Russia believed it had finally solved Ukraine’s deep-strike problem by building a massive anti-drone cage around one of its most critical military plants. But Ukraine found a way around the fortress. Instead of sending drones, it unleashed a powerful long-range missile that tore through Russia’s defenses and left the facility burning. In this video, we break down how Russia’s plan failed, why Ukraine’s missile strategy is changing the war, and what comes next.
00:00 - Russia’s "Drone-Proof" Fortress
02:12 - Why Cope Cages Fail
03:53 - Smashed: The June 10 Strike
05:24 - Introducing the Flamingo Missile
09:13 - Ukraine's Evolving Deep Strike Strategy
12:30 - The Shift to Ballistic Missiles
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SOURCES: https://pastebin.com/cXzzei6q
00:00 - Russia’s "Drone-Proof" Fortress
02:12 - Why Cope Cages Fail
03:53 - Smashed: The June 10 Strike
05:24 - Introducing the Flamingo Missile
09:13 - Ukraine's Evolving Deep Strike Strategy
12:30 - The Shift to Ballistic Missiles
Support us directly as we bring you independent, up-to-date reporting on military news and global conflicts by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/@TheMilitaryShow/join
#militarystrategy #militarydevelopments #militaryanalysis
#themilitaryshow
SOURCES: https://pastebin.com/cXzzei6q
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NewsTranscript
00:00Russia thought it was being smart, and on the surface it was. After one of the most important
00:05plants sustained multiple drone strikes, Russia built a massive cope cage around an entire building
00:12to protect it from unmanned aerial vehicles. It would have worked too. Russia has a drone-proof
00:19fortress on its hands and the nation thought that it had Ukraine's number. Ukraine proved Russia
00:25wrong. If cope cages to defend against drones is Russia's answer, Ukraine just changed the question.
00:31Russia's plan backfired badly as Ukraine still struck the fortress.
00:37Only Ukraine didn't send a drone, it sent something much more powerful.
00:41The Russian plan was simple. Over 885 kilometers away from Ukraine lies Cheboksary in the Chuvashia
00:48Republic, and in that city is the VNIIR Progress Plant, which is one of Russia's most important
00:55military facilities because of the role that it plays in developing components that are used in
00:59some of Russia's most dangerous weapons, including its missiles. That plant was supposed to be
01:04untouchable. 885 kilometers should have been more than far enough away for Ukraine to never land a
01:11strike. However, Ukraine's long-range drones had proven that distance wasn't an issue, so they carried
01:17out several attacks against the plant. Okay, Russia thought, we have a drone problem that we never
01:22thought we would have. Now we need a solution. That solution was to wrap the administrative
01:26building and workshop of the VNIIR Progress Plant in a massive metal cage, rather than to rely on
01:33the anti-drone nets that had been used so often in the war. Photos published by Defense Express showed
01:39what the building looked like from the ground, and Business Insider reports that satellite photos shared
01:44by the US spatial intelligence firm Vantor showed that the cage extended around the entire building.
01:49The logic was sound. These cope cages, as they are often derisively called, surround a target with a
01:56single purpose, prematurely detonating the warhead carried by a drone so that the explosion doesn't do
02:01any damage to the target. With its building-sized cope cage, Russia thought it had come up with the
02:06perfect way to protect one of its most vital plants. Russia was wrong. And that shouldn't come as a surprise
02:12when you realize that cope cages aren't typically used to protect buildings. They're supposed to protect
02:17tanks. Russia has been using cope cages on its tanks since the very first weeks of the invasion,
02:22the eye paper reported in March 2022. Early versions included metal frames covered with canvas
02:29which were used to surround turrets. Later versions of these cope cages encompassed entire tanks,
02:34adding massively to their weight burden and making them practically inoperable, as Russia scrambled
02:39desperately for protection. 12,025 destroyed Russian tanks later, as reported by Ukraine,
02:46reveals that Russia's tank cope cages haven't exactly been working as well as Putin and his cronies
02:51would have hoped. But perhaps the cage around the VNIIR plant would be different. After all,
02:56that plant doesn't need to move, so weight concerns aren't a problem. Plus, the cage could be built around
03:02the building rather than straight onto it. That means more of a gap between cage and target, which
03:07in turn means more space for a drone's warhead to explode harmlessly without taking out the VNIIR
03:14progress plant. Yes, Russia thought that it had a solution, and it appeared to be working. The cope
03:19cage surrounding the plant administrative building and workshop had been in place for about a year,
03:23up until the summer of 2026, Business Insider reports. The plant was still standing. Ukraine's drones
03:29hadn't scored the type of direct hit needed to take the plant offline. Deep inside Ukrainian military
03:35intelligence, a process that has happened countless times over the last four years, was repeating.
03:40Russia had come up with a new idea. Not a great idea, sure, but an idea that seemed to be
03:45stopping
03:45Ukraine's drones. Ukraine's task from there was simple, adapt and find a way to hit the plant anyway.
03:52And in June, that's exactly what Ukraine did. The news broke on June 10th. Ukraine's forces had
03:58carried out an attack deep inside Russia, and the progress plant that Russia spent so much time
04:03and effort turning into an anti-drone fortress had been hit. Russia, as usual, touted its claimed
04:09drone interception rate while trying to ignore that its vital plant was in flames. All that Russia's
04:14defense ministry would say is that it had intercepted 326 Ukrainian drones over several regions
04:20in an overnight attack that saw Ukraine strike against targets in the occupied region of Mariupol.
04:25By the morning of June 10th, telegram channels and even Russia media outlets were reporting on
04:30Ukraine's attack against Russia's protected plants. United 24 media gives us the gist of those reports.
04:36The plant was in flames, as whatever had hit sparked a fire massive enough to cause
04:42significant damage to the building. In a heartbeat, Russia had lost a workshop that is part of a plant
04:47that builds components for Shahid drones and Iskander missiles, along with the Kometa modules that are often
04:53found in downed Shahid drones and are responsible for ensuring that the drones maintain their course
04:58through satellite navigation even when they are being bombarded by electronic warfare.
05:03Russia was forced to ask itself what the hell had just happened. It had built its cope cage precisely
05:08to guard against this very outcome. Ukraine's drones could travel as far as they wanted. They would
05:14never be able to penetrate the metal mass built around the VNIIR progress plant. So how did they?
05:19The answer is simple, they didn't. When Ukraine's military was trying to come up with a solution for
05:25tackling the latest thing that Russia had tried to stop deep strike attacks, it came up with a
05:30remarkably simple answer. If Russia is going to guard against drones to such an extent,
05:35then don't send drones at all. Send something that the progress plant can't defend itself against,
05:39a missile. Russia ended up bringing anti-drone cages to a missile fight and the progress plant has
05:46suffered in the aftermath. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky took to X to reveal that
05:51Ukraine's solution to Russia's cope cage was to send one of the most famous cruise missiles in its
05:55arsenal. We continue to apply Ukrainian long-range sanctions against Russian military facilities and
06:01the oil industry. In particular, last night Ukrainian FP5 Flamingos struck a military plant in Cheboksary
06:08that supplies the occupier's army with components for drones and missiles, Zelensky said. He also revealed that
06:14Ukraine had carried out yet another strike against Russian oil, as its forces hit the Kuivyshev oil
06:20refinery in Samara, which is more than 900 kilometers away from Ukraine, along with a pair of oil
06:25facilities in the Vladimir region more than 700 kilometers away. A short clip shared by Zelensky
06:31revealed just how much damage Ukraine's Flamingo missile did. We see the missile in flight, in one
06:37instance appearing to be recorded from the window of a Russian resident who saw it streak past. Then we see
06:43what the missile did. The Progress Plant, with most of its cope cage still intact, has smoke streaming
06:49out. Ukraine's missile pierced right through Russia's fortifications and smashed into its target
06:54with tremendous force. Russia never accounted for a missile. A cope cage can stop a small explosion,
07:01but it can't do a thing about the sort of power that a missile brings to the table.
07:05And when it comes to power, the Flamingo is one of the heaviest hitters in Ukraine's entire arsenal.
07:10Measuring between 10 and 14 meters , Flamingo is Ukraine's version of a cruise missile,
07:17and it allows the nation to strike deep and hard against targets inside Russia.
07:22The International Institute for Strategic Studies tells us how deep and hard, as it reveals that the
07:27Flamingo can fly for up to 3,000 kilometers while carrying a warhead weighing 1,150 kilograms.
07:34That's far more explosive power than a standard drone can deliver, and reveals why Russia's cope cage
07:39failed so spectacularly to stop the weapon that Ukraine unleashed. Though large, non-stealthy and
07:45subsonic, Ukraine's Flamingo was still able to travel close to 1,000 kilometers to reach a factory
07:50that Russia thought was safe. Was this hubris from Russia? Did it believe its cope cage was so good
07:56that it didn't need to install any air defenses around the Progress Plant? Or did Russia simply not
08:01have the air defenses to spare, following four years of warfare that have stripped it of 1,420
08:07anti-aircraft warfare units, which includes a March massacre that saw Ukraine take out 54 units,
08:14breaking down into 39 air defense systems and 15 radars in a single month? We can't say for sure,
08:20and Ukraine won't care. What it's just shown Russia is that there's a lot more to worry about than drones
08:25flying out of Ukraine. Missiles are in play, and not just any old missiles. These are weapons being
08:30built inside Ukraine that have the power to smash through fortifications and destroy plants that are
08:36critical parts of the Russian war machine's supply chain. The Flamingo has been around for a little
08:40while now, but June 10 may go down as the missile's coming out party, as it did exactly what it's
08:46supposed
08:47to do, strike deep, strike hard, and overcome all of the defenses that Russia had in place.
08:52Russia wants to drone-proof its buildings. Ukraine won't care. It's in the midst of a missile revolution
08:58that is going to change everything about the war with Russia. But before we dig deeper into that,
09:03this is a quick reminder that you are watching The Military Show. If you're getting insight from
09:07the channel, then make sure you subscribe so you never miss one of our videos. Let's start with the
09:12Flamingo. We know what the missile can do, and a shattered cope cage plus a burning components
09:18plant has brought everything to the attention of Putin and his cronies. But this missile
09:22is more than its range and power. As Vikram Mittal said in a March 13th piece for Forbes,
09:27the Flamingo missile has completely reshaped the dynamics of the Ukraine war. At that point,
09:33the Flamingo was not only being produced in large quantities, but had also moved into sustained
09:37operational use, marking it as a key component in a Ukrainian deep-strike strategy that is designed to
09:43stretch Russia's air defenses and take out targets that Ukraine wasn't able to hit less than a year ago,
09:48before its pink missile made an appearance. Mittal revealed that Ukraine had already carried out
09:53several strikes against high-value Russian targets, with each that followed the last revealing a trio
09:58of trends that are very worrying for Russia. First, the salvo size has increased from isolated launches
10:03to coordinated volleys of four to six missiles. Second, the target distance has expanded, with the
10:09most recent strike reaching deep inside Russia. Third, the missile's effectiveness appears to be
10:14improving, as multiple missiles have penetrated Russian air defenses and struck intended targets.
10:19Mittal declares. And when taken together, these three trends add up to Ukraine's long-distance
10:24strike strategy, maturing to the point where it can not only hit harder than it had before,
10:28but is also made more dangerous by the fact that it can unleash Flamingo missiles and drones in high
10:33enough volumes to ensure that Russia's air defenses can do nothing about them. You may remember that Russia
10:39claimed to have shot down 326 drones on the day that the Flamingo struck the progress plant.
10:45How many of those drones were decoys sent to confuse Russian air defenses, thus clearing the
10:50way for Flamingo to pierce through the cope cage? We may never know, but this is what a mature strike
10:55strategy looks like, and the Flamingo missile is at the heart of everything. But more than that,
11:00the creation of Flamingo represents a new level of maturity in Ukraine's defense industry.
11:04In 2022, a strike like what we saw on June 10th wouldn't have been possible,
11:09even with the missiles that Ukraine's Western partners were sending into the country.
11:13Fast forward four years and Ukraine not only has the technical knowledge needed to build its own
11:18cruise missiles, but it's also able to ramp up production to the point where it doesn't have
11:22to preserve its stocks of those missiles for occasional strikes. Ukraine's focus on operational
11:28viability over perfection means that it can build Flamingo missiles at scale, meaning Russia's entire
11:34strategy of relying on distance and anti-drone defenses has been rendered moot. That strategy
11:40won't work anymore. Ukraine has the answers to all of the defensive questions that Russia poses.
11:45As worrying as this is for Putin and Russia as a whole, there's a bigger picture at play here.
11:50It's not just the Flamingo ripping through cope cages as Putin's shaking in his boots.
11:54What we're seeing here is Russia flailing and failing to stop Ukraine's deep strikes,
11:59and that situation will only get worse because the Flamingo is just the tip of a missile-shaped
12:04iceberg that Ukraine is gearing up to unleash against Russia.
12:07We already know how scared Putin is of Ukraine's drones. That fear is why a cope cage was erected
12:13around the progress plant, and it's also why anti-drone nets have been erected around Putin's
12:18residence in Valdai. Russia's leader believes that if Ukraine is going to do damage, it's always going
12:24to do it with drones. But he's wrong. June 10th and the Flamingo prove that. But the much bigger
12:29problem for Russia is that Ukraine is in the middle of a shift towards missiles that nobody
12:34could have seen coming just a couple of years ago. As the Atlantic Council pointed out in a March 2nd
12:40piece, the Flamingo is just one of several missiles that are either already in play or under development
12:45by Ukraine. Millions of dollars are being poured into a domestic defense industry that is developing
12:50its own missile market, as the Council dubs it. And Ukraine already has a blueprint for growing
12:55that market rapidly. Ukraine already knows how to encourage ideas, foster development, and ramp up
13:02production due to its work with drones over the last few years. And many of the same concepts will
13:07work in the missile market. Defense Minister Mikhailo Fedorov says as much as he claims that Ukraine's
13:13defense ministry is acting similarly to a venture investor as it provides large grants to companies that
13:19are actively developing missiles and related technology. Another missile evangelist in Ukraine's upper
13:25echelons is the commander-in-chief of Ukraine's armed forces, Oleksandr Siersky. On June 9th,
13:31the New Voice of Ukraine reported that Siersky has publicly backed a plan designed to transform
13:36Ukraine's missile and artillery forces by 2030. The plan will see Ukraine eliminate Soviet-era missiles
13:43and rocket systems in favor of modern and more effective homegrown alternatives. Western-made missiles will
13:49still be welcomed and used by Ukraine. However, Ukraine will no longer rely on those missiles as
13:54heavily as it has in the past, as it instead focuses on the type of domestic production that
13:59Russia always assumed would never happen. Siersky believes that this new plan will allow for the
14:04consistent destruction of targets at distances up to 2,000 kilometers, especially when accompanied by
14:10further advances in drone technology, Militani reports. Oh, and if Russia thought that
14:15Flamingo is all that it has to worry about, then it's dead wrong. Ukraine is inching closer to
14:19developing its own ballistic missiles. And when those missiles arrive, what happened to the VNIIR
14:25Progress Plant and its cope cage will look like a picnic in comparison. On June 4th, Defense Express
14:32reported that Firepoint, which is the company behind the Flamingo missile, had carried out the second known
14:37launch of its FP-7 ballistic missile. That test was interesting for a few reasons, notably that it was
14:44of the FP-7X version of Firepoint's new missile, which is a variation on the design that Ukraine intends
14:50to use to intercept Russia's incoming missiles. However, that interceptor is based on the FP-7,
14:56and the second test Firepoint conducted was both successful and offered the first evidence that
15:01Ukraine's new ballistic missile is capable of guided flight. The FP-7X will be important because
15:07Ukraine can build and use it for a fifth of the price of the Patriot interceptor missiles it's
15:12relied on for so long to counter Russia's missile threat. But it's what the FP-7 represents as an
15:17attacking option that really concerns Russia. What we know so far is that Ukraine's new missile can
15:23travel at speeds up to 2,000 meters per second, and that it has a composite airframe which cuts down
15:28on production costs. What this means for Russia is that Ukraine is soon going to have what Russia has
15:33been using to hurt Ukraine for so long, a combination of drones, cruise missiles,
15:37and ballistic missiles that are produced at scale and launched in volume. It won't be long before
15:42the FP-7 joins the flamingo in wrecking Russia. And if military expert Pavlo Nirozhny is right,
15:48Ukraine will soon be capable of producing enough ballistic missiles to cause some serious damage to
15:53Russia. Speaking to Ukrainian radio, Nirozhny points out that Firepoint's ballistic missile project
15:59is private and it's being accompanied by the state-backed project to develop the Sapsan
16:04ballistic missile. Data is shared and both missiles are coming along and once they're ready, Nirozhny
16:09says, there's no reason why Ukraine wouldn't be able to produce several dozen ballistic missiles
16:13per month. Add to that, a flamingo production capacity that stood at 30 per month has likely risen
16:18to 50 per month in 2026 and may grow higher with more investment and you get danger for Russia.
16:25Cope cages aren't going to save Russia's military industrial complex from what's coming.
16:29Ukraine's cruise missiles are already flying, its ballistic missiles won't be too far behind
16:35and the only answer that Russia has is metal cages around buildings that are designed to stop drones.
16:41Russia thought that it was being so smart but Ukraine proved that once again,
16:45Russia is two steps behind the reality of the war. The missiles are coming, the drones aren't going to
16:51stop and a deep strike campaign that has already been ruining Russia's war machine for over two years
16:56is being upgraded to the point where it may well be a war-winning strategy for Ukraine.
17:02We mentioned the FP7X a few minutes ago. If you want to find out more about that missile,
17:06along with the FP7 and the tests that Ukraine carried out, then we have the perfect video for you.
17:11Check out our analysis of what Ukraine's new ballistic missile means, not just for Ukraine,
17:16but for all of Europe. And if you enjoyed this video, remember to hit subscribe so you get your
17:21daily dose of the military show delivered right to your feed. And thank you as always for watching.
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