Russia Just Lived Through the Most HUMILIATING Week of the Entire War… And It's Not OVER

Name: Russia Just Lived Through the Most HUMILIATING Week of the Entire War… And It's Not OVER
Uploaded: 2026-06-19T02:58:43+00:00
Duration: 1 h 21 min 14 s
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0:00:00 France Just Showed EVERYONE How to Hurt Russia… Without Firing a SINGLE Shot
0:15:13 Russia Just Became NAKED Before Ukraine... Putin's Crown Jewels Are Getting CRUSHED
0:32:44 People Thought a NUCLEAR BOMB Went Off in St. Petersburg... It Was UKRAINE
0:49:38 Ukraine's GENIUS Move Just STARVED Russia's Army to Death
1:05:25 Russians Expected Regular Ukrainian Soldiers… SLAUGHTERBOTS Came For Them Instead

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00:00:00It's the secret network that is the foundation of Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

00:00:04Shady ships are sailing all over the world, shipping illicit oil to buyers and funneling

00:00:09money back into the war machine. It's Russia's most valuable weapon, but France just showed

00:00:14the entire world how to dismantle that weapon and it did it without firing a single shot.

00:00:19Deep in the Atlantic, France just did something so big that it's left Putin seething. A shadow

00:00:25fleet tanker is done. France became the hunter that Ukraine always needed it to be, and if

00:00:31President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has his way, this will just be the start of something bigger.

00:00:36It all started on the morning of May 31st. During the early hours of the day, a ship named the

00:00:42Tagore

00:00:42made its way through international waters. At a glance, the Tagore would seem similar to any other

00:00:47tanker. It wasn't. Digging below the ship's murky surface reveals that it's one of many that are a

00:00:53part of the Shadow Fleet, a network of Russian ships that sail under the flags of other nations

00:00:58to take Russian oil to other countries. That's precisely what the Tagore was doing. The ship

00:01:04sailed under the Cameroonian flag as it continued its journey toward the city of Limbe, which is also

00:01:08in Cameroon. Again, nothing seems to be wrong with that, but the Tagore doesn't belong to Cameroon.

00:01:14It's linked to Mohamed Hossein Shamkani, who is a petroleum shipping magnate and has been suspected

00:01:19of carrying both Russian and Iranian oil to help the regimes in both countries to skirt sanctions.

00:01:25Shamkani also happens to be the son of Ali Shamkani, who was an advisor to the former Iranian

00:01:30Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, before he met his end when he came face to face with a bunker-busting

00:01:35bomb during the first 24 hours of Operation Epic Fury in Iran. The Tagore isn't a regular oil tanker.

00:01:42It's a ship that needed to be taken out of commission as soon as possible. As the Tagore sailed across

00:01:48the

00:01:48Atlantic Ocean, its crew must have thought that it had managed to pull off another fast one.

00:01:52Then it happened. Or more accurately, France happened. A French ship approached, and the

00:01:58Tagore's game was rumbled. French sailors boarded the vessel, arrested the captain, and took the

00:02:03vessel into custody. But that doesn't tell the full story. The details of the operation are mostly

00:02:08being kept under wraps. However, there are bits and pieces of information that are starting to emerge.

00:02:13According to the Kyiv Post, we now know more than just the Tagore's destination.

00:02:17We know where it came from. The vessel was sailing from the northwestern Russian city of

00:02:22Murmansk, which immediately signifies that it wasn't a Cameroonian vessel, despite where

00:02:26it was heading. This ship was carrying illicit cargo from Russia. The French Atlantic Maritime

00:02:31Prefecture has also revealed that the interception of the ship took place deep into international

00:02:36waters, over 400 nautical miles west of the coast of the French peninsula of Brittany.

00:02:42Russia's shady ship had 23 crew members at the time the vessel was captured, and they

00:02:46didn't respond to the orders that were given by the French crew that would eventually detain

00:02:50them. That's standard practice for a Shadowfleet vessel. If you're caught, keep quiet. Putin

00:02:55doesn't need anybody blabbing about Russia's secret oil shipments.

00:02:58So that's what we know about France's role in this capture. But there's a little more

00:03:02to the story. None of this would have been possible if France hadn't taken some inspiration

00:03:06from the Beatles and gotten by with a little help from its friends. Specifically, another

00:03:11nation that has been a thorn in Putin's side since he launched his Ukraine invasion offered

00:03:15a hand to France in this operation. Or should we say, a helicopter.

00:03:18The BBC reports that the UK's Ministry of Defence has confirmed that it provided a chopper to

00:03:24help France capture the Targour. Again, details are thin on the ground. We know that no shots

00:03:29were fired in the seizure of the ship. All that the UK has revealed is that the chopper

00:03:33was previously aboard the HMS Somerset, and it was involved in tracking and monitoring in

00:03:37support of the French operation. That makes sense. A helicopter can hover over a Shadowfleet

00:03:42vessel for hours, constantly communicating its position to incoming ships that wish to detain

00:03:47the offending boat. That's likely what happened on May 31st. The UK tracked, and France took

00:03:52it down. As you'll soon find out, France is getting

00:03:55pretty efficient at sticking it to Russia's Shadowfleet, and it had to be when it came to

00:03:59the Targour, as the ship is a constant offender. France has known about it for years, so have

00:04:04many other nations. According to Euromiden Press, the vessel has been under sanctions from

00:04:08the US, Ukraine, the UK, Switzerland and the European Union for a long time, and it's

00:04:13among the many ships that Ukraine's military intelligence lists as being part of the Shadowfleet.

00:04:18It's also sailed under the flag of Guinea before, which is another shot at any claim

00:04:22that Russia might make that it's a Cameroonian vessel. The Targour has also sailed to many

00:04:27countries, often travelling from Russia's Baltic ports to places as varied as Thailand, India,

00:04:31Vietnam, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The Targour was an important ship

00:04:37for Russia. Now it's gone, and Russia is raging. Putin's favourite mouthpiece, Dmitry

00:04:42Peskov, has already had plenty to say about what France did on May 31st.

00:04:46We consider these acts illegal. They border on international piracy, Peskov declared before

00:04:51making vague claims that Russia is taking measures to ensure the safety of its cargo.

00:04:56Ooh, Dmitry, you just gave the game away. Remember, this is a Shadowfleet tanker. It's supposed

00:05:00to be Cameroonian. You can't just come out and say that the cargo on board is Russian unless

00:05:04you want people to know that everything about this ship and its sailing is illegal.

00:05:08French President Emmanuel Macron had the perfect response to Peskov's ranting in a June 1st

00:05:13post on X. It is unacceptable for ships to circumvent international sanctions, violate the laws

00:05:18of the sea and fund the war that Russia has been waging against Ukraine for more than four

00:05:21years, Macron said, adding. These vessels, which fail to adhere to the most basic rules

00:05:26of maritime navigation, also pose a threat to the environment and to everyone's safety.

00:05:30You'll move, Russia. It will be interesting to see what Russia is going to do to ensure

00:05:36the safety of its cargo now that the cargo is in France's possession. So far, all that

00:05:41Russia has done is request information about the make-up of the crew that took the Targor

00:05:44into custody while moaning about how it hasn't been notified about any of the actions that

00:05:48France has taken against the ship. That's hardly the sort of powerful response that Peskov

00:05:53implies is coming, but then that's typical of Russian threats against NATO nations. Far too much

00:05:58bark and very little bite. Besides, if Russia wants to get some hints about what lies in

00:06:02store for the Targor and its crew, it doesn't need to search too much. We told you earlier

00:06:06that France is getting pretty efficient with dealing with Shadow Fleet tankers. That claim

00:06:10hasn't been pulled out of thin air. France has a growing track record of this kind of thing

00:06:14that tells Russia all that it needs to know about the fate of its illicit ship and its crew.

00:06:18But before we get deeper into that, this is a quick reminder that you are watching the

00:06:22military show. Are you enjoying this video? Great. Remember to subscribe to the channel

00:06:27as we publish videos like this every single day.

00:06:31Since September 2025, France has carried out similar boarding operations against three other

00:06:36Shadow Fleet tankers besides the Targor. First, there was the Borachai, which France boarded in

00:06:41September. That ship was sailing under the flag of Benin, which is a relatively small West African

00:06:46nation. As for the ship's captain, he was Chinese. Something doesn't add up there. However, the fate

00:06:52of that captain, who Politico named as Zhangji Chen in a March 30th piece, reveals what may now lie

00:06:57in store for whoever was at the helm of the Targor. In March, French courts convicted Chen of failing

00:07:02to comply with French authorities after special forces from the country boarded his ship as it

00:07:07sailed off the waters of Saint-Nazaire. The Borachai was carrying about $100 million of Russian oil at the

00:07:13time, and also had a pair of Russian citizens on board, who Chen would only identify as security

00:07:18agents. Chen was sentenced to a year in jail and a fine of around $175,000 for his crime, though

00:07:25the

00:07:25sentence was passed in absentia. Still, if Peskov and the Russian embassy want to know more about

00:07:30what lies in store for the Targor and its crew, this sentence offers a pretty solid indication.

00:07:35The capture of the Borachai seemed to light a fire under France. A few months later, in January,

00:07:39France was at it again. This time, the target was a sailing rotter and king of sinful sots named the

00:07:45Grinch. Another Shadow Fleet ship that was subject to international sanctions, the Grinch was being

00:07:50sailed by an Indian captain, and he was travelling through the Mediterranean Sea from the same

00:07:54Murmansk port from which the Targor was sailing. This time, the Russian vessel was sailing under the

00:07:59Comoros Islands flag. It ended up moored and under guard at a French port close to the city of

00:08:04Marseille. It appears the Grinch may have been released by France after its owner paid a

00:08:09multi-million dollar fine. At least that's what the Moscow Times suggests, as it claims that February

00:08:14saw France release a suspected Shadow Fleet ship that wasn't the Borachai. Another of Russia's shady

00:08:19ships bit the dust in March. This time, it was a vessel named the Dana, which was sailing out of,

00:08:25you guessed it, Murmansk, this time under the flag of Mozambique. You're probably starting to see a few

00:08:30patterns here, especially in terms of the ports that Russia uses and the exploitation of African

00:08:35nations to try to keep its Shadow Fleet sailing under the radar. The trickery didn't work for the

00:08:39Dana. It ended up suffering the same fate as the two that came before and the one that France boarded

00:08:43on May 31st. France has an interesting hit rate going on here. In 2026, the country has taken a

00:08:49Shadow Fleet tanker into custody once every two months. If Zelensky has his way, France, along with other

00:08:55Western nations that have sanctioned so many of Russia's shady ships, will start upping those numbers

00:08:59sooner rather than later. We'll come back to that in a minute. Returning to the Targor, the importance

00:09:04of the seizure of this latest Shadow Fleet ship is better understood when you know just why this

00:09:09fleet is so important to Russia. Ever since Putin invaded Ukraine, Putin has been building a massive

00:09:14network of tankers that exist solely to allow Russia to invade the sanctions that have been implemented

00:09:19by Ukraine's allies. These aren't top-of-the-line ships. The criteria for a vessel that makes it into the

00:09:25Shadow Fleet appear to be that it can still sail and that it's as cheap as possible. Piffling concerns

00:09:30related to safety, insurance and the prospect of tankers that are, in many cases, years past their

00:09:35sell-by date, are secondary. The BBC says that the average age of a Shadow Fleet tanker is around 20

00:09:40years and that most are poorly maintained due to not having been used for years before they were sold to

00:09:45Russia. So that's what Russia is saying. Rust buckets tasked with transporting millions of dollars of

00:09:50oil, floating environmental disasters that are just waiting to happen. Putin doesn't care about the

00:09:56quality of the ships, only that they can carry oil and, by hook or by crook, get to countries that

00:10:01will

00:10:01buy the oil. Those two jobs are the reasons why Russia has invested billions into building its secret

00:10:06network of shady ships. Exact numbers are difficult to gather, which is the entire one. Russia wants the

00:10:11world to know as little as possible about these vessels. In December 2025, the Center for Strategic and

00:10:17International Studies, or CSIS, estimated that the Shadow Fleet encompasses up to 435 tankers,

00:10:24with that number growing to 591 ships when accounting for support ships. CSIS also estimated

00:10:30that Putin's nasty naval network transports around 3.7 million barrels of oil daily, accounting for 65%

00:10:36of Russia's seaborne oil trade, and that it generates up to $100 billion per year in revenue.

00:10:41It's that last part that matters so much to Putin. As long as the Shadow Fleet's sales,

00:10:46tainted oil money flows into Russia that the Kremlin can tax to boost its war coffers.

00:10:51As massive as these CSIS numbers are, others claim that they just scratched the surface of

00:10:55the true scale of the Shadow Fleet. In a November 2025 report, Maritime News claimed that Russia's

00:11:01fleet is actually 3,240 vessels large. If true, that means the Shadow Fleet is over six times bigger

00:11:07than CSIS estimates. The key of independent built on this, noting that the fleet is supposedly

00:11:12transporting 337 million barrels per month, which amounts to a little over 11.2 million barrels per

00:11:18day. Again, that's a long way above the CSIS estimate, and it would presumably mean the oil

00:11:23revenue that Russia generates from its network of ships is in the hundreds of billions of dollars

00:11:27annually, rather than topping out at 100 billion. Whichever set of numbers most closely reflects reality

00:11:33as immaterial. The key point to understand here is that Putin needs the Shadow Fleet.

00:11:37Without it, the oil lifeline that keeps his invasion of Ukraine funded dries up,

00:11:41which means no more enormous pay packages for volunteer soldiers and even less equipment on the

00:11:46front. Still, when we're talking about numbers of this size, France seizing one Shadow Fleet tanker,

00:11:51no matter how important that tanker is, seems like small potatoes. You could look at it that way for

00:11:55sure. But the bigger story here lies in the aftermath. What France has done with this seizure,

00:12:00and those that came before, is show Russia that it isn't playing around with the Shadow Fleet.

00:12:04If France finds a shady tanker, it will do what it can to capture it. The knock-on effect is

00:12:09that

00:12:09routes that Russia thought were safe can no longer be sailed. Captains who are willing to take the

00:12:14payoff when the enforcement of sanctions was weak enough to make the juice worth the squeeze will

00:12:18think twice about sailing when they know a trip to a French prison may lie in their future.

00:12:22It's all about increasing the cost of keeping the Shadow Fleet running,

00:12:25be that by making Russia's decrepit tankers sail longer and more dangerous routes,

00:12:30or by ensuring that fewer sailors are willing to step on board the ships in the first place.

00:12:34The more risk that is created, the bigger the bite's being taken out of the revenue that the

00:12:38Shadow Fleet generates. Still, a lot more can be done, and that's the message that Ukraine's

00:12:42President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivered in the aftermath of the Tagore's capture. Zelenskyy spoke

00:12:47about the capture during his June 1st evening address to Ukraine's people, stating,

00:12:51There has been another interception of a Russian tanker. Thank you, France. It's important that

00:12:56Europe takes a strong step and modernizes legislation so that such tankers can not only be

00:13:00stopped but also seized. Ukraine appreciates the hard work, but Zelenskyy is right. The response

00:13:05to Russia's Shadow Fleet needs to be stepped up if it's going to put a serious dent into Putin's ability

00:13:10to use his secretive network to skirt sanctions. New legislation will help. Russia would complain about

00:13:16it, but what else is new? And it's not like Russia has a leg to stand on when it comes

00:13:20to passing

00:13:20legislation that gives itself permission to harm other countries. It was only in mid-May that the

00:13:24Russian State Duma approved a law that allows Putin to invade any country to protect Russian citizens

00:13:30abroad. The language in this law is broad enough to basically give Putin carte blanche to use the

00:13:35Russian armed forces against any nation that even so much as arrests a Russian citizen. In the face of

00:13:40that, Zelenskyy calls for Western nations to pass laws allowing them to confiscate Russian cargo and

00:13:45tankers completely make sense. In the face of that, Zelenskyy's calls for Western nations to pass laws

00:13:50allowing them to confiscate Russian cargo and tankers completely make sense. It would be an escalation,

00:13:56but it would also be a move that sends a definitive message to Putin that he no longer gets to

00:13:59have

00:14:00things go his way with his sanctions skirting shadowfully. For Ukraine, France's latest seizure

00:14:05should be a stepping stone to greater things rather than a high point of the sanctions campaign.

00:14:09And if the West steps up and gets even more serious, Putin will be in real trouble.

00:14:14Ukraine is already doing everything that it can to stop the flow of illicit oil out of Russia with its

00:14:19flying sanctions. CNN reports that the period between January and May has seen Ukraine attack

00:14:2415 of Russia's oil refineries with long-range drones, knocking out 40 percent of the country's

00:14:29refining capacity in the process. Those strikes are being accompanied by attacks on Russian oil

00:14:34terminals, with the clear intention being to stop Shadow Fleet vessels from loading up and shipping out.

00:14:39All of the ingredients of a Shadow Fleet crushing strategy are available. Ukraine is hitting

00:14:43Russian oil at its source, and its strikes are decreasing the use of the ports that those

00:14:47ships rely on to load their oil. France has just shown us what the next step should be,

00:14:52more enforcement on the sea. While Ukraine hits the source, the West should tackle the

00:14:56ships that managed to make it out of Russia. Putin's supposedly unstoppable network of shady

00:15:01ships would be halted, and as for Russia's oil lifeline, it would be choked off, crippling the

00:15:05Russian army in the process. France just laid down the blueprint for the rest of the West,

00:15:10and it did it without firing a single shot. When Russia invaded Ukraine, Putin thought

00:15:15that he had all of the defenses that he needed. Ukraine couldn't hit Russia anyway. It had no

00:15:21missiles. What did Russia have to worry about? The wannabe emperor would soon be crowned as

00:15:27Ukraine's ruler. But the emperor has no clothes, and neither does his country. Russia just became naked

00:15:34before Ukraine, setting up repeated shots to Putin's crown jewels. Blow after blow is crushing

00:15:41everything in Russia as Ukraine has gone from prey to predator. Ukraine is now the aerial hunter,

00:15:48it owns the skies, as Russia's entire defense network is on the verge of collapse. Nobody could have

00:15:55expected this. For most of the Ukraine war, the focus has been rightly placed on what Ukraine could

00:16:01do to defend itself against Russia's combined ground assault and constant aerial bombardments.

00:16:07Going on the attack wasn't the subject of conversation. That was especially the case back

00:16:12in 2022. But even as little as a year ago, the talk was about how Ukraine could use its ever

00:16:17-improving

00:16:18drone technology to create a wall of defenses against Russia's unrelenting attacks. The mood up until

00:16:24recently was summed up perfectly in a July 2025 article by the Atlantic Council.

00:16:30The Ukrainian military's innovative and rapidly evolving use of unmanned aerial vehicles to create

00:16:35a layered defense is often referred to as a drone wall, the article declared, with the rest of the

00:16:41focus being placed on how the development of Ukraine's defenses could create the blueprint that

00:16:46all of Europe could follow to build a continent-spanning drone wall of its own. It's certainly true

00:16:51that Ukraine's drone mastery is and will continue to be key to the country's defense. But 2026 has

00:16:58brought with it a major change in how Ukraine's drones are perceived. Once the defenders, restricted

00:17:04to taking out Russian projectiles and racking up casualties on the front, those drones have evolved

00:17:09into outright killers. As we move into 2026, something changed about how Ukraine was using drones.

00:17:16Suddenly, the deep strikes onto Russian territory that were taking out energy and military

00:17:20infrastructure were being accompanied by strikes in the middle range. Hordes of new drones started

00:17:25flying beyond the front lines, crashing down on Russian logistics, command posts, and supply lines

00:17:30to degrade Putin's forces on the front. This wasn't supposed to be possible. Ukraine was going on the

00:17:37attack with weapons that were supposed to aid its defense and Russia started to become exposed.

00:17:41How did this happen? Blame Putin's arrogance and his inability to even consider the possibility

00:17:47that Ukraine could ever develop any sort of long- or medium-range capabilities. Putin was wrong,

00:17:52and much to his horror, Ukraine used its growing drone capabilities to start striking the one thing

00:17:58that Russia needed to guard itself against the attacking drone wall that Ukraine has unleashed.

00:18:02Russian air defenses have been crumbling by the hundreds. The nation that was once the prey has

00:18:08evolved into the predator that rules the skies, and in doing so, it has exposed Russia. Forces in the

00:18:15occupied territories are naked, devoid of the air defenses that were supposed to protect them.

00:18:20Inside Russia itself, Ukraine has gone from attacking border regions and infrastructure

00:18:24to launching strikes against the crown jewels of Russia, including Moscow and St. Petersburg.

00:18:30This was all part of Ukraine's plan. And thanks to a report by the Tochny Open Source

00:18:34Collective, we can see that it was a plan that was months in the making.

00:18:38That collective was able to verify 1,530 of what it calls kinetic actions against Russian targets both

00:18:45in the mainland and occupied Ukraine between June 2025 and March 2026. It's a fancy way of saying

00:18:52drone and missile strikes, but what's really interesting here is what Ukraine chose to target

00:18:57in the majority of these attacks. Of the 1,530, 493 strikes were conducted against Russian air defense

00:19:04infrastructure, which includes air defense systems themselves as well as radars and similar

00:19:09supporting equipment. That's about a third of all of Ukraine's strikes over the course of about

00:19:13three quarters of a year, but it didn't end there, also on the A2AD assets of which Ukraine's drone

00:19:19struck 433. A2AD stands for Anti-Access Area Denial, and it's a military term used to describe

00:19:26anything that an army uses to prevent an enemy from gaining access to territory that the army holds.

00:19:31We're talking about things like electronic warfare systems, which are often used to send drones

00:19:36flying off course, and even choppers and aircraft that can be used to take out the drones that Ukraine

00:19:40fires. In other words, assets that support Russia's attempts to defend the skies over the territories

00:19:45that it's stolen. Since Tochny's initial report, Ukraine has leaned even further into its strategy of

00:19:51destroying Russian air defenses. Now, 54.8% of Ukraine's strikes are designed to take out air defenses,

00:19:57as Ukraine builds on an already consistent campaign to defang a nation that has for so long been

00:20:03trying to take bites out of Ukraine's sovereign territory. Ukraine isn't just on the defensive

00:20:07anymore, it's on the attack, aerially speaking, and those attacks have been made possible because

00:20:12Ukraine has stripped away the defenses that were supposed to stop them. The very weapons that were

00:20:17designed to kill Ukraine's drones have fallen to the one thing they were supposed to stop. Now,

00:20:22the rest of Russia and the occupied territories are feeling the same pain.

00:20:27As Tochny puts it, the bear has been blinded, and we only need to look at what Ukraine has been

00:20:32doing to Russia, both in the occupied territories and Russia itself, to see what that means.

00:20:37The strike tells the full story.

00:20:39All across the R280 Novorossiya highway that connects Russia's Rostov region to Crimea and the occupied

00:20:45Ukrainian south, drones are flying and trucks are burning. Travel across that highway is now being

00:20:52restricted following Ukraine's destruction of 150 vehicles by June 1st, and likely many dozens if

00:20:58not hundreds more since. This highway is the land bridge that connects Russia to Crimea. It's absolutely

00:21:03vital for Russia to keep its supplies flowing into the occupied peninsula as well as into Ukraine's south,

00:21:09but now it's been rendered practically unusable by a new generation of middle range drones.

00:21:14The crippling of this land bridge was made possible by Ukraine's destruction of so many of Russia's

00:21:19air defenses. And there are so many more examples. In June, Ukraine sent drones to strike the Chana

00:21:25bridge in the Kherson Oblast. That bridge is another logistical artery connecting Crimea to

00:21:30Ukraine's occupied south, and Ukraine has identified it as another target to take out now that Russia's

00:21:36air defenses have crumbled. On June 9th, the Kherson puppet governor, Volodymyr Saldo, revealed that

00:21:42Ukraine has carried out a follow-up strike against the bridge, once again damaging it in the wake of a

00:21:46June 7th attack that had already forced Russia to divert drivers down different routes. Repeated

00:21:52attacks shouldn't be possible. Even if you give Russia some grace for failing to stop the June 7th

00:21:57strike, it should have put air defenses in place to stop the second attack on June 9th. Russia failed.

00:22:03Not because it didn't want to install defenses, or that it failed to see the importance of the

00:22:07Chana bridge. Russia's problem is that losing hundreds upon hundreds of air defense assets has

00:22:12left its defenses utterly threadbare. What little clothing Russia wore in the occupied territories

00:22:17to defend itself has been torn off, leaving an exposed and naked army that can't do anything to

00:22:22stop Ukraine's drones. That's why we see repeated attacks. Russia knows they're coming, but it doesn't

00:22:28have the defenses it needs to do something about the incoming hordes. It's not just occupied Ukraine

00:22:33that is feeling the pain of the death of Russia's air defenses. St. Petersburg, which is Putin's hometown,

00:22:38and the crown jewel of Russian opulence, has also been struck. Putin chose that city to host the

00:22:43annual international economic forum that Russia puts on to showcase the supposed strength of its

00:22:48economy and build relationships with other nations. The Russian Davos, as it's been called,

00:22:53ran from June 3rd to three days. Ukraine bookended the event with drone strikes, first hitting key

00:22:59facilities around St. Petersburg on the opening day of the forum, and then following up with more

00:23:04attacks as the forum ended. The timing wasn't coincidental. Ukraine wanted Russia to know

00:23:09that it could hit St. Petersburg at any time, and it chose a time when all eyes were on the

00:23:14city.

00:23:15Think about what that means. This event was a showcase for Russia. St. Petersburg would have been

00:23:20as well defended as it could possibly be to ensure nothing went wrong, and it still didn't matter.

00:23:25Ukraine's drones broke through Russia's air defenses, which tells you everything you really need to

00:23:30know about the state of those defenses. These attacks also came in the wake of Russia's pitiful

00:23:35Victory Day parades. These parades, which are supposed to be another major showcase, this time of

00:23:40Russia's military might, were toned down to the point where not a single piece of military equipment

00:23:45was on display as the parade trundled through Moscow's Red Square. Why? Well, Russia was terrified

00:23:51that Ukraine would use the parade as an opportunity to strike, and it knew that the crumbling air defense

00:23:55network inside Russia wouldn't be able to stop a large enough drone swarm. As Christian Teres,

00:24:01who is a member of the European Parliament, puts it, Leningrad and Moscow regions are highly populated

00:24:06and economically vital for Russia's war machine. Ukraine is successfully executing classic economic

00:24:11and psychological warfare against them. This is the situation that Ukraine has created with its

00:24:17attacks on Russia's air defenses. They've been degraded to the point where all of Russia and the

00:24:21occupied territories are vulnerable. And none of this is going to get any better for Russia.

00:24:26What was once Russia's greatest strength has been transformed into its biggest weakness,

00:24:31and that's a game changer in the Ukraine war. But before we explain why, this is a reminder that

00:24:36you are watching the military show. If you like what you see from our channel, make sure you hit subscribe

00:24:41so that you never miss a video. Here's what all of this means for Russia as Putin continues his ruinous

00:24:47campaign to take Ukraine. Russia is now naked. It doesn't have enough air defenses to even come

00:24:53close to protecting all of its assets. And that comes not from us or Ukraine, but from the head

00:24:57of the Estonian Ministry of Defense's Defense Readiness Department, Geert Kayu. He says that Russia

00:25:03is expending what remains of its air defense missiles at an alarming rate, which means it's running low on

00:25:08missiles just as much as it's running low on the systems used to fire them. In the Russian rear,

00:25:13inside occupied Ukraine, Russia's defenses have been degraded to the point where Ukraine has achieved

00:25:18localized pockets of air superiority that give the country control over undefended skies.

00:25:23In addition to the R280, Ukraine is carrying out strikes against the M14 and M04 highways,

00:25:30along with parts of the H20 highway that connects these two roads to Donetsk.

00:25:35None of this should be happening because Russia's air defenses should be preventing the strikes,

00:25:39but they aren't. Ukraine is destroying them all. What Russia now has

00:25:43is an increasingly blind empire, at least when it comes to dealing with threats from the skies.

00:25:49If it's not air defense systems being destroyed, it's radars. The latter are expensive to replace,

00:25:55and losing them means that an otherwise functional air defense system can't hit the broad side of a

00:25:59barn, never mind a small drone that is on its way to the next strike. Ukraine now has a three

00:26:04-layered

00:26:04strategy in play. FPV drones are striking deeper than ever before, reaching 35 kilometers behind the front

00:26:11lines to cripple Russian equipment and soldiers attempting to launch attacks. Middle-range drones

00:26:16are striking convoys and air defenses 150 kilometers away from the front, which not only sets the stage

00:26:22for middle-range strikes, but also creates safe aerial corridors for long-range drones to fly through

00:26:27en route to Russia itself. As for Russia, it's in panic mode. The Kyiv Post reports that Russian military

00:26:34bloggers are now arguing that military convoys need to have their own radars, electronic warfare,

00:26:40and mobile air defense systems to guard themselves against Ukraine's drones. A reasonable argument,

00:26:45perhaps. But where is Russia going to get all of these assets when Ukraine is already devastating

00:26:49its air defense network? Other war bloggers are turning their anger toward Putin and his cronies,

00:26:54arguing that they have failed to achieve the objectives of the special military operation,

00:26:59and Russia is now more vulnerable than it was when Putin launched his full-scale invasion in 2022.

00:27:04The New Voice of Ukraine reports that these bloggers are becoming braver and more outspoken

00:27:09in their criticism of Putin, having previously directed their criticism at the generals that

00:27:14Russia's leader chose. RBC Ukraine says that this criticism is being felt deep in the bowels of the

00:27:19Kremlin, to the point where Russia is trying to censor its military bloggers by cracking down on the

00:27:23social media channels they use, such as Telegram. That's a pretty typical response from Putin.

00:27:29When faced with a very real problem, he tries to hide the issue rather than confront it.

00:27:34Ukraine is intent on making the problem that Putin faces even worse. The Financial Times reports that

00:27:40Ukraine's Ministry of Defense reported that Ukraine built 441% more reconnaissance drones

00:27:45during the first four months of 2026 than it did during the same period in 2025. These are the drones

00:27:52that scope out Russian positions and identify air defense assets to attack. Ukraine also increased

00:27:57its production of mid-strike drones by 312% during the same period, ensuring that it has the weapons

00:28:02available to launch attacks when the reconnaissance drones find ideal targets. But the real problem

00:28:07is this. Ukraine shattering so much of Russia's air defense network that its drones are able to

00:28:12penetrate into the crown jewel cities such as Moscow and St. Petersburg is bad enough. But the real

00:28:17issue for Putin is that there seems to be no real way for Russia to reverse course and get its

00:28:22clothes

00:28:22back on. Russia is trying to find solutions. The development of the ZAK-30 Citadel is one of them.

00:28:29This isn't exactly a new air defense weapon, rather it's a type of turret built around existing 30mm guns

00:28:34that combine radar, automated fire control and electro-optical tracking to allow those guns to

00:28:40fire programmable air burst ammunition. It's clear that Russia is trying to find better solutions for

00:28:45dealing with the Ukrainian drones that so often circumvent and destroy the more advanced air defense

00:28:49systems. A smart idea this may be, especially when it comes to the cost of countering Ukraine's drones,

00:28:55but a handful of guns isn't going to do much to solve the much broader air defense problems that Russia

00:28:59has. And it seems unlikely that they will be deployable at a large enough scale for them to make a

00:29:04real

00:29:04difference. And that hints at Russia's real problem that lies behind all of this. Combine the country and the

00:29:10occupied territories and you have far too much land to protect with a dwindling stockpile of

00:29:15air defense systems and missiles. Makeshift solutions, like the ZAK-30 Citadel, do nothing

00:29:20to solve the problem of Russia not being able to build more air defense systems and missiles to

00:29:25replace those that it's losing to Ukraine. Russia also isn't helping itself on the missile front.

00:29:30In a June 5th report, Euromiden Press revealed that Russia has started converting air defense missiles

00:29:35missiles into weapons that it can fire to boost its ballistic missile strikes against Ukraine.

00:29:40Apparently Russia has doubled the rate of these conversions, which means that its aerial assaults

00:29:44are going to become more powerful. But the tradeoff for this power is the loss of air defense missiles

00:29:49that are already in very short supply. This is a short-sighted strategy that reveals how desperate

00:29:54Russia has become. It's cannibalizing the very weapons that it needs more than anything else right now

00:29:59to allow it to throw some more Hail Mary haymakers at Ukraine. Russia is hoping to score a knockout

00:30:04blow because it doesn't want the world to know that what we are really seeing here is a last

00:30:08desperate grasp at victory. Again, we are not seeing the solution to the core problem,

00:30:13which is that Russia was already too big to defend and its size has become an even greater liability

00:30:18following Ukraine's dismantlement of the Russian air defense network.

00:30:22According to the Atlantic Council, around a quarter of Russia's landmass is now within the reach of

00:30:26Ukraine's drones. That may not seem so impressive until you realize that 70% of Russia's population

00:30:32occupies this territory, which also means that the vast majority of Russia's key military,

00:30:37industrial, and energy assets are also within Ukraine's strike range. For Russia,

00:30:42this is still too much territory to protect, and it means that Russia faces a difficult decision

00:30:46whenever another air defense system or radar goes down.

00:30:50Does it replace the shattered system? With Russia's air defense production being limited,

00:30:54a replacement usually means pulling a system from another location. One area has to be weakened to

00:30:59reinforce another that has already proven to be vulnerable to Ukraine's drones. But if a replacement

00:31:05isn't sourced, those same drones will just strike again. We saw Ukraine do just that at the Chenar

00:31:10Bridge, and it crippled a key Russian logistical route in the process. There is no correct decision

00:31:15for Russia here. No matter what option is chosen, something that Russia wants to protect and Ukraine

00:31:20wants to hit becomes vulnerable. Russia's vulnerability is all too clear, the Atlantic Council says, adding,

00:31:26Even in the most favorable circumstances, the Kremlin would find it extremely challenging to organize a

00:31:31truly effective nationwide air defense network. That's a good point. Even if Russia weren't dealing

00:31:36with Ukraine's ever-expanding drone threat, it wouldn't be able to properly protect its territory.

00:31:41It would be forced to rely on sheer size and a vague hope that the weapons its enemy produces

00:31:45don't have the range to hit anything. Ironically, that also means that regions such as the Russian

00:31:50Far East are underprotected, which means that Russia can't even pull air defenses from those regions to

00:31:55replace systems lost in the areas that are within Ukraine's range. Again, we see a whole lot of

00:31:59problems for which Russia has no solutions. When we say Russia is naked, this is what we mean.

00:32:05Its air defense network, which was already too weak to protect everything, has been exposed and

00:32:10degraded. Ukraine will just keep building. More strikes in the occupied territories will come,

00:32:15which sets up yet more attacks inside Russia. What we've seen so far in 2026 is impressive enough,

00:32:20but it's also far from the peak of what Ukraine can do. As more air defenses go down and drone

00:32:25production continues to scale, the exposed crown jewels of the Russian Empire will get hit harder.

00:32:31Putin will be brought to his knees. And when he looks up with tear-filled eyes, all he will see

00:32:36is more Ukrainian drones. Ukraine's genius strategy has also put it in a position to strike locations

00:32:42that nobody has ever hit before. Putin's hometown of St. Petersburg hasn't been having much luck recently.

00:32:48At the beginning of June, Ukraine unleashed a drone storm that humiliated Russia's leader

00:32:53on the eve of Russia's largest economic conference. About a week later, the follow-up has arrived.

00:32:59And it was massive. People in St. Petersburg must have thought a nuclear bomb had gone off,

00:33:04as Ukraine created a fireball so big that it could be seen from space. Ukraine has created the perfect

00:33:11recipe. Add one-part drones to 5,000 tons of munitions, and you get a massive cook-off that has

00:33:17scarred St. Petersburg forever. On June 5, Ukraine sent a horde of drones into Russia.

00:33:24St. Petersburg was the target. Specifically, Ukraine's drones were on a trajectory that took

00:33:30them into the heart of the Russian Navy's 15th arsenal. Those drones flew unimpeded as Russia's

00:33:36air defenses utterly failed to take them down. Eventually, after 1,000 kilometers of flying,

00:33:41the drones reached their target, Bolshaya Izhura, in the Leningrad region. Then, the drones struck.

00:33:48And they destroyed one of the most important ammunition depots used by Russia's Baltic fleet.

00:33:53Though Ukraine has since confirmed the strike, it was the Russian telegram channel Dossia

00:33:57Shpiona that was among the first to break the news and reveal just how powerful Ukraine's attack was.

00:34:03During the attack, approximately 40 strike-type UAVs were used, 32 of which were shot down by air

00:34:09defense systems. The strike targeted ground-based hangar storage facilities, which in turn led to

00:34:14the detonations of the contents, the channel said. Putin won't be happy about that report. He's been

00:34:20cracking down on telegram in Russia precisely because he doesn't want the world or his people

00:34:24to know just how much success Ukraine has been having with its deep strike campaign.

00:34:29But there's no hiding this one, Putin. Eight of Ukraine's drones crashed down on 5,000 tons of

00:34:35ammunition that included artillery shells of various calibers along with engineering ammunition.

00:34:40Two Russian servicemen died in the strike, Dossia Shpiona reports. But it's the sheer size of the

00:34:45explosion that will have rattled Putin and the residents of St. Petersburg. This wasn't just eight

00:34:50drones exploding. Striking such a massive ammunition storage facility means that there were secondary

00:34:55explosions so big that they created an enormous fireball at the 15th arsenal. As the fire erupted,

00:35:02those watching would have thought that Ukraine had somehow managed to get its hands on a nuke.

00:35:06It hasn't. But Ukraine has caused a fire so large that it can be seen from space.

00:35:11The footage, both on the ground and shot by satellites, shows us the scale of Ukraine's latest

00:35:16strike. The OSINT Intuit X account shows us what the 15th arsenal looks like from the ground.

00:35:22On a night where Ukraine reportedly launched 376 drones at Russia, the debris that Russia so often

00:35:28likes to claim is a killer struck its target once more. In the footage, we see a massive fire that

00:35:33has erupted along with plumes of smoke so large they can be seen from several kilometers away.

00:35:38However, the true scale of the strike is revealed by satellite imagery. The photos coming through from

00:35:43space show an entire corner of the arsenal has been engulfed in a fire so large that it's impossible for

00:35:48anything to survive. This is an inferno pulled from the depths of hell and delivered by Ukrainian

00:35:53drones that were never supposed to exist. Flames are spreading. The 15th arsenal can't contain them.

00:35:59Even as the secondary explosions have died down, the fire they created is starting to spread into

00:36:04the countryside surrounding Russia's Baltic Fleet ammunition depot. Russia didn't exactly help itself

00:36:09in St. Petersburg. The 15th arsenal was just begging to be hit as repeated failures in Russian

00:36:14defenses left the door open for Ukraine's drones. But before we dig deeper into that,

00:36:20there's what we know about the operation so far. We've covered a few of the basics.

00:36:23It appears that Ukraine launched 40 drones in the direction of Bolshaya-Izhura and that eight

00:36:29of those drones managed to break through Russian air defenses. Militanyi adds that Ukraine's drones

00:36:34were able to strike ground-based hangar facilities used for storing ammunition, which is what caused the

00:36:39secondary explosions. As for the facility itself, 15th arsenal was established in the 1930s to serve as

00:36:45a storage base for naval ammunition that is used by Russia's Baltic Fleet. It's supposed to be a

00:36:50fortified complex that includes underground infrastructure designed to stop something

00:36:54like Ukraine's attack from happening. The arsenal is also part of the Western Military District,

00:36:59which is so often used by Russia for its Baltic ships, support vessels, and submarines. This wasn't a

00:37:05random target. Ukraine struck Bolshaya-Izhura because it's trying to cripple Russia's Baltic

00:37:10presence. As the smoke continued to rise, the true scale of Ukraine's attack became clear.

00:37:16In its June 6th report, the BBC says that the governor of Leningrad oblast, Alexander Drozdenko,

00:37:21has claimed that over 140 Ukrainian drones were shut down over Leningrad. Residents have been urged to

00:37:27stay indoors both due to fear of follow-up strikes and because it's not exactly healthy to breathe in

00:37:32the smoke being generated by 5,000 tons of burning ammunition. Beyond that, all that Drozdenko would

00:37:37say is that the Ukrainian attack has caused insignificant damage to some buildings, along

00:37:42with a fire at an unspecified military facility. We don't need Drozdenko to tell us. The satellite

00:37:47photos show it all. It was a powerful attack against St. Petersburg that Russia is calling unprecedented,

00:37:52as it tries to paint Ukraine as the bad guy for taking out a military facility on Russian territory.

00:37:58Defense Blog adds that the sheer size of the fire caused was large enough to force authorities in

00:38:03Bolshaya-Izhura to evacuate around 600 residents from their homes, as emergency services battled to

00:38:09bring the fire under control. But those services could do nothing to stop the cook-off.

00:38:14Russia's downfall was the secondary explosions. Drones alone can do damage, but we wouldn't have seen

00:38:19anything like this if the drones weren't targeting 5,000 tons of ammunition. The warheads on Ukraine's

00:38:25drones served as sparks. Russia's own munitions did the rest. Secondary detonations caused fires and

00:38:31sent fragments of metal flying and caused a blast overpressure that resulted in yet more explosions.

00:38:36The resulting blaze would have been impossible to tackle until the secondary explosions ended.

00:38:42All that Russia could do was watch, wait, and hope that its own ammunition would stop going boom

00:38:48sooner rather than later. So Russia created a rod for its own back by storing 5,000 tons of ammo

00:38:55in

00:38:55one location. But it gets worse than that. We told you earlier that Russia is as much to blame for

00:39:00allowing this attack to happen as Ukraine is for organizing and executing the strike. Here's what

00:39:05we meant. Russia completely failed to protect the ammunition that Ukraine has destroyed.

00:39:09Those underground facilities we mentioned were unused. A target that would have required bunker

00:39:14busters to strike if Russia were being smart about its storage was left out in the open,

00:39:18practically inviting Ukraine's drones to come and say hello.

00:39:22The satellite images also show that Russia didn't take the necessary steps to protect its 15th arsenal

00:39:27after it decided to store the munitions above ground. There were no protective earth berms around

00:39:32any of the buildings within the arsenal. These berms may have been able to stop Ukraine's drones.

00:39:37Even if they couldn't, their whole purpose is to serve as barriers between storage facilities.

00:39:41If earth berms were in place, the raging inferno that has engulfed the 15th arsenal in the surrounding

00:39:45countryside might not have spread so far and wide. Russian incompetence on its own territory

00:39:50perished the thought. What we see here is Russia operating on assumptions rather than reality.

00:39:56Back in 2022, when Putin launched his invasion, such basic protective measures wouldn't have been needed.

00:40:02The base Ukraine struck was 1,000 kilometers away. Ukraine didn't have any weapons that could travel

00:40:07that far. But a lot has changed during more than four years of war. Ukraine's long-range drones

00:40:13travel harder and hit deeper than ever before. And yet, Russia still thought that its Soviet-era

00:40:18base with no basic protection was safe. Distance alone would make the 15th arsenal impossible for

00:40:24Ukraine to strike. Distance wasn't enough. Ukraine just proved it. And as is so often the case,

00:40:30Ukraine didn't only target one facility in Russia during its overnight raid. The 15th arsenal may be the

00:40:35headline grabber, but there were plenty of other targets that went up in flames on June 6th.

00:40:39The Petagovskaya oil depot in the Leningrad settlement of Lomonosov was one of them,

00:40:45RBC Ukraine reports. An explosion and fire were recorded at the facility as the 15th arsenal burned.

00:40:51Ukraine also scored direct hits against the Nesta oil terminal, which is in the same city,

00:40:56and it took out Russian drone centers in Zaporizhia and Donetsk, a logistics warehouse in Luhansk,

00:41:01and a command and observation post being used by Russian troops in Belgorod.

00:41:05This was shock and awe from Ukraine. And there is a certain amount of poetic justice to what

00:41:10Ukraine just delivered to Russia. Ukraine hasn't randomly chosen to strike St. Petersburg,

00:41:15it's doing so with purpose. On June 3rd, Ukraine sent a wave of drones into Putin's hometown,

00:41:20on the eve of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Often called the Russian Davos,

00:41:25this event provides Putin with an opportunity to welcome delegates and business leaders,

00:41:29allowing him to create the illusion that Russia isn't an absolute economic mess.

00:41:34Ukraine saw an opportunity. It marked the opening of the Russian Davos, with drone strikes that

00:41:39darkened the skies of St. Petersburg as energy and military sites went down, ensuring that all the

00:41:44visitors to the city would be able to talk about was Ukraine's drones doing their business. And on

00:41:49June 6th, Ukraine bookended Putin's economic conference with a second round of strikes,

00:41:53this time causing a fire so massive that it could be seen from space. Putin has used the time between

00:41:58these strikes to claim that there was no point in trying to negotiate peace with Ukraine.

00:42:02Russia's leader chose war, Ukraine duly delivered by cooking up an explosive egg that it threw right

00:42:07in Putin's face. But as valuable as Putin being humiliated on the international stage that he had

00:42:13built for himself in Russia will be, June 6th wasn't just about rocking St. Petersburg and Leningrad with

00:42:18strikes. What this drone strike really signifies is that Ukraine is opening up a new front in its war

00:42:24with Russia. It's a front that Putin never expected to be opened and it will change everything about

00:42:29the war. But before we get into why, this is a quick reminder that you are watching the military show.

00:42:34If you're enjoying this video, hit subscribe so you can see what we have coming next.

00:42:39So Ukraine's June 6th strike wasn't just about St. Petersburg. It was about the Baltic region.

00:42:44And that's the new front that Ukraine is open. We touched on this earlier when we revealed that the

00:42:4915th arsenal served Russia's Baltic fleet. Defense blog reveals how deep that support runs,

00:42:55noting that the arsenal contains more than artillery shells. It's also a facility that Russia uses to

00:43:00store, repair, maintain and dispose of missile systems and torpedoes that are used by the Baltic

00:43:05fleet. So what we're seeing here is not a random strike. It's part of a concerted campaign by Ukraine

00:43:11to cripple Russia's Baltic presence. Think back to those June 3rd strikes we just mentioned.

00:43:16One of the targets Ukraine hit on that day was the Kronstadt Naval Base,

00:43:20and it scored a direct hit on a Project 20380 Corvette named the Boiki that is part of Russia's

00:43:27Baltic fleet. Three days later, Ukraine followed up with a strike against an ammunition depot that

00:43:32serves the fleet. Humiliation is a happy side effect. What Ukraine is really doing here is starting a

00:43:38campaign that is designed to make Russia toothless in the Baltic region. A brand new front has opened up

00:43:43hundreds of kilometers away from Ukraine and in a region that Putin never thought he would have to

00:43:47defend. The ramifications of all of this are massive. Ukraine's drones have sent an explosive

00:43:53message to the Kremlin that nothing Russian is safe in the Baltics anymore. There is no more safe harbor.

00:44:00Instead, Ukraine is expanding a remarkable naval campaign that started in the Black Sea and is

00:44:05now stretching well beyond its borders. This is a campaign that doesn't involve warships. Ukraine

00:44:10doesn't have any, or at least none worth mentioning. Ukraine is using a lethal asymmetric strategy that

00:44:16involves aerial and maritime drones, along with the occasional missile, to make Russia's naval

00:44:21might a non-factor in the war that Putin started. How has Russia responded to all of this so far?

00:44:27It's thrown up a few anti-drone nets on some Baltic fleet warships and called it a day. That's a

00:44:32token

00:44:32effort at best as these types of nets may be able to stop small FPV drones, but they can't do

00:44:37a

00:44:37thing to stop the heavier and harder-hitting deep-strike drones that Ukraine is now launching

00:44:41toward Russia's Baltic infrastructure. Now the Baltic fleet is in peril. Strikes against Russian

00:44:47ports and corvettes create a repair burden that Russia isn't in a position to handle. Ammunition

00:44:52stockpiles going up in flames leave Russia's warships with nothing that they can use to pose a

00:44:56threat in the Baltic Sea. If it's true that missiles and torpedoes burned alongside artillery at the 15th

00:45:02arsenal, then Russia has just lost some complex weapons systems that are increasingly hard to

00:45:07replace, as supply chains and the weight of 26,655 sanctions bear down. The Baltic fleet is one of

00:45:14the most important naval assets that Russia has, not just because of the threat that it poses, but also

00:45:19because of the history behind it. Russia has maintained a naval presence in the Baltic via this fleet

00:45:24since 1703. The dozens of ships that are part of the fleet range from Soviet-era destroyers to more

00:45:30modern corvettes. This fleet is supposed to project power. It's meant to enable Russia to intimidate the

00:45:35Baltic states, Finland, Sweden and the entirety of NATO. But Ukraine is making a mockery of all that

00:45:41by opening up a Baltic front without NATO involvement. Russia's Baltic fleet can't do much to harm Ukraine

00:45:46outside of occasionally sending ships out to fire off missiles and drones. But doing that turns these

00:45:52warships into targets, as Russia learned the hard way in the Black Sea. Ukraine hasn't stated its goal,

00:45:57though it seems to be clear. It's looking to de-Russify the Baltic region. A fire so massive

00:46:02that it can be seen from space is a pretty strong statement of intent. However, Ukraine is smart

00:46:07enough to know that Russia's Baltic power doesn't just come from a fleet of warships. Russia also has

00:46:12ports in the Baltic Sea and those ports are critical to ensuring that Russian oil exports can flow out to

00:46:18other countries, generating billions of dollars for Putin's war chest in the process. So Ukraine is taking

00:46:23aim at those ports too. Throughout March, Ukraine's drones and missiles smashed repeatedly into the

00:46:29Baltic ports of Primorsk and Ustluga. Both are major Russian terminals that combine to account for about

00:46:3440% of Russia's oil exports each year. Oil storage tanks were destroyed and both ports had to stop

00:46:41operations for days to repair the damage that Ukraine inflicted. In March, it seemed that Ukraine was

00:46:46attacking Russia's Baltic ports to prevent Putin from taking advantage of the massive increase in oil

00:46:51prices that resulted from Operation Epic Fury and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf

00:46:56region. But now these attacks are looking more like the starting point of a much wider campaign

00:47:00that is going to engulf all of Russia's Baltic assets. It's open season for Ukraine's drones in

00:47:06the Baltic region. The massive cook-off at the 15th Arsenal is likely to be the latest in a long

00:47:10series of deep strikes that bring the war Putin started right back to his hometown. It's becoming

00:47:16increasingly clear to Putin, Russia can't handle Ukraine's long-range game anymore. Drones flying

00:47:22for 1,000 kilometers and actually striking their targets was never supposed to happen,

00:47:26but it is and is the result of Ukraine pouring time, energy and money into developing the precise

00:47:31types of weapons that it needed to make sure that Russia would feel the pain of the war that Putin

00:47:35started. Ukraine's long-range strategy has evolved. What were once isolated strikes have become a

00:47:41sustained campaign that sees Ukraine batter entire cities repeatedly for months at a time? We're

00:47:47seeing that in St. Petersburg and the wider Leningrad region now. The last few months have

00:47:52seen Ukraine leave massive flaming pockmarks in oil refineries, ports and ammunition depots.

00:47:57Ukraine's larger goal is to degrade Russia's economy while crippling Putin's war machine from

00:48:02the inside. It's working. Russia's spring offensive has failed and it has cost Putin over 30,000 troops

00:48:09per month for very little territorial gain. That isn't a coincidence. It's a direct result of the

00:48:15types of strikes that we saw on June 6th. And there are two things that take this already bad situation

00:48:21and turn it into a nightmare for Putin. Russia can't stop what Ukraine is doing and a lot more

00:48:26is coming. So long a source of Russian strength, the sheer size of the country has become its greatest

00:48:32weakness. A humongous landmass that has stopped so many ground armies in their tracks can't do anything

00:48:37to prevent Ukraine's drones and missiles from finding their targets. Instead, Russia is finding

00:48:42its air defenses increasingly stretched and incapable of stopping Ukraine. Again, we saw

00:48:47that on June 6th. Eight of 40 drones were more than enough to destroy Russia's 15th arsenal. Even when

00:48:53Russia's air defenses are scoring hits, it's not enough to stop the swarms of unmanned aerial vehicles

00:48:58that are entering its territory. Precision has replaced ground invasion. Russia has no answer.

00:49:03As for what's coming, we have a little hint from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

00:49:08In mid-May, Zelensky revealed that he had approved an entire plan for Ukraine's deep strikes against

00:49:13Russia in June. Nothing is random. Everything is thought out and prepared to an insane degree.

00:49:19That's why Ukraine's strikes work. And it's also why Putin will be terrified as he hunkers down in his

00:49:24bunker each night. Ukraine has shattered some of St. Petersburg's most vital naval assets in less

00:49:30than a week. There's an entire month of long-range attacks planned and Russia can do nothing but

00:49:35guess at what Ukraine is going to strike next. Food, glorious food. No matter how powerful an army is

00:49:42supposed to be, it simply can't function when soldiers have nothing in their bellies. Ukraine knows that

00:49:48and it just did something genius that is designed to starve Russia's army to death. This isn't about

00:49:54direct kills or crippling military infrastructure anymore. Ukraine just delivered a gutshot to

00:49:59Russia that goes so deep that it has torn out the stomach of Putin's war machine. The one thing that

00:50:05an army can't live without is now under threat and the impact is already being felt not just by

00:50:09Russia's soldiers but on a certain peninsula that has been illegally occupied since 2014.

00:50:15We take you to Chernihivka in Ukraine's south. For most of Putin's invasion, Chernihivka has served as

00:50:21one of the three main bases of the field armies that Russia maintains in the occupied south.

00:50:26It's vital. The base, along with two others, forms the stomach of the Russian military in the south

00:50:31of Ukraine, and its survival is key to keeping Putin's patsies fed just about well enough for

00:50:37them to launch their fruitless assaults against Ukraine's defenses and to maintain their own defense

00:50:41of the territory that they have illegally occupied. Chernihivka was supposed to be out of Ukraine's

00:50:46range, a safe haven for Russian field armies. But Ukraine just flipped all of that on its head.

00:50:52On June 1st, the 422nd Separate Regiment of Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces scored a direct

00:50:58hit against a Russian supply truck near the settlement of Yelisaivka, which is in the Zaporizhia oblast.

00:51:04That alone would be noteworthy. Any supply truck that Ukraine takes out is a truck that can no longer

00:51:09provide Russia's forces with the food and firepower they need. However, what makes this strike truly

00:51:15remarkable is that it occurred 23 kilometers from Chernihivka. And it's not just that the strike

00:51:20was 23 kilometers away. Ukraine's drones traveled 23 kilometers to the southeast of Chernihivka,

00:51:26proving that they are not only capable of reaching a base that Russia thought was untouchable,

00:51:30but they can blow right past it to take out a supply truck that may well have been en route

00:51:34to the

00:51:34base. What Ukraine has just done goes beyond hitting a truck on a key row. As Ukraine war analyst

00:51:40Clement Molin points out, Ukraine is now hitting Russian trucks as they arrive at tactical level

00:51:45positions. Molin also explains why that matters so much in a post on X. Only few towns remain to host

00:51:52four armies that are on the front and their logistics and command posts. The main area is along the railway

00:51:57near Chernihivka, Kamyanka, and Rozivka. In other words, the more that Ukraine is able to strike the

00:52:03logistical network that serves these towns at the tactical level, the harder it becomes for Russia to

00:52:07supply the four armies that use this trio of settlements as their bases. That's the type

00:52:12of gutshot that tears into the stomach of an entire military. Ukraine's intensifying campaign

00:52:17against Russian logistics isn't just about stopping fuel and military equipment in their tracks.

00:52:22Russia's destroyed trucks could carry anything, including the vital food supplies needed to fuel

00:52:26a ground army that is being ordered to carry out non-stop assaults in Ukraine's south and east.

00:52:31Those assaults either don't happen or are severely weakened when soldiers don't have food in their

00:52:35stomachs. The burning remains of a supply truck 23 kilometers to the southeast of Chernihivka

00:52:40is an explosive message to Russia that four entire field armies are now at risk of being

00:52:45starved out of their positions. Here's where it gets really serious for Russia. If this was a story

00:52:50of a single burning supply truck, then it wouldn't mean much. A truck full of supplies being lost does

00:52:55hurt Russia, but it's not enough to cripple a field army, let alone four. But it's not just one truck,

00:52:59it's hundreds of them. Ukraine has launched a concerted mid-range campaign that has resulted

00:53:04in the complete choking off of Russian supplies in territories that Russia never thought that

00:53:09Ukraine would be able to strike. The three days between May 30th and June 1st are indicative of

00:53:14the immense success that Ukraine is experiencing with this campaign. On May 30th, Russia lost 483

00:53:20vehicles and fuel tankers to Ukraine's mid-range strike drones. The next day brought even bigger losses,

00:53:27524 vehicles lost. And on June 1st, Ukraine capped a trio of devastating days with another 384

00:53:34takedowns of Russian supply vehicles, creating a three-day average of 463 Russian trucks per day.

00:53:41If the truck in Chernihivka is a sign that Ukraine can hit deeper than Russia expected,

00:53:45the sheer scale of the attacks seen over these three days is a signal that Ukraine is also

00:53:49manufacturing medium-range drones in such massive numbers that they have the potential to starve Russia's

00:53:54southern armies out of existence. Of course, it's not like stories of starving Russian soldiers or

00:53:59anything new. Earlier in 2026, Ukrainian intelligence revealed that some Russian soldiers

00:54:04are so desperate for food that they're resorting to cannibalizing the remains of their dead comrades

00:54:08to get some meat in their bellies. In other cases, RFU news reports Russian soldiers are shooting each

00:54:14other to get their hands on food. And intercepted communications on the Lehman front in Donetsk

00:54:19show that there is already a problem with Russia's logistics in Ukraine's east.

00:54:23We used to get one or two chocolate bars dropped to us twice a day. Now it's the third day

00:54:27we

00:54:27haven't eaten at all and tomorrow will be the fourth, one soldier is heard saying in an intercepted

00:54:32recording. But what Ukraine is doing in its southern territories is different. All of these

00:54:36stories involve isolated cases of Russian soldiers being so desperate for food that they go to extremes

00:54:42to get something in their stomachs. Yes, localized Ukrainian campaigns that left these soldiers unable

00:54:47to receive supplies would have played a part, but there was nothing concerted going on from Ukraine's

00:54:52now there is. An entire campaign has been designed to cripple Russia's real logistics,

00:54:56and it's being supported by dedicated programs such as the Logistics Lockdown Initiative,

00:55:01created by Ukraine's Ministry of Defense toward the end of May, and a new generation of drones that

00:55:06enable Ukraine to strike deeper and harder than ever before. Keep those drones in mind, we'll be coming

00:55:11back to them in a moment. Let's come back to the trio of towns that Molan mentions. Chernihivka,

00:55:16Kamyanka, and Rozyvka aren't just the settlements that Russia has chosen as the host of four of its

00:55:20field armies. They are logistical choke points. Food and supplies roll through these towns on

00:55:25hundreds of trucks every single day. Trains alone can't reach these towns and they would just be

00:55:30larger targets for Ukraine's drones to strike anyway. No matter what alternative routes Russia

00:55:35may try to find for its trucks, the reality that can't be avoided is that all of them have to

00:55:39converge on

00:55:40this trio of towns to keep Russia's southern field armies fed and supplied. It's unavoidable.

00:55:45What was supposed to be unbreachable has now been struck, and Ukraine has the ability to make

00:55:49sure that these logistical choke points become the death of Russia's southern armies.

00:55:54Euromiden Press posits a future where Ukraine sends swarms of AI-powered middle-range drones

00:56:00toward the three settlements in question. Those drones will be programmed to strike any trucks

00:56:04that they see right at the points where those trucks are most needed by Russia.

00:56:07The vehicles have to converge on Chernihivka, Kemyanka and Rozivka.

00:56:11Russia's military planning has left it with no other option.

00:56:14Ukraine has proven that it can reach this layer of the Russian rear.

00:56:17Next up, a concerted campaign to make these logistical nodes utterly useless to Russia's

00:56:21four southern field armies. Ukraine has the drones to make this happen too.

00:56:26On May 30th, the BBC reported that it had verified 14 incidents within the past week of Ukrainian

00:56:31drones taking out Russian vehicles carrying food, fuel and ammunition on critical routes,

00:56:36connecting Russia to occupied Crimea and other occupied territories in southern Ukraine.

00:56:41That's a very small number compared to the reality of what's happening, but what makes

00:56:45this report so interesting is that many of the incidents involve the use of the Hornet drone.

00:56:49This drone, which costs just $5,000 to make, carries a 5kg warhead and can travel up to 200km,

00:56:55is AI-powered. It's been trained on literally thousands of hours of drone footage recorded by Ukraine,

00:57:00meaning it knows precisely what it needs to target without requiring human intervention

00:57:04to make its strikes. These are the types of drones that Ukraine can use to starve Russia's

00:57:09southern field armies. All that Ukraine has to do is send them to loiter around the three

00:57:13settlements we've mentioned in this video. AI does the rest. The Hornet spots a potential target,

00:57:18identifies it based on the thousands of hours of footage used to train the drone's AI and then zones

00:57:23in. And because these drones use AI, they're even resistant to jamming techniques that Russia

00:57:28employs to disrupt more traditional FPV and satellite-guided drones. Army recognition adds

00:57:33that this type of technology isn't necessarily restricted to a single type of drone.

00:57:38Palantir's Prisma battlefield management system underpins what the Hornet does,

00:57:42and that's a system that could likely be used to infuse more of Ukraine's middle-range drones

00:57:46with the AI targeting capabilities that they need to deliver shot after shot to Russia's stomach.

00:57:51This is what Putin fears. Ukraine is actively working to cut off supplies to four southern field

00:57:57armies. What we're seeing is just the beginning. As Ukraine continues to scale up its mid-range strike

00:58:02campaign, it infuses more of its drones with AI. The wave of strikes we're seeing now will become

00:58:07a tsunami. Hundreds of trucks being taken out will become thousands as Ukraine follows a simple game

00:58:12plan. Shatter the logistics and the food is lost. And to make matters worse for Russia, it's not just

00:58:18the food trucks that Ukraine can target. Fuel tankers being lost to Ukraine's mid-range strategy offer

00:58:23yet more hits to the Russian stomach. How? What does a food truck need to transport its cargo?

00:58:28Fuel. If Russian fuel is burning on the same roads that the country's food is being destroyed,

00:58:33you can get a double whammy of starvation. The lost fuel can no longer be used,

00:58:37meaning even supply trucks that contain food intended for Ukraine's south can't go anywhere.

00:58:42They're being crippled without being struck. And if you have any doubt that this could happen,

00:58:45the BBC explains why you shouldn't. He notes that there is a massive fuel shortage in Crimea that has

00:58:51forced gas stations to restrict the amount of fuel that drivers can buy to just 20 litres per vehicle.

00:58:56That's not enough gas to get a food truck from Crimea into the southern territories.

00:59:00And every time that Russia puts a truckload of diesel or gasoline on any of the routes that

00:59:04connect Crimea to Ukraine's occupied south is delivering an invitation to Ukraine's drones to

00:59:08strike once more. Speaking of Crimea, the peninsula that Russia occupied in 2014 hasn't escaped Ukraine's

00:59:15shots to Russia's stomach. As Ukraine embarks on a campaign to starve out the Russian army,

00:59:19food problems are running rampant inside Crimea. But before we dig deeper into that,

00:59:24this is the military show, and we bring you the full picture, not just the headlines.

00:59:29Subscribe today so you don't miss out on any of our videos exposing the true state of Russia's army

00:59:33in Ukraine. On June 9, United24 media published an interesting report on the state of the food market

00:59:39in Crimea right now. It says that Ukraine's Center for Countering Disinformation claims that many of

00:59:44Crimea's grocery stores are running out of basic goods, including cereals, flour, sugar, pasta,

00:59:50and salt. Some retail chains have already introduced restrictions on the sale of goods to one person,

00:59:55which only increases panic among the population, the center claims. And it says that the reason for

00:59:59this sorry state of affairs is that Ukrainian mid-range strikes have been stopping Russian food

01:00:03trucks from reaching the peninsula. As if failing to feed his soldiers wasn't enough of a problem,

01:00:08Putin and his Kremlin cronies now have to deal with a food shortage that impacts civilians.

01:00:12That's a major issue for Putin. As much as the puppet government in Crimea might try to pretend

01:00:17that nothing is happening, they can't pull the wool over the eyes of those who clearly see empty

01:00:22supermarket shelves. Propaganda doesn't put food in people's bellies, and there is reportedly already

01:00:27growing public concern in Crimea over the issue. Russia is now losing the ability to sustain the flow

01:00:32of supplies into the Crimean peninsula, and that's an even bigger problem than it appears on the surface.

01:00:38The source of this food shortage is Ukraine's attacks on the Crimean land bridge that connects

01:00:42the occupied peninsula to the southern territories of Ukraine that Russia currently controls.

01:00:47In other words, there's a two-way street going on here. Supplies from those southern territories

01:00:51aren't reaching Crimea. That much is obvious. However, Russia also transports supplies into Crimea

01:00:56from the Russian mainland, often via the Kerch bridge. Those supplies then get shipped along the

01:01:01very same supply routes that Ukraine is hitting as they journey towards the southern territories,

01:01:05and in many cases toward the choke points in Chernihivka, Kemyanka, and Rozyvka.

01:01:10You can see where this is going. First, it's the civilians in Crimea who see their food supplies

01:01:15dwindle as Russia will prioritize food shipments to the front. But eventually that won't work anymore.

01:01:19As Ukraine ups the intensity of its mid-range strikes, supplies that would have flowed from

01:01:23Crimea into the southern territories don't arrive anymore. The four field armies starve, and Russia's

01:01:28assaults both in Ukraine's south and east suffer as a result. Ukraine has a bulky pair of hands.

01:01:34Right now, they're strangling Russia in all of the occupied territories. But it goes even deeper than

01:01:39this. As the four field armies to the south grapple with the knowledge that Ukraine can destroy their

01:01:43food shipments at will, and Crimean occupiers find themselves looking at empty supermarket shelves,

01:01:48there are even more food issues afoot. Only these issues aren't affecting the occupied territories.

01:01:53They're impacting Russia itself. Now, we're not about to argue that Russia is dealing with the types of

01:01:58food shortages that are impacting its occupiers. That would be a lie. But what is happening in Russia is

01:02:03that four years of warfare have crippled the country's economy, resulting in the price of

01:02:07food rising to levels that the average Russian simply can't handle. There is still food on the

01:02:11shelves, but that food has become so expensive due to inflation that Russian civilians are finding it

01:02:16harder to afford to eat than they have in a very long time. What we see here is that Ukraine

01:02:21doesn't

01:02:21even have to directly strike Russia's stomach to make the country starve. Attacks against anything

01:02:26Russian will do the job, and Ukraine makes things worse for Putin and his people with each

01:02:30day that it successfully defends itself against the invasion. The BBC exposed the scale of Russia's

01:02:35food inflation problem in a February article. It spoke to a Moscow-based advertising specialist

01:02:40who revealed that his monthly food budget had risen from $450 to $555, which is a 22% increase.

01:02:48This didn't happen over the course of several years. That massive price shock was inflicted on Alexander

01:02:53in the space of a single month. Taking a wider view, we can see that prices of almost all basic

01:02:58goods in Russia have rocketed up between 2024 and 2026. Potatoes and chocolate are the big offenders,

01:03:04as their prices have risen by 167% and 125% respectively in two years.

01:03:11But no matter where you look, you see a similar story. The price of milk has gone up by 59

01:03:15% in

01:03:15Russia between 2024 and early 2026. Canned beans now cost 55% more, cheese is 50% higher, and even

01:03:22a

01:03:23basic loaf of white bread sets a Russian back 45% more in 2026 than it did in 2024. This

01:03:29is the cost

01:03:30of the Ukraine war for Russia that we often don't see. Direct starvation on the front is being

01:03:35accompanied by the unsustainable rise in food prices on the mainland. The Moscow Times also reported on

01:03:40this issue in April. It claims that the demand for low-cost foods and store brand items is skyrocketing

01:03:45all over Russia because shoppers can no longer afford the branded goods that they would have bought

01:03:49just a few short months ago. Russia still tries to claim that real income growth is somewhat healthy.

01:03:54State statistics agency Rostat did note that growth slowed in 2025 down to 7.4% from 8.2%

01:04:01in 2024,

01:04:02and that the last quarter of 2025 had seen income growth drop to 5.8%. These would be half-decent

01:04:08figures were it not for the fact that food inflation is outpacing these growth stats by several multiples

01:04:13for even the most basic items. Again, Russia isn't in danger of running out of food for its people

01:04:17on the mainland. We're unlikely to see a Crimea-type situation happening in Moscow.

01:04:22But what we are seeing is the economic impact of Putin's war coming home to the average Russian.

01:04:26An economy that is veering closer to ruin than it has since 2022 is making it harder and harder for

01:04:32the average Russian to eat. Russia's four field armies in the south have it much worse. At least they

01:04:37will soon, as Ukraine expands its mid-range campaign to cripple the Russian army's stomach. It's not a drone

01:04:43taking out one truck 23 kilometers southeast of Chernihivka that's the major problem.

01:04:47What this strike represents is the killer for Russia's army. Safe zones in the occupied territories

01:04:52are now under threat. Ukraine has identified the logistical choke points for Russia's entire

01:04:57southern military posture. Now what it needs to do is squeeze. Swarms of AI drones and more attacks on

01:05:03trucks heading between Crimea and the occupied south will come. Soon, the empty Crimea shelves will

01:05:08be accompanied by food running out for four entire field armies. The result will be faltering offensives

01:05:14and more opportunities for Ukraine to counter and drive Russia back than ever before. Crimea offers

01:05:20the clearest signs that Russia is struggling with food and fuel more than any other occupied territory.

01:05:25A soldier walks cautiously across a patch of open land. He hears it before he sees it, the distinctive

01:05:31buzzing sound of an enemy drone. Looking up, he spies the unmanned aerial vehicle heading his way.

01:05:37Little does he know that this isn't just any old drone. It's a state-of-the-art

01:05:42slaughter bot with a sophisticated brain that allows it to literally lock onto the soldier's face.

01:05:48He fires a few rounds from his rifle in the direction of the UAV, but it's all in vain.

01:05:52His fate is already sealed. Within seconds, the drone moves in for the kill, firing a high-velocity

01:05:58projectile directly into the soldier's head. He's dead before his body hits the ground.

01:06:04It sounds like a scene from some sort of science fiction horror film, but it is in fact the harsh

01:06:08new reality facing Russian soldiers on the front lines of Ukraine. They thought this was a

01:06:13conventional conflict. They expected regular Ukrainian soldiers standing in the way, brave

01:06:18and disciplined, but made of flesh and bone all the same. Instead, what the Kremlin's troops are

01:06:23increasingly encountering are opponents made of steel, aluminium and carbon-fiber-reinforced polymers,

01:06:29packing enough firepower to end their lives in an instant. Lethal killing machines that don't need

01:06:35to eat or sleep, and will never stop in their relentless quest to hunt down every enemy soldier

01:06:40in their sights. Understandably, this new development is striking very real fear and

01:06:45panic into the hearts and minds of the Kremlin's forces and even its most hardened military bloggers.

01:06:50The two majors on Telegram, for example, which is a long-running and relatively well-known Russian

01:06:55Zedblogger account, recently wrote. The battlefield is gradually turning into an ecosystem of machines,

01:07:02where humans are increasingly no longer participants but objects of recognition.

01:07:06Everything is moving towards the fact that humans will become objects of hunting for some AIs,

01:07:10while other AIs will try to protect them from the hunters.

01:07:13This was in response to a viral video that emerged in mid-May and swiftly spread across social media,

01:07:19showing a stranded Russian soldier being brutally killed via a face-tracking slaughterbot drone.

01:07:24While Ukrainian forces haven't officially revealed any details about the exact technical specifications

01:07:29or precise capacities of this particular drone, experts and analysts have been busy analyzing the

01:07:35footage and cross-referencing it with open-source information to fill in the blanks. Here's what they

01:07:40found out. Usually, first-person view or FPV drones are equipped with armor-piercing shaped charges.

01:07:46To be more precise, they are usually repurposed rocket-propelled grenades or RPGs,

01:07:50or fragmentation warheads designed to detonate on impact, dealing massive damage to anything in close proximity.

01:07:57These are the kinds of strike drones Ukraine has used time and time again against everything from

01:08:01Russian frontline assault squads to infantry fighting vehicles and enemy infrastructure.

01:08:06The drone captured in the viral video, however, was quite different. It didn't collide with the soldier,

01:08:11nor did it crash land on the ground beside him before exploding. Instead, it seemed to position itself some

01:08:16distance away, with experts estimating it was around 20 meters or 65 feet from its victim when it

01:08:21detonated its projectile. The video then shows a clear trail of smoke leading from the point of

01:08:26explosion, the drone, to the point of impact, the soldier. Eagle-eyed experts quickly realized that

01:08:32this was more than likely an explosively formed penetrator, or EFP.

01:08:36Conventional shaped charges use cone-shaped metal liners that collapse at the moment of explosive blast,

01:08:42forming thin, elongated, and partially molten jets that can blast through even relatively thick armor,

01:08:48often creating narrow but deep holes in their targets. EFPs, however, use heavier dish-shaped

01:08:53liners that form dense, solid projectiles at the point of explosion, almost like high-speed aerodynamic

01:08:59slugs. And it's not just a difference in functionality, but in capability too.

01:09:04EFPs tend to be much more effective at range, for example, but aren't quite as effective at

01:09:08punching holes in armor. Conventional charges have superior penetration, but have to be detonated

01:09:13right beside their targets in order to maximize the damage they do. For these reasons, we often

01:09:18see conventional charges being used as direct-hit anti-tank weapons, blasting through the thick

01:09:23shells of tanks and infantry-fighting vehicles. EFPs, meanwhile, are used against softer targets or

01:09:28fired from above when dealing with enemy vehicles in order to target their typically weaker and thinner

01:09:33top sections. In Ukraine, for example, Kyiv's forces have famously made good use of the Bofors

01:09:38Bonus, a 155mm guided artillery cluster round co-developed by Bofors of Sweden and Nextair of

01:09:45France. This fire-and-forget anti-armor munition is launched like a traditional shell at distances

01:09:50of up to 21.7 miles , but once it reaches its target area, it releases two autonomous,

01:09:57sensor-fused munitions, which are capable of independently scanning, detecting, and destroying

01:10:02armored vehicles from above. Each of these sub-munitions has its own miniature wings,

01:10:07allowing them to spin in mid-air, slowly descending toward their targets, while relying on infrared

01:10:11sensors and LIDAR technology to scan the ground below. When they spot a suspected target, they cross-reference

01:10:18its shape and size with their own pre-programmed databases to confirm it. Once that process is

01:10:23complete, an EFP warhead is launched downward, typically blasting through the thin layers of

01:10:27armor on top of Russian tanks and infantry fighting vehicles. Precise, versatile, and adaptable,

01:10:33these almost miraculous munitions have more than proven their worth over the years, helping the

01:10:37Ukrainian defense forces wipe out even the toughest of tanks like Russia's T-90M. Now imagine if Ukraine

01:10:43could take the same deadly technology and incorporate it into a drone. It's no exaggeration to say that this

01:10:48will be a game-changing development. Both sides have responded to the rising influence of drone

01:10:52warfare by investing in anti-drone measures such as netting, wire cages, and other types of protection.

01:10:58We've seen Russia rolling out makeshift hedgehog and turtle tanks, for example, which have had huge

01:11:03sets of spikes soldered to their chassis. Ukraine's domestic defense firms, too, have developed add-on

01:11:08armor cages for the country's tanks, fighting vehicles, and APCs. These defenses are all designed to reduce the

01:11:14risk of direct drone impacts. They focus exclusively on the threat posed by conventional charges, or

01:11:20kamikaze drones, that effectively have to collide with their targets to damage or destroy them.

01:11:25The idea is simple. If you can force the drone to detonate further away from the mainframe of the

01:11:30vehicle, then it won't be as effective. If you were to send out drones equipped with EFPs, however,

01:11:35then the equation completely changes. Because these drones don't need to get up close and personal to

01:11:40annihilate their targets. They can hover above them dozens of feet away, far from the cages and spikes,

01:11:46before blasting through their defenses. If Ukraine were able to manufacture and deploy these kinds

01:11:50of drones at scale, it would effectively be able to negate a large part of Russia's drone defenses,

01:11:55which could lead to even greater losses of tanks and other assets for the Kremlin to worry about,

01:12:00on top of the thousands of destroyed vehicles it's already suffered. There are, however, a couple of

01:12:05downsides too. Most notably, these types of warheads typically demand a higher level of operator skill

01:12:10to work with. With a conventional drone, operators can simply focus on finding their targets and flying

01:12:16directly into them. They sometimes have to aim for specific weak points on tanks and vehicles,

01:12:21or satellite dishes on enemy air defense systems, which can be tricky. But many of Ukraine's drone

01:12:25teams now have years of experience working with these systems, so they become highly proficient with

01:12:30them. EFP drones, however, demand a different approach entirely. Operators don't just have to

01:12:35find their targets and get close to them without being shot down on the way, but they also have to

01:12:39take up the perfect positions, just the right distances from their targets, before detonating

01:12:44their munitions at the exact right moment to deal maximum damage. It's not easy. It's even trickier

01:12:49when dealing with smaller targets like personnel. Ukraine has tried in the past to use FPVs fitted with

01:12:54Claymore-type warheads to wipe out Russian troops. However, operators found them quite difficult to work with,

01:12:59as they had to not only detonate their explosives at the right distance from their targets,

01:13:03but also at the right angle. If they were off by only a few degrees, they might miss their enemies

01:13:07entirely.

01:13:08So even if Ukraine started a transition to EFP drones, it could be quite a slow process as drone

01:13:13operators would have to be trained on how to make the best use of these more advanced systems.

01:13:17But what if they had a little extra help in the form of artificial intelligence? That would change everything.

01:13:23By the way, if this is the kind of insight that you want more of, make sure you are subscribed

01:13:26to The Military Show.

01:13:30In 2018, a YouTuber named Michael Reeves created a lighthearted video that essentially revolved around

01:13:36him creating a swarm of drones that were capable of honing in on their target's faces. He achieved

01:13:41this by combining facial recognition software with simple AI autopilot systems, and in doing so,

01:13:47he created affordable autonomous attack drones that crashed into people's heads. Of course,

01:13:51those drones weren't equipped with explosives, but what if they were? Now, in 2026, the Russia-Ukraine

01:13:57war has almost entered a drone overload phase. Swarms of FPV UAVs fill the frontline skies on a daily

01:14:03basis, hunting and destroying any enemies or enemy assets they find. Many of the drones flying for

01:14:09Ukraine have been equipped with at least some sort of AI technology, with domestic defense firms like

01:14:13The Fourth Law and international companies like Orterion producing advanced add-on modules that can

01:14:19effectively upgrade any small and simple strike drone into a much smarter AI-powered munition, with the

01:14:25power to identify, lock on, and pursue its targets with ruthless precision and efficiency.

01:14:30Generally speaking, Ukraine has largely used this innovative new technology to make its UAVs better

01:14:35at dealing with the enemy's electronic warfare, or EW, technologies. Russia regularly deploys EW

01:14:41systems like jammers to interfere with drone communication, severing the link between the drone

01:14:45and its operator, which often results in the UAV simply spiraling out of the sky and crash-landing

01:14:50harmlessly in a nearby field as opposed to successfully striking its target. Some manufacturers

01:14:55now claim that AI-enabled FPVs are twice as effective as manual models, with up to 80% hit

01:15:01rates compared to around 40% for conventional alternatives. They are not particularly expensive

01:15:06either. Ukraine can manufacture simple FPVs and equip them with basic AI autonomy modules for less

01:15:11than $500 per unit. Some AI-targeting systems are even cheaper, costing just $100. Their other advantage is

01:15:19their ease of use. When you have an AI brain inside your drone that can take on at least some

01:15:23of the

01:15:23work of finding and striking enemy targets, that makes life a lot easier for the human operator.

01:15:28Indeed, when those systems work well and aren't jammed or disrupted, they're remarkably straightforward

01:15:33to use. Even unskilled pilots can use them to take out several targets in quick succession,

01:15:38guiding their drone into the right areas and allowing the AI to finish the job. That's the part

01:15:42that matters most when we're talking about the so-called slaughterbots. In order to be effective,

01:15:47they have to be simple to use. AI can make that possible. With the right modules, the right brains,

01:15:53the right autonomous technologies, these UAVs could usher in a whole new level of drone warfare,

01:15:58one in which the old, established rules no longer apply. Traditional FPVs that rely on direct impact

01:16:04with their enemies can be dodged and countered. Russian soldiers have learned that they can throw

01:16:08things at these drones just before the moment of impact and make them explode further away, for example,

01:16:12people, giving themselves a better chance of survival. They can use anything in the area,

01:16:17from rocks on the ground to rifles in their arms or even the helmets on their heads. They can also

01:16:21fire on FPV drones as they close in using shotguns and similar weapons to stop the enemy's UAVs in their

01:16:26tracks. And because these drones have to get close, it's not necessarily all that difficult for trained

01:16:31soldiers to successfully shoot them out of the air. Even with AI pilots to guide them, these drones are

01:16:36always going to have obstacles in their way, making it harder for them to hit their targets.

01:16:41EFP drones powered by advanced AI systems face no such risks. They will be able to launch explosive

01:16:47munitions directly and accurately at enemy soldiers without even needing to get close enough to worry

01:16:52about shotgun blasts or other projectiles. They will be deadlier, smarter, and far harder to avoid,

01:16:57and any Russian soldier who encounters one of these slaughterbots will be more likely to turn tail and

01:17:02run for their life rather than trying to fight it. In the long term, this could be exactly what Ukraine

01:17:07needs to push its advantage and achieve its next objectives. One of those objectives,

01:17:12arguably the most important one at the moment, is taking out Russian troops in greater numbers than

01:17:16ever before. Major Robert Magyar Brovdy, one of the most prominent figures in Ukraine's unmanned

01:17:22systems forces, has repeatedly stressed the importance of upping the country's kill count.

01:17:26He, along with many of his fellow commanders, hopes to eventually reach a point where Ukraine is

01:17:31eliminating Russians far faster than they can be recruited. They are already well on their way to

01:17:35making that happen. Throughout the opening months of 2026, statistics show that Russia's casualty rate

01:17:40has outpaced its recruitment rate, with Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr

01:17:45Siersky recently telling reporters, Every day the Russian army loses at least 1,000 servicemen killed

01:17:51and wounded. Since the beginning of 2026, the enemy's total losses have already exceeded 141,500

01:17:58personnel, of which more than 83,000 are irreversible. Ukraine's forces are consistently eliminating 30,000

01:18:05or more Russian servicemen each month. But they don't want to stop there. They are aiming for

01:18:10significantly higher targets of 40,000 or even 50,000, ideally by the end of 2026, and are

01:18:16actively adjusting their tactics to make that happen, while also seeking out more powerful

01:18:20defenses and more innovative, impactful weapons to support their efforts. The slaughterbots could

01:18:25play a powerful role in this push, and Russian officials are already expressing serious concern

01:18:29about the fearsome potential of these new systems. The Russian telegram channel Ruspanorama,

01:18:35for example, recently shared a video of an apparent EFP drone eliminating a Kremlin soldier

01:18:39alongside the caption, The enemy has begun using upgraded tactical drones with combat

01:18:44artificial intelligence. There are signs of facial targeting and a corresponding heat signature

01:18:48loaded into the drones' brains. Again, it's important to add the caveat that none of this is

01:18:53official. Ukraine hasn't confirmed anything one way or the other. Its defense forces haven't issued a

01:18:58clear statement to explain what these drones are and aren't capable of, or if they're being manufactured

01:19:03en masse. We don't know if they're using AI guidance or if they're being controlled manually,

01:19:07nor do we know what sort of hit rate or overall efficiency they might be able to achieve. We can't

01:19:12even be entirely sure that they're programmed to aim for the face or head, as we only have a single

01:19:16piece of evidence, the viral video, to refer to at the moment. But that video is already more than

01:19:21enough to send alarm bells ringing in Moscow. It's likely that Russians are already hard at work

01:19:25coming up with possible countermeasures for this frightening new technology. They might, for example,

01:19:30look at equipping soldiers with masks to hide their faces, which could help to nullify any sort of

01:19:34facial recognition or detection platform the drones might be using. Soldiers might also start being

01:19:39trained in ways to cover their faces or heads with their arms when drones are overhead or curling up

01:19:43in a ball, with the intention of making themselves less visible and obvious targets for their enemies.

01:19:48But until we know more about the drones and their full capabilities, Russia has little hope of

01:19:53counteracting them. And with Ukraine's domestic defense industry improving all the time,

01:19:57there's no telling how big a role these swarming bots may have to play in what comes next.

01:20:01Indeed, key officials have already shared their ambitions of producing approximately

01:20:067 million FPV drones in 2026 alone. With such high-scale production capacities,

01:20:11it wouldn't necessarily take long for the country to make enormous amounts of these drones and inflict

01:20:16unprecedented casualties on the Russian ranks. For decades, science fiction authors and movie

01:20:21directors imagined worlds with killer robots, capable of scanning human faces, separating civilians from

01:20:27soldiers and brutally eliminating their enemies faster than they can blink. In Ukraine, those stories

01:20:33are coming to life. And when the slaughter bots are fully unleashed, there will be nowhere left for

01:20:37Russians to hide. This is just one example of many exciting military innovations coming out of Ukraine in

01:20:43recent weeks. You can check out this video to learn about another, a domestically developed guided bomb

01:20:48designed to strike deep behind enemy lines with peerless precision. Alternatively, check out this video to see how the

01:20:54nooses slowly but surely tightening around the Russian President Vladimir Putin, with dozens of

01:20:59countries lining up to put him and his Kremlin cronies behind bars. For more breaking news reports,

01:21:04insightful analysis, and deep detailed breakdowns of the latest developments in the Russia-Ukraine war,

01:21:09make sure to subscribe to the military show today. And thank you, as always, for watching.

Russia Just Lived Through the Most HUMILIATING Week of the Entire War… And It's Not OVER

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