HUGE Night for Ukraine… Russia's Ship Armada Goes DOWN

The Military Show

Ukraine has delivered one of its most dramatic drone operations yet, reportedly destroying 10 Russian shadow fleet tankers along with additional support vessels near Crimea. In this video, we break down the strike, the tactics behind the attack, its impact on Russia’s logistics and oil network, and why the Kerch Bridge remains central to Ukraine’s strategy. Watch as we analyze the battlefield implications, the evidence, and what this operation could mean for the future of the war.  ⏱️ CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Russia Shadow Fleet Loses 10 Ships to Ukraine 01:16 - Inside Ukraine's July 7 Russian Tanker Attack 03:01 - Ukraine FB2 Drones Target Russian Ship Bridges 06:15 - Kerch Bridge Threatened by New Ukraine Strikes 10:41 - Ukraine Logistical Lockdown Causes Crimea Fuel Shortages 13:24 - Can Putin Stop Ukraine's Oil Obliteration Strategy?  Support us directly as we bring you independent, up-to-date reporting on military news and global conflicts by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/@TheMilitaryShow/join  #militarystrategy #militarydevelopments #militaryanalysis #themilitaryshow  SOURCES: https://pastebin.com/sw9Ht7er

Transcript

00:00Here's a question for you. If you have a fleet of ships and you're facing an enemy that has no

00:05navy,

00:05what do you do? If you're Russia, you lose anyway. After four years of naval humiliation at the hands

00:12of Ukraine, Russia must have thought that it couldn't get much worse. Russia was wrong. In a

00:18huge night for Ukraine, Russia's Shadow Fleet Armada has been turned into the most pathetic

00:22collection of submarines imaginable. Ten ships are down, wiped out by a devastating overnight

00:29attack. This wasn't just a lethal attack by Ukraine, it was a message to Putin, telling him

00:35that none of his ships will ever be safe again. The Shadow Fleet is leaving the chat,

00:40blared the commander of Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces, Robert Brovdy, in a telegram post published

00:46in the wake of a devastating Ukrainian drone operation that initially destroyed eight of

00:51Russia's Shadow Fleet tankers, and then went on to take out two more, just for good luck.

00:55The air-sea battle on the night of July 7th reached an industrial level of fishing.

01:01A group of eight tankers with fuel, one dry cargo ship, and one ferry,

01:05Brovdy revealed, adding,

01:07The fuel tanks are badly damaged, burning. Sanctions from the sky of the freedom-loving

01:12Ukrainian birds of the SBS are in effect.

01:15And just like that, we learned about what may well be the most impressive naval operation

01:19that Ukraine has pulled off during its war against Russia.

01:22Ukraine is a nation without a traditional name. Outside of a few patrol ships and mine

01:27warfare vessels, Ukraine doesn't have warships that it can use to go toe-to-toe with Russia's

01:32fleet, but it doesn't need them. As we've seen so many times before, Ukraine's flying

01:37sanctions have done the damage, and Russia has been reminded, once again, that neither the

01:42Black Sea nor the Sea of Azov are safe for any of its ships. What a reminder it was.

01:48Here's the breakdown. Every single one of the fuel tankers that Ukraine's drones struck

01:53leading up to July 7th is under international sanctions. Each has a dead weight of about 7,000

01:59tons, was built between 2006 and 2016, and measures about 140 meters long. That uniformity makes the

02:07ships that Russia is using to transport its illicit oil easy for Ukraine to spot. It also reveals that

02:12these aren't the massive tankers that are making international voyages to the nations that are buying

02:17Russian oil at massive discounts. They serve a different role, and we're going to be covering

02:22what that is soon. Before that, a roll call. The eight tankers that Ukraine destroyed were the

02:27Sana'a-1, Sana'a-17, Venus-3, Tety, Klimena, Penelope, Alexei Savrasov, and the MS Ivan Cheromisinov,

02:37Brovdy reveals. That makes eight, and a few hours after his initial report, Brovdy said that Ukraine

02:42added two more to its tanker total to make ten. Throw the ferry and the dry cargo ship that Brovdy

02:48mentioned in his initial post into the mix, and you get a perfect dozen of Russian ships that have

02:52just been turned into submarines by Ukraine's unmanned systems forces. This wasn't any old

02:57attack. It was precise, coordinated, lethal. A message that has been sent to Putin and his cronies

03:04that the tankers and ferries that he has turned into Shadow Fleet vessels to try to skirt sanctions

03:08are now targets whenever they come within range of Ukraine's drones. This was a complete annihilation

03:15of Russian logistics, in a region where Putin really needs those logistics to be flowing as

03:19smoothly as possible. And it was those drones and their operators that were the stars of the show.

03:24Ukraine's strategy was brilliant. The footage that has emerged from the attack shows the same

03:29thing over and over again. A drone approaches a tanker, leveling the vessel and its sights before

03:34diving down and detonating. Often, we see that the ships that these drones strike are already on fire.

03:40That tells us that Ukraine unleashed a swarm. One drone per vessel wasn't the approach here.

03:45Ukraine hit over and over again to take out tankers that are vital to Russia's war machine.

03:50But there's something else that the footage shows us, as Defense Express reveals in its recap of

03:55Ukraine's drone strikes. Each of the drones that Ukraine used had a specific target on the

04:00ships that they attack. They hit the deckhouses, which are defined as any enclosed structures

04:05projecting above the weather deck of the vessel. Deckhouses are exposed and often surrounded by a

04:11flat deck on either side, making them clear targets to strike. Why does this matter? According to Defense

04:17Express, targeting the tanker's deckhouses means that the drones were looking to simultaneously take out

04:23each ship's bridge, engine room, and the oil tanks they are carrying as cargo. And it worked. We see

04:29that from the flames rising up from so many of the ships that came into the Ukrainian drone's sights.

04:34As for the drones that were used, there is some speculation. Defense Express suggests that Ukraine

04:39unleashed FP2s on Russia's Shadow Fleet ships. These drones, which are made by Firepoint, are certainly up to

04:46the task. Capable of carrying a 200-kilogram payload with a flight range of 370 kilometers, these drones

04:53can reach ships that are in middle strike range, especially if they're launched from vessels that

04:57Ukraine has sent out into the Black Sea. We're not saying that Ukraine took this approach. Brovdi hasn't

05:02revealed anything, but the FP2 would be up to the task. However, there is also speculation that Ukraine may

05:08have used something else. Analyst Denis Davidov points out that the footage we've seen of the strikes seems to

05:14suggest that Ukraine didn't use the FP2, or the longer-range FP1, for that matter. These drones may

05:21be something else. They might be using some sort of machine vision, perhaps meaning Ukraine has

05:26autonomous drones flying over the Sea of Azov that are capable of striking targets with minimal

05:30intervention. This is all speculation. But what is very real is that 10 Russian oil tankers are burning,

05:36along with two other bonus ships. That means that Ukraine has delivered on a warning that President

05:41Volodymyr Zelenskyy made just a few days before this strike. The Ukrainian navy, together with other

05:47components of the defense and security forces, did what many considered impossible. Russia has lost

05:52the Black Sea, and starting with the liberation of Snake Island and continuing with our operations

05:57against the Russian fleet, ports, and occupation forces in our Crimea, we are proving that the Black Sea

06:03and Azov Sea areas will definitely not be a place of peace for Russia. UNN reported on July 4th,

06:10just ahead of the day of the Ukrainian navy. Russia should have listened. Ukraine delivered

06:15on that warning just a couple of days later. The situation in the Sea of Azov has escalated.

06:20That's a big enough problem for Putin. However, behind this lies another issue. You see,

06:26it's not just what Ukraine struck, or the fact that every tanker that was destroyed was sailing in the

06:30Sea of Azov. It's precisely where these strikes took place that will have Putin trembling,

06:35and a certain segment of the Russian population looking for an escape route as quickly as possible.

06:40But before we get to that, this is a reminder that you are watching The Military Show. We bring you

06:45the

06:45full picture, not just the headlines. If you want to see more, hit subscribe and ring the notification bell,

06:51so you're among the first to see our new videos.

06:55So, we know that Ukraine's ship-sinking strikes took place in the Sea of Azov. Ukraine also

07:00hasn't officially announced the precise location of the strikes. But we don't need that information

07:05to come from Ukraine. What matters more than anything about Ukraine's devastating attack is

07:10that each of the struck tankers was hit approximately 15 kilometers northeast of the occupied Crimean city

07:16of Kerch, and around 4 kilometers away from Cape Kroni, which is just off the coast of occupied Crimea.

07:22This has been confirmed by NASA's FIRMS Fire Monitoring Service, which has detected the intense

07:28flames emanating from the Shadow Fleet ships that Ukraine struck. For added evidence, Defense Express

07:33points out that public satellite photos from the European Space Agency, which are dated July 6,

07:38show a large congregation of ships in this very area. None of the ships were visible on maritime

07:43tracking services, which means that their transponders were turned off. These were Shadow Fleet ships,

07:48if ever there were any, and their location matters for a simple reason. They were all in a 20-kilometer

07:54radius near the Kerch Bridge that serves as the only above-land route in and out of Crimea for the

08:00Russian occupiers. What we've just seen from Ukraine is a warning delivered to the occupiers in Crimea

08:05that it's time they get out of the illegally annexed peninsula. This is Ukraine telling those occupiers that

08:11it can strike the Kerch Bridge just as easily as it can destroy the targets that are within a handful

08:16of

08:16kilometers of that bridge. Today, it was Shadow Fleet ships. Tomorrow, it might be the bridge itself.

08:22And if that bridge goes down, the hundreds of thousands of occupiers who have made Crimea their

08:27home since 2014 won't be able to get off the peninsula. They'll be trapped, and Ukraine will

08:32turn their lives into hell. This is the second warning that Ukraine has delivered in the Kerch

08:37region in a matter of weeks. On June 21, Ukraine revealed that it had taken out targets on both sides

08:43of the Kerch Bridge, along with several ferries in the waters around that bridge that Russia was using

08:48to transport supplies into Crimea. Beyond the ferries, Ukraine hit fuel transit terminals and

08:53port infrastructure on both sides of the bridge, sending the same message that the bridge itself

08:58could be hit at any time as it did on July 7. Russia's air defenses completely failed to stop this

09:04attack.

09:05We saw the same failure during the 10-tanker destruction. Russia should have been able to stop these

09:11attacks. It has air bases in occupied Crimea, and in the Russian region of Krasnodar Krai,

09:16that should be providing cover for the vessels that Ukraine keeps hitting in the Kerch Strait.

09:20But they either didn't do enough, or they did nothing at all. And by the way,

09:25there are 10 more vessels that have also switched off their transponders in the same region as the

09:30dozen that Ukraine just destroyed. If the illegal Crimean occupiers still haven't gotten the message,

09:35Ukraine may just deliver it again. Get out of Crimea.

09:39This is a warning that has been delivered plenty of times before. In mid-June, the head of the

09:44Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, Refat Chubarov, delivered that warning on behalf of Ukraine,

09:50stating,

09:51I would like to specifically address those who settled on the peninsula after February 27,

09:562014. Your stay in Crimea with falsified Russian property documents is illegal,

10:02under both Ukrainian law and international law in every respect. As long as the Kerch Bridge is

10:08functioning, you still have a chance to leave Crimea. Soon, this opportunity will no longer exist.

10:13And that statement is the one that really matters. Ukraine isn't just taking out Shadowfleet ships,

10:19it's doing it in a precise location that showcases just how easily it could hit the Kerch Bridge if it

10:24wanted to. If those warnings keep on being ignored, Ukraine will take off the

10:28gloves and make it impossible for the occupiers to leave. And those occupiers don't want the

10:34possibility to disappear. Given all of this locational information, we can officially say

10:39that Ukraine's July 7th drone strikes against Russia's tankers were part of the Crimean isolation

10:44strategy that it has been pulling off with aplomb for the last few months. Since early April,

10:49Ukraine has unleashed wave after wave of mid-range strike drones, conducting strikes

10:54against the logistical arteries that feed into Crimea. The highways and bridges that lead into

10:59the peninsula are now pockmarked with the burned remains of hundreds of supply trucks and fuel tankers.

11:04Bridges have fallen to pieces under the weight of Ukraine's strikes and even maritime supply routes

11:09are being disrupted. Ukraine has taken out railways in an isolation campaign that is designed to make

11:14the Kerch Bridge the only route in and out of Crimea. Bear in mind that this bridge is far from

11:20a safe

11:20route. Ukraine has hit it several times before, leading Russia to abandon military transport on

11:26the bridge. That ban is coming into question now. Russia may be forced into sending its trucks across

11:31the Kerch Bridge once more, which is the last thing that it wants to do. This is the genius of

11:36Ukraine's

11:36strategy. It's not just about isolation. It's about cutting off every logistical route that Russia has

11:42into Crimea, which sends the message to occupiers on the peninsula that Putin can no longer guarantee

11:47their safety. Putin is a leader who relies on his strongman image. He is the great defender of Russia,

11:53if you pay attention to the Kremlin propaganda, but that image is damaged every time a Ukrainian drone

11:59strikes a target in or around Crimea. Ukraine now has a stranglehold on Crimea, and the occupiers are

12:05feeling the pain. Fuel shortages are running rampant throughout the peninsula. Many gas stations either have

12:11no fuel or are holding it back to provide for the military and emergency services, leaving residents and

12:16tourists unable to travel around Crimea. Power generators are being taken out all over Crimea,

12:22leading regional governors to declare states of emergency. Even food is a problem. Ukraine reports

12:28that many Crimean grocery stores are running out of staple foods, and it's all because of Ukraine's

12:33brutal logistical lockdown campaign. So when we look at Ukraine's ship-shattering July 7th strikes,

12:39we're not just seeing a devastating shot delivered to Russia's shadow field. We're seeing an escalation of a

12:44strategy that was already in play, mixed in with a Kerch Bridge warning. These smaller ships were

12:49likely delivering fuel to Crimea. They won't be any more. They're on fire. And as if to drive home the

12:55point, the tankers and cargo ships that are struck in the Sea of Azov aren't the only targets that

13:00Ukraine has hit. On July 6th, the Moscow Times reported that an overnight attack on Crimea itself

13:05has led to regional blackouts, with authorities scrambling to reroute power after yet more

13:11substations were taken out. It's non-stop destruction. And it's only getting worse as

13:16more of Crimea's defenses crumble and Ukraine's drones get stronger. Of course, we can't ignore

13:22the other aspect of Ukraine's July 7th strikes, which is that they have delivered a massive blow

13:26to the Russian shadow fleet. That fleet is a huge problem for Ukraine. Built up by Russia to skirt

13:32sanctions, the fleet is a collection of often ancient tankers that try to sail under the radar,

13:37allowing Russia to sell its oil despite being under heavy sanctions. We mentioned that the

13:42ships Ukraine struck all had their transponders turned off. This is just one of many tricks,

13:48which includes sailing under the flags of other nations that shadow fleet vessels pulled to do

13:52what Putin needs them to do. And the tricks have been working. According to the Center for Strategic

13:57and International Studies, the shadow fleet was made up of at least 591 vessels, including support

14:03ships by the end of 2025. And it was generating anywhere between 87 and 100 billion dollars per

14:10year in revenue for Russia. This fleet is Russia's war lifeline. And that's why Ukraine says that the

14:16strikes it carried out on July 7th were completely legitimate. Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Alexei

14:22Kuleba has already made that case in a letter that he sent to the International Maritime Organization,

14:27following a Russian accusation that Ukraine was carrying out terrorist attacks against Russian

14:31commercial shipping. The shadow fleet is critical to the generation of budget revenues for the

14:36Russian Federation and the continuation of its war effort, Kuleba argues, making each sanctioned vessel

14:42that Ukraine strikes a legitimate tug. On top of that, Putin is one to talk about commercial shipping.

14:47Russia has already attacked 59 legitimate Ukrainian merchant vessels, so Putin should pipe down about

14:54Ukraine taking out sanctioned ships that serve Russia's war effort. Now, will Ukraine's July 7th

14:59strike make a huge dent in the shadow fleet? No. They were perhaps more about the Crimea warning than

15:05they were about trying to cost Russia billions of dollars in oil sales. The tankers that Ukraine struck

15:10were on the smaller side, though they could still have been used to transfer oil from the Black Sea

15:14and Sea of Azov to ports outside of the Crimean region, where that oil could be transferred to larger

15:19ships. So there's some shadow fleet impact. But what's really important here is that Ukraine has struck

15:25another blow against Russian fuel. That's Ukraine's entire goal. Make any attempt by Russia to transport

15:31oil or fuel a huge risk, no matter where those products are going. And when you pair these ship

15:37strikes with Ukraine's constant attacks against Russian oil refining, you get an oil obliteration

15:42strategy that has crystallized in 2026. By the midpoint of the year, Ukraine had already carried out

15:48almost 200 strikes against Russian refineries. The most impressive of those strikes happened just a day

15:53before the attack on the ships in the Sea of Azov, as Ukraine's drones traveled up to 3,000 kilometers

15:59in a record-breaking attack against Siberia's Omsk refinery. This is a multi-faceted campaign

16:06against Russian oil and fuel, and the shortages in Crimea show us that it's working.

16:11As for Putin, he's running scared. Literally. Just days before a dozen of Russian ships burned in the

16:17Sea of Azov, news broke that Putin's multi-million-dollar-plus superyacht had fled to Arctic waters,

16:22equipped with anti-drone nets in a desperate attempt to stop the very weapons that have just

16:27sunk so many of Russia's fuel tankers. If that doesn't sum up the great protector of Russia,

16:32then nothing does. As Crimea faces the biggest threat that it's faced since Russia illegally annexed

16:37the peninsula in 2014, Putin is far more concerned about Ukraine potentially targeting his luxurious

16:43yacht. That recreational vessel is being shadowed by a Russian destroyer and a salvage and patrol ship,

16:49as we speak, the Telegraph reports. We'd ask why the tankers in the Sea of Azov didn't have

16:54similar protection, but we already know the answer to that one. Ukraine has rendered the Black Sea

16:58fleet useless, which is one of the things that made its July 7th attack possible in the first place.

17:03So Putin hides in bunkers as his yacht flees Russia. This is your protector,

17:08Crimean occupiers, so we'll say it once more for Ukraine. Get out of Crimea while you still can.

17:15Some occupiers have already gotten the message and are taking it very seriously.

17:19Wait, did we say some? Try thousands. That's how many occupiers were seen trying to flee Crimea via

17:25the very bridge that Ukraine has turned into the only route in and out of the peninsula.

17:29The panic had already begun before July 7th. Now it's going to be much worse. But if you want to

17:35find out more about the great Russian exodus that is already underway, we have the perfect video

17:40waiting for you to watch. And if you enjoyed this analysis of Ukraine's latest strike and Russia's

17:45Shadow Fleet catastrophe, hit subscribe and remember to click the notification bell to get more of the

17:50military show in your feed. And thank you, as always, for watching.

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