructure to support that army
08:18it walked into the war with vast fuel reserves unparalleled oil refining capacities and an energy
08:24industry that could sustain military operations on a massive scale for years on end because modern
08:31warfare is highly dependent on fuel conflicts consume energy tanks aircraft warships and armored
08:37vehicles for example burn through large amounts of fuel in no time supply convoys can stretch for miles
08:43and expend incalculable quantities of diesel and gasoline as they move food ammo and other supplies
08:48from a to b then there are all the generators communication systems radars air defenses and
08:54pieces of field infrastructure that also require a steady stream of petroleum products to remain
08:58operational most countries around the world wouldn't be able to produce the supply to meet such high
09:04levels of demand but russia could and it was all thanks to that infrastructure it had spent so long
09:09piecing together the nations of the western world quickly realized this they saw that russia would
09:14almost inevitably be able to march its way to victory if it was allowed to continue exporting
09:18oil far and wide bringing in billions of dollars of revenue in the process so they did what they
09:23could to stifle the flow they imposed sanctions they froze assets they reduced their reliance on
09:29russian resources they hope that by economically isolating russia they will be able to limit its ability
09:35to sustain its campaign of conquest but they didn't quite go far enough fast enough they did what
09:40they could but russia found ways to adapt it made use of shadow fleet tankers to transport vast quantities
09:47of fuel while evading penalties for example and shifted its attention eastward rather than westward
09:52finding new buyers and trade partners across asia to replace those it had lost in europe revenue did
09:58decline in some areas but the infrastructure remained operational and the core of the system survived
10:03and so even years into the war while it was struggling to achieve its military objectives
10:08russia's war machine was still running fuel was still flowing funds were still being generated and
10:13it seemed as though the kremlin could carry on like this almost indefinitely for ukraine that was a
10:18terrifying prospect it effectively meant that no matter how hard the ukrainian defense forces worked
10:24no matter how well they dug in and defended their ground no matter how much they slowed the enemy's
10:29advances the war was only going to end one way with the russian victory it would take time and it
10:35would
10:35come at great cost but as long as russia had that near endless supply of fuel then putin would get
10:40what
10:40he wanted in the end western sanctions weren't enough to stop the enemy it was up to ukraine to take
10:45matters into its own hands this was the moment that kiev's forces made the biggest and most important
10:51strategic shift of the entire war up until then they fought the war according to conventional rules
10:56they'd focused on the obvious threats right in front of them the tanks the artillery the armored
11:01personnel carriers the ammunition depots and supply lines they'd done what almost any military force
11:06would do when its land is being invaded they tried to defend their territory by fighting back against
11:11the enemy directly making use of home ground advantage and intelligent tactics to outwit their
11:15opponent and destroy as many military assets as they could it was a logical approach and there was value
11:21to it it mattered when ukraine's forces blew up russian tanks or wiped out an assault squad that
11:26was hell bent on capturing a key frontline location but there was also a massive problem with the plan
11:31russia had depth incredible depth it had vast soviet stockpiles of tanks to turn to when its more
11:38modern models were damaged and destroyed it had tens of thousands of armored vehicles it had jets bombers
11:44and artillery systems galore and it had little trouble replacing both equipment and soldiers almost
11:49instantly after they were taken out like the mythical hydra the kremlin's war machine was almost unkillable
11:56every time ukraine thought it had scored a win russia simply bounced back with more armor more munitions
12:02and more men finally however ukraine's military masterminds uncovered the secret that would change the
12:08course of the war if you want to rid yourself of an invasive weed you don't just trim away the
12:13leaves
12:13you get right down to the roots you kill it at the source the same logic applied to the russian
12:19army
12:19to defeat something this vast and with this much depth ukraine couldn't rely on picking off tanks
12:24and soldiers alone it had to strike at the source and destroy the very system that allowed the army
12:29to function that system boiled down to one simple thing fuel fuel is at the heart of every major
12:36military operation in the modern era without fuel armies go nowhere jets and bombers are grounded
12:42artillery stops firing and tanks turn from destructive machines of chaos and carnage into pointless metal boxes
12:48and so ukraine began to look beyond the front lines it looked past the tanks armored vehicles and brigades
12:54directly in front of it and in doing so it began to see the real beating heart of the enemy's
12:59military
12:59machine the refineries the pipelines the pieces of infrastructure that kept everything else fuel and
13:04moving it realized that taking out one tank would barely register on the enemy's radars but taking out
13:10an entire depot and cutting off fuel to a hundred tanks would have a much more significant impact and it
13:16had the perfect tool for the job drones cheap and easy to mass produce capable of traveling long distances
13:23far enough to reach those same refineries and facilities the soviets assumed were untouchable
13:28and surprisingly difficult to stop as well these were the perfect weapons to rip out the very heart
13:33of the russian military and so began the next phase of the war ukraine's systematic eradication of
13:39russia's most important infrastructure if this is the kind of insight that you want more of then make
13:44sure that you are subscribed to the military show we break it down like this every single week
13:50the first ukrainian attacks on russian oil infrastructure occurred in late 2023 there were
13:56additional sporadic strikes throughout 2024 in 2025 the campaign ramped up with the strikes becoming
14:03increasingly regular and devastating by 2026 ukraine was effectively all in on the idea of taking out
14:09as much of russia's energy sector as it possibly could indeed by late may 2026 ukraine had carried
14:16out over 150 of these attacks 32 of them came in the first five months of the year alone that's
14:22almost
14:22as many as the country managed in the whole of 2024 showing just how much more ferocious and efficient
14:28kiev's efforts have become as time has gone by and the attacks aren't just more frequent but more
14:33damaging too ukraine today has better and bigger drones than ever before capable of going further
14:40and carrying larger payloads and their predecessors every impact matters more every explosion is bigger
14:46every fire burns brighter and every attack leaves russia with increasingly vast amounts of
14:51damage to tally and increasingly expensive bills to cover kiev's forces have also been systematically
14:57taking out as many of russia's air defenses as they can locate and identify which also helps the
15:02greater cause as it opens up gaps and pathways for drones to fly through unopposed this in turn helps
15:08ukraine target refineries pipelines and fuel depots even further from the front lines without having to
15:14worry about their drones being shot down on route it's a strategy that has taken a lot of time and
15:18effort
15:19to put together and ukraine has had to be patient to see the fruits of its labor but now at
15:23last those
15:24fruits are clear to see as russia's economy as well as its ability to wage the war is quite literally
15:29going up in flames at a far faster rate than the country can handle the best evidence for this too
15:34came in may 2026 when ukraine carried out not one not two not three but seven successive strikes on some
15:41of the biggest and most valuable energy sector sites in all of russia the first incident occurred
15:46on may 5th when ukrainian strike drones attacked the karishi oil refinery in the city of karishi in
15:53russia's leningrad region owned by sugat nefter gas it's the second largest oil refinery in the
16:00country it processed an extraordinary 17.5 million tons of crude oil in 2024 alone that's 6.6 percent of
16:08the country's entire refining capacity the single refinery was responsible for producing around 2 million
16:14tons of gasoline over 7 million tons of diesel 6 million more tons of fuel oil and around 600 000
16:21tons
16:21of bitumen but on may 5th the entire facility was forced to shut down ukraine's drones damaged three
16:27of its four crude distillation units or cdu's to understand why this matters we have to understand
16:33what cdu's actually are when raw crude oil is extracted from the ground it's not of much use to
16:38mankind it's a thick sticky complex mixture of hydrocarbons that has to be refined to become useful
16:44the first big step of that refining process is fractional distillation this involves raw crude being
16:50pumped through huge furnaces and heated to extreme temperatures to become mostly vapor that vapor then
16:57flows into large steel towers cdu's which contain dozens of racks of specialized trays as it rises the
17:04vapor cools and the various hydrocarbons and other components condense on the trays at different heights
17:09within the tower those various substances can then be funneled off for various uses like jet fuel diesel
17:15and gasoline so without cdu's refineries would simply be stuck with oil in its rawest form unable
17:21to separate it or process it further that's what makes them such perfect targets for ukraine because
17:26if you stop the cdu's you essentially stop the refinery from functioning other targets might seem more
17:32impactful in the moment when ukraine's drones blow up fuel storage tanks for example it produces big
17:37fireballs that look impressive in the viral videos that soon spread across social media but don't
17:42actually affect the flow of oil all that much in the case of tanks for example russia can often
17:47replace them sometimes within a matter of hours with cdu's however even seemingly small amounts of
17:53damage have huge broad effects because they impact the entire facility on top of that while refineries
17:59are operational cdu's are literally filled with highly flammable and volatile vapors it doesn't take too
18:04much to set those vapors ablaze triggering high pressure fires that can warp the surrounding steel structure
18:09and may take days to put out there's also the fact that cdu's are quite large often measuring
18:15up to 200 feet in height that makes them bigger and easier targets for ukraine's drone operators
18:20even at night or in low visibility conditions but perhaps the biggest and best advantage of them all is
18:26this cdu's are very hard to replace especially now and especially in russia they can't just be mass
18:33produced in factories and thanks to sanctions they're not easily imported either they contain an array of
18:38specific internal components like precision control valves and specialized sensors some of which are
18:44only made in certain places by certain businesses many of those businesses refuse to deal with russia
18:49in any way forcing the kremlin's engineers to make deal with whatever random parts they can find elsewhere
18:55this in turn can lead to them having to spend months literally repairing damaged cdu's and during that
19:00time facilities either can't operate or are forced to function at massively reduced capacity
19:05that's exactly what happened at kirishi where huge fires broke out after ukrainian drone swarm paid the
19:11facility a visit this was confirmed in satellite imagery analyzed by nasa firms ukraine's security
19:17service sbu also confirmed the attack adding that the unmanned systems forces together with special
19:22operations forces had also struck a storage tank at an adjacent pumping station giving russia another big
19:28blaze to tackle and while they were busy dealing with the aftermath of the attack ukraine's drone pilots were
19:33already preparing for the next one on may 7th they struck again this time their target was the perm nos
19:39refinery situated in the perm region around 1460 kilometers or 908 miles east of moscow and even
19:47further from the front lines owned by look oil one of russia's biggest energy businesses this is the
19:53seventh largest refinery by processing volume in russia boasting an annual throughput of over 12 million tons
20:00that's around 250 000 barrels of oil every day in 2024 it produced 2 million tons of gasoline over 5
20:08million tons of diesel and hundreds of thousands of tons of coke and fuel oil too but not anymore
20:15according to reuters and other news agencies the drones damaged three of the facility's primary
20:20distillation units which were all forced to shut down representing half of the refinery's entire production
20:26capacity a fourth distillation unit had already been taken out on april 30th in another drone attack
20:32so in total the refinery has been made to operate at a mere fraction of its usual levels a week
20:37later
20:37russia was reeling all over again yet another of its huge refineries was set on fire in the city of
20:43riazan after another precision drone strike in the early hours of may 15th local residents took to
20:49social media sharing reports of explosions and the sounds of drones overhead within hours videos and images
20:56flooded the internet showing hungry flames lapping at the night sky and vast plumes of black smoke
21:02rising over the refinery soon after local authorities were forced to confirm that there
21:06had been damage to an industrial facility which was soon identified as the riazan oil refinery owned by
21:12rosneft it's another enormous oil processing plant with an annual refining capacity of around 17 million
21:19tons ukrainian monitoring channel supernova plus reported that vacuum distillation units were burning
21:25at the facility and this refinery is known to have four main cdu's as well as additional facilities for
21:32vacuum gas oil hydro treating catalytic reforming and other important processes if any one of those
21:39components were damaged it's highly likely that this refinery too will be operating far below its
21:44peak production levels for the foreseeable future engineers had barely began assessing the damage in
21:49riazan when drones were spotted in the skies of moscow on may 17th their target unsurprisingly was yet
21:55another oil refinery the gazprom neft owned refinery in southeastern moscow to be precise a subsidiary of
22:02gazprom where operations had to be suspended after uavs collided with the facility mayor of moscow
22:08sergey sobyanin confirmed the incident and downplayed the damage to the public but anonymous sources later
22:14stated that it would take at least several days before the plant will be working again and this
22:19isn't just any plant it's one of the main fuel sources for the russian capital directly impacting
22:25the millions of people and thousands of businesses that call the city home like other facilities the
22:30moscow refinery also boasts some big numbers it processed 11.6 million tons of crude oil in 2024 and
22:37produced around 3 million tons of gasoline another 3 million tons of diesel and around 1.3 million tons
22:43of bitumen ukraine wasn't stopping there on may 20th more drones hit another look oil refinery in the
22:50nizhny novgorod region one of russia's largest cities situated around 450 kilometers or 280 miles east of
22:59moscow this facility processes around 17 million tons of oil per year making it russia's fourth largest oil
23:06refinery it's also the second largest producer of gasoline but it was forced to halt operations in
23:12the wake of the attack after the main cdu suffered damage that single cdu is responsible for around
23:18half of the facility's total capacity which works out at 190 000 barrels per day images and videos
23:24published after the strike showed a large fire and visible damage to the cdu structure piling even more
23:30pressure on russia's beleaguered energy sector and if russia thought it could take a moment to catch
23:35its breath it was dead wrong only a day after the previous attack yet another occurred in yet another
23:41region on may 21st drones struck the main cdu at the rosnev owned cisran refinery in the samara region
23:48that same cdu handles 70 of the plant's capacity and it had to be shut down following the attack with
23:55repairs estimated to take at least a month this refinery usually gets through around 170 000
24:01barrels of oil a day to produce 1.5 million tons of diesel and massive amounts of gasoline and fuel
24:06oil each year however at least for the time being it's not doing any of that and ukraine's may mayhem
24:12still wasn't over on the night of may 25th the general staff of the armed forces of ukraine confirmed
24:18their seventh successful oil infrastructure strike of the month this time they focused on an oil depot
24:24the belets depot near the city of unetsha in the bryansk region to be precise just a few dozen
24:30kilometers from the ukrainian border capable of destroying over 40 000 tons of petroleum products
24:35this location is of huge importance to the russian military it's where the kremlin keeps large amounts
24:40of fuel that go directly into the convoy of trucks transporting supplies and ammo to the front line
24:45units in places like kursk and belgorod residents reported explosions and smoke filling the skies over
24:51the depot with early estimates suggesting a minimum of three tanks plus a pipeline had been damaged
24:57at the very same time ukraine's defense forces were also taking out several other targets in
25:01other locations like an ammo depot in crimea and an artillery depot in donetsk but it was the belets
25:07depot that arguably mattered most because that means that far less fuel will be able to make its way to
25:12russian units that have come to rely on this specific location this in turn harms the overall
25:17mobility of the kremlin's army as they'll have to wait and delay their next moves while emergency
25:22supplies are sourced from elsewhere every day russians are impacted too as numerous sources showed
25:28an immediate increase in fuel prices throughout the border regions the day after the attack
25:32on their own as isolated incidents attacks like this wouldn't necessarily have that much impact
25:37russia can cope with one or two of its big refineries having to temporarily shut down
25:41and can deal with the logistical challenges of the odd fuel depot being set on fire cumulatively
25:47however it cannot hope to contend with the devastating effects of all of these attacks
25:51especially when they occur so close together its oil production levels are plummeting to
25:55dangerous and unprecedented depths and when less oil is being processed everything is affected
26:00tanks and other vehicles can't be fueled up and used for frontline assaults
26:05supplies like food and ammo can't get to where they need to be the whole war effort is forced to
26:10slow down and stagnate which opens up more opportunities for ukrainian forces which aren't having to deal
26:15with the same kind of crisis to strike at weak points in the russian lines and force their enemy
26:19back meanwhile russia also has less oil to export that means less revenue flowing into the country's
26:25coffers which means less money to spend on everything it needs to keep the war going like production of
26:29drones and munitions procurement recruitment salaries etc and with a weaker economy everything else degrades
26:36from education to health care and beyond the country is already in a perilous state with the russian
26:42public seeing their quality of life dramatically decline because of the war and it's only going
26:46to get worse as these oil attacks continue there is no way out of this no escape no quick fix
26:52no counter ukraine has proven it can strike wherever it wants whenever it wants leaving utter havoc in
26:58its wake and russia has demonstrated its utter inability to defend itself for decades the soviets
27:04and russians built up their energy empire putin himself has spent much of his time in power perfecting it
27:09and bringing it into the modern era and now in mere months ukraine is tearing it apart you can learn
27:15more about how putin has lost control of this war and how ukraine has turned the tide in this video
27:20alternatively check out this video to learn about how germany may have just changed the game
27:24offering ukraine a never-before-seen deal that could bring the war to a close far sooner than anyone
27:29expected don't forget to subscribe to the military show for more videos just like this and thank you as
27:35always for watching
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