You WON'T Believe What Ukraine's DIVERS Just Did Behind Russian Lines!

The Military Show

Ukraine has reportedly carried out one of its boldest operations yet in occupied Crimea. This video examines claims that Omega Special Forces combat divers infiltrated the peninsula to launch AI-powered drones that destroyed a Russian Su-24M at Saky Air Base. We break down the reported mission, the technology involved, and what it could mean for the wider battle over Crimea. Watch to see how asymmetric tactics continue reshaping the conflict and challenging Russia’s military position.  ⏱️ CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Ukraine Strikes Saky Airbase Destroying Russian Su-24M 02:08 - Ukraine Omega Special Forces Divers Infiltrate Russian Crimea 06:29 - How Ukrainian Special Operations Raided Snake Island 08:48 - Upgraded $10,000 AI Hornet Drones Destroy Russian Aircraft 10:41 - Ukraine Asymmetric Warfare Bypasses Russian Coastal Defenses 13:41 - Is Putin Losing Control of Occupied Crimea?  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/CmK4kXW5

Transcript

00:00Russia must have thought that it had seen it all in Crimea.

00:03The stronghold had already been turned into a liability as Ukraine's drones ruined logistics,

00:09shattered shipping, and seemed to fly all over Crimea itself nightly to take out air defenses,

00:15depots, and other targets. But Russia should know by now that Ukraine always has more tricks up its

00:21sleeve. And what we've just seen was a big one. Divers from Ukraine's Omega unit have just pulled

00:28off the unthinkable. Operating deep behind enemy lines, they've done something that a Hollywood

00:33scriptwriter would be proud of coming up with. And what this tells Russia is that the battle for

00:38Crimea has escalated. Ukraine is no longer just striking from afar. It can get people onto the

00:44peninsula. We'll start with the basics. On July 17th, the news broke that Ukraine had pulled off

00:50yet another strike against the Saki air base in Crimea. This was the fourth repeated strike against

00:57Saki in the space of a month, and it did plenty of damage. Ukraine's operators had waited for their

01:02moment to strike. Rather than attempting to attack Russian aircraft while they were hidden away in

01:07hangars, Ukraine's operators allowed those aircraft to start taxiing. False hope for the Russian patsies.

01:14As Ukraine waited, an Su-24M took to the tarmac. It was about to take off when Ukraine's drones struck.

01:21Two of them hit the Su-24M in a precise attack that shows just how effective Ukraine's drones

01:26have become. The first scored a hit on the Su-24M's nose, breaking it into pieces, as the pilot just

01:33inches away watched. As the nose fell apart, Ukraine's second drone struck the fuel tanks,

01:39destroying the Russian fighter jet completely. Footage has already been shared.

01:44There can be no doubt that Ukraine pulled off what it said it did. We can watch one of Ukraine's

01:49drones

01:49with the Su-24M in its sights, descending rapidly and then scoring a hit. In one fell swoop, Russian air

01:56operations in Crimea became more expensive, as the Kremlin needs to scramble to find a fighter jet

02:01that it can send to the embattled peninsula to replace the Su-24M it just lost.

02:06But this isn't the real story. As impressive as the fourth strike against Saki in a month was when

02:12viewed merely on the basics, this attack was unlike anything Ukraine has pulled off in Crimea before.

02:18Normally, we'd be telling you about drones launched from the mainland or perhaps from the

02:22surfaces of maritime drones in the Black Sea when reporting on this type of strike. Not this time.

02:28Ukraine's latest success didn't come by way of its usual drone operators. In a story worthy of a

02:34movie, Ukraine sent combat divers directly into Crimea to launch the attack on Sakiya base.

02:41Those divers are members of the Ukrainian National Guard's Omega Special Forces Center,

02:46and they are trained to take on the sorts of missions that the average Ukrainian soldier

02:50isn't equipped to pull off.

02:52Omega is special.

02:53Though rarely given the spotlight in Ukraine's war against Russia,

02:57Omega operators are among the best of the best that Ukraine has to offer.

03:01The Special Forces Center that bears the Omega name has eight detachments,

03:05all also named Omega in a nod toward the unit's cohesiveness and its ability to stay in the shadows.

03:12Omega's remit is simple. Ensure national security and defense by combating terrorism

03:17and repelling armed aggression against Ukraine. In the context of Putin's so-called Special

03:23Military Operation, that roughly translates to find anything Russian and destroy it.

03:28Only Ukraine's elite operatives become part of Omega. The center is believed to have somewhere

03:33between 501 and 1,500 service members, military land reports. And every one of those members is

03:41a highly trained specialist. Paratroopers, mountain warfare experts and others who have spent their

03:46careers training for very specific circumstances find their way into Omega. And of course there are

03:52the combat divers, the stars of the Saki show. We don't know a huge amount about the

03:57precise nature of the operation that Omega pulled off in Saki. That's part of the course. A center

04:03like Omega isn't going to broadcast every aspect of a clandestine operation after the fact. After all,

04:09a strategy that worked once can work again as long as Russia doesn't know exactly how it was done.

04:14But we do know a little thanks to a telegram post by commander of Ukraine's National Guard,

04:19Oleksandr Pivnenko. In his July 16th post, Pivnenko said,

04:24Our special forces of the Omega Special Operations Center destroyed a Russian Su-24M bomber at the

04:31Saki military airfield in temporarily occupied Crimea. The successful operation was carried

04:37out by combat divers of the Omega Special Operations Center, who once again confirmed their ability to

04:43carry out high precision strikes on enemy targets far behind their lines. More information comes from

04:49United 24 media, which says that the operation took three weeks to prepare, and it was conducted with

04:55the help of Ukraine's Air Force and Security Service. Pivnenko then went on to share some small details of

05:01what the operation involved. Identification of the target took place in the days leading up to the

05:06diver's assault. The National Guard knew that Russia had an Su-24M at Saki, which was likely being used to

05:12launch missiles at mainland Ukraine. Planning followed as Omega Special Forces prepared an operation that would see

05:18them infiltrate Crimea itself from where they would launch drones to target the Su-24M.

05:24But beyond that, we can only assume based on what we know about the work of combat divers.

05:28Those divers would have had to be deployed to Crimea in some way, perhaps via a patrol boat or a

05:34submersible to keep them hidden away from sight. They would have also had to deal with the challenges of

05:38navigating to a coastal area in Crimea where they could launch their drones and then escape.

05:43And don't forget they also had to transport the drones. All of this while managing the

05:48navigational aspects of the work, which involves swimming underwater, dealing with tides and currents

05:53to reach their objective. Any mistake would have been costly. Arriving at the wrong coastal location

05:59could have meant the end of the operation before it had even started. Sure, those combat divers would

06:04have had the tools to help them with the job. Waterproof tablets are now available to many who take on

06:08this

06:09role, offering navigational help via GPS and Doppler satellite positioning. But still the task was

06:15massive. Get into Crimea, conduct a perfectly timed drone strike at Saki and then get back out again.

06:22We told you these people were specialists, now you see why. There is some precedent for this kind of

06:28operation. During the early days of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Russia managed to capture Snake Island

06:33a short bombardment that captured the Ukrainian border guards who had essentially told the Russian

06:38invaders to screw themselves after those invaders ordered the guards off the island. Snake Island was

06:44a pretty big win for Russia. If Russia had held onto it, the island's location in the Western Black Sea

06:49would have made it the perfect place to locate air defenses. Plus the island, which is less than a

06:54kilometer in length, also happened to be located on one of the shipping paths that Ukraine uses to send

06:59merchant ships through the Black Sea and into international waters. Russia started to play

07:04games with Snake Island soon after capturing it. On June 30, 2022, Putin's forces announced their

07:10withdrawal, supposedly as a gesture of goodwill to Ukraine. Osprey Publishing reports, Ukraine didn't

07:17believe Russian forces had truly left. What goodwill could exist in a nation that was trying to subjugate

07:22Ukraine. So on July 7, 2022, combat divers from Ukraine's 73rd Maritime Special Operations Center

07:29were called into action. Approaching Snake Island covertly using underwater vehicles,

07:35those divers who had received training from the UK's Special Boat Service alighted and checked Snake

07:41Island to see if Russia's claims were true. Sure enough, Russian warships soon began an approach,

07:47telling Ukraine that Russian goodwill extends about as far as Putin's thinking about the future of his own

07:52country. The divers retreated, but a blueprint was in place. Over the years since, Ukraine's combat

07:58divers have been involved in assaults on the Kinburn Spit, which also offers whoever controls it some

08:03measure of control over Black Sea traffic and the Dnepro River. Those divers have a lot of experience.

08:09We believe that experience was put to the test in Crimea against the Saki Air Base,

08:14and Ukraine's divers passed that test with flying colors. Still, so much of this is speculation.

08:20Omega doesn't want to reveal its secrets, nor should it. However, there is one thing that we know about

08:25the Saki operation that Ukraine's National Guard hasn't revealed, but has since been reported. But

08:30before we reveal what that game-changing nugget of information is, this is your reminder that you are

08:35watching The Military Show. If you're getting insight from our channel, we have plenty more in store.

08:40Hit subscribe and ring the notification bell to ensure you see what's coming next.

08:46Ukraine's combat divers and the specifics of their work may be shrouded in secrecy,

08:51but the drones that they use to take out Russia's Su-24M aren't. The divers used the famous AI-powered

08:58Hornet drones that have become such a major feature of the logistical lockdown campaign that Ukraine is

09:03using to isolate Crimea. Only these weren't Hornets as we know them. In a July 17th follow-up report on

09:10Russia's Saki disaster. United 24 media revealed that Ukraine's remarkable combat diving mission

09:16was also used as a test for an upgraded version of the Hornet drone. This new version retains the

09:22AI-infused guidance system that has made it so effective in occupied Ukraine. However,

09:26it was upgraded by Omega's technical specialists into a fixed-wing variant that can fly much farther

09:32than the original Hornet. That's massive for Ukraine. With this new version of the Hornet,

09:37which is reported to cost somewhere between $10,000 and $11,000, Ukraine can force Russia to

09:43move its Crimean airpower even further back. That limits effectiveness in terms of the launching

09:48of missiles and glide bombs from the Crimean Peninsula. It also introduces some terrifying cost

09:53implications for Russia. A single Su-24M costs Russia about $25 million per unit. Ukraine just took

10:01one of them out with drones that cost a combined total of about $20,000. This is a massive return

10:07on

10:07investment. And now that Ukraine has developed this new Hornet to go along with its innovative

10:11method of sending combat divers into Crimea, Russia knows that it has a multi-million dollar

10:16problem on its hands. What if it isn't an Su-24M next? What if Ukraine uses its upgraded Hornets to

10:23take out an $85 million Su-35? That's now a very real possibility, which will only further encourage

10:31Russia to pull its airpower even deeper into Crimea and perhaps off the peninsula altogether.

10:37Putin's Crimea catastrophe continues. And this is what Omega's mind-boggling operation tells us.

10:44Ukraine has come up with a method of getting soldiers onto Crimea without launching the sort

10:49of full-scale amphibious assault that would almost certainly end in disaster. Ukraine simply doesn't have

10:54the resources it needs for such an assault. The Ukrainian Navy, such as it is, doesn't really

10:59contain warships. It's mostly patrol vessels and mine warfare ships, which makes a traditional

11:04amphibious assault impossible. Ukraine may be able to liberate Crimea with a large enough force,

11:10but getting that force onto the peninsula is always going to pose a problem. Attempting to storm

11:16the Crimean beaches is also a very obvious form of attack. Russia's defenses would be in full force,

11:21and Ukraine would have to absorb far too many casualties to make such an attack possible,

11:26even if it had the amphibious landing vessels it needs for an all-out assault.

11:30Not that any of this has stopped Russia from panicking. In a June 17th report,

11:34the Kiev Independent revealed that Russia was preparing for possible Ukrainian landings in Crimea

11:39by trying to buff up its coastal defenses. That's when you know a nation is terrified.

11:45Getting ready for an invasion that is so unlikely to come tells us that Russian command is little more

11:50than one massive headless chicken when it comes to Crimea. What we've just seen with the Omega

11:55combat divers is Ukraine doing what it's done so many times against Russia. Going against all

12:00expectations. Russia expected Ukrainian landings, but it didn't expect a small team of divers armed

12:07with new Hornet drones to sneak onto Crimea, unleash an Su-24M destroying assault against an already battered

12:13airfield, and then get back out again. What we've just seen is a compounding of Putin's Crimea crisis,

12:19as Ukraine has shown Russia that all of the defenses that it tries to build up can do

12:23nothing to stop a country that has become one of the world's foremost experts in asymmetric warfare.

12:29This wasn't a counter-invasion of Crimea. It was a precise operation. And we'll likely start

12:35seeing Ukraine pull off more of this kind of operation as Putin's hold over Crimea crumbles.

12:39Eventually, Russia won't go out with a bang in Crimea, it will go out with a whimper.

12:44We know that if we look at Crimea through a wider lens. As impressive as Omega's operation was,

12:50it was just one more punch to the gut for a Russian occupying force that has become punch drunk.

12:55Saki alone shows that. Russia's air power has already been diminished to the point where it can

13:00use its fighter jets and bombers for little more than taking off from airfields, hovering around those

13:05airfields to launch missiles and bombs, and then landing. There are rarely Russian sorties carried out

13:11beyond the occupied territories, which might have a little something to do with Ukraine having

13:15already destroyed 438 of Russia's planes and 354 of its helicopters, as reported by Ukraine on July 20th.

13:23Airfields like Saki are now the lifeblood of Russia's entire aerial campaign.

13:28If those airfields are compromised, Putin's strategy of using Crimea to launch aerial assaults against

13:33Ukraine is in serious trouble. And Saki is compromised, big time.

13:38We mentioned earlier that the Omega operation that destroyed an Su-24M at Saki airbase is just

13:43one of four that Ukraine has conducted during the past month or so.

13:47Just a couple of weeks before, on July 3rd, the Kyiv Post revealed Saki had been attacked with a drone

13:52strike so powerful that it destroyed or damaged seven aircraft, including Su-30s and Su-24Ms.

13:59That strike came in the wake of another carried out just a few days before, where Ukrainian drones

14:04scored five confirmed hits on hangars in Saki. One of those drone strikes caused a fire at a

14:09hangar that Russia used to store an Su-30SM. If Russia hasn't gotten the message yet, we'll spell

14:15it out for any of their bots that are watching this video. Saki airbase isn't safe anymore.

14:21The same could be said for the rest of Crimea. We call what is happening on that peninsula a

14:26catastrophe for Putin, and we don't use that word lightly. Omega's combat divers completed their

14:31operation as Crimea has been isolated through a massive Ukrainian campaign that has sliced

14:37through logistical arteries on the mainland and is destroying supply and fuel ships in the Sea of

14:42Azov as we speak. The peninsula is in the grips of a severe energy crisis as a result of these

14:48strikes.

14:49Fuel is running low at gas stations, assuming occupiers can find gas stations that have any fuel at all.

14:54There are also rolling blackouts in Crimea as Ukraine takes aim at power substations and thermal

15:00power plants. In the 10 days leading up to July 16th, Ukraine had struck 147 fuel tankers, trying to

15:07get gasoline and diesel to Crimea via the Sea of Azov. Ukraine's campaign is also expanding to the

15:13point where it unleashed 7,028 successful mid-range strikes against Russia in June. That veers close to

15:20double the 3,800 successful strikes from the month prior, demonstrating an escalation rather than a

15:26tapering off. What Omega's combat divers did could be called a middle strike of its own,

15:32albeit one that was conducted in a way that we haven't seen before. But what Omega's operation

15:36also shows us is that Russia has lost control of the waters that surround Crimea. The Black Sea,

15:43in particular, has transformed from an asset that Russia could use to attack mainland Ukraine,

15:48into a liability that now serves as a route Ukraine can use to conduct operations like the combat

15:53diver mission. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said as much on July 5th, as he declared

16:00that Russia had lost the Black Sea. It's hard to argue with. Ukraine, with no navy remember,

16:06has systematically destroyed warships that make up the Black Sea fleet to the point where what remains

16:11of Russia's fleet is now hiding as far away from Ukraine's drones and missiles as possible.

16:16Ukraine has conducted 33 strikes against main combat ships, 34 against Russian landing ships,

16:22and 23 against auxiliary vessels. That Black Sea campaign has made the waters around Crimea more

16:29dangerous for Russian occupiers than they are for Ukraine's defenders. So dangerous that Ukraine can

16:35now send combat divers to Crimea itself. This Black Sea transformation from asset to liability extends to

16:43Crimea itself. The key to Russia's imperialistic ambitions in Ukraine is supposed to be a symbol.

16:49Russia took Crimea with barely a fight back in 2014. Putin has held that over Ukraine's collective head.

16:56The markets Crimea is the place to be for all of Russia's most affluent people. Now it's a war zone,

17:01with no fuel, limited food, no electricity, and burning fighter jets at air bases.

17:07Many of the occupiers in Crimea may never hear about what Omega pulled off, at least not until long after

17:13the fact. Russia will do everything to hide this remarkable combat diving operation from its people.

17:18But hiding what happened changes nothing. Ukraine is already isolating Crimea.

17:24Now it has a new way to strike and Crimea's offensive potential has been weakened. Ukraine's Omega

17:30divers just pulled off the unthinkable in Crimea. But that operation is another step along the path to

17:36doing the impossible, liberating the peninsula from illegal Russian control once and for all.

17:42There are some occupiers who have figured out that now is a very bad time to be in Crimea.

17:47They are running for their lives by the thousands to get back to the Russian mainland via the only

17:51bridge that still exists that could take them off the peninsula. The panic is real. The evacuation is

17:58underway. And you can find out how the Kerch Bridge that connects Russia to Crimea has become yet

18:02another beacon of Putin's failure by watching our video.

18:05And if you enjoyed this video, we have plenty more waiting in the wings.

18:09Subscribe to The Military Show to make sure you are among the first to see what we have coming next.

18:14And thank you, as always, for watching.

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