Ukraine’s latest drone strike on the Belgorod Reservoir dam has triggered flooding, disrupted Russian military positions, and complicated repair efforts. In this video, we examine the reported damage, why Kyiv may view the dam as a strategic military target, and how the flooding could affect operations near the Vovcha River. We also explore the broader strategic, political, and humanitarian implications of the attack, along with what it could mean for Russia’s war effort and domestic support.
⏱️ CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Putin Burns $827 Million Daily in Ukraine War
01:27 - Russian Oligarchs Move Billions Abroad to Avoid Putin
04:08 - Putin Purges Top Officials as Russian Minister Flees
07:11 - Russian Army Mutiny Warnings and Rogue Wagner Mercenaries
09:42 - Russia War Economy Collapses Under $75 Billion Deficit
12:39 - Is the Russian Regime Facing Total Collapse?
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/hPzssTGE
⏱️ CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Putin Burns $827 Million Daily in Ukraine War
01:27 - Russian Oligarchs Move Billions Abroad to Avoid Putin
04:08 - Putin Purges Top Officials as Russian Minister Flees
07:11 - Russian Army Mutiny Warnings and Rogue Wagner Mercenaries
09:42 - Russia War Economy Collapses Under $75 Billion Deficit
12:39 - Is the Russian Regime Facing Total Collapse?
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/hPzssTGE
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00In the words of Ron Simmons, damn! That's what Russian troops would have been screaming,
00:05only it's a different type of dam that was causing the problems. This dam was preventing
00:09water from flooding into a reservoir in Belgorod, which is what a dam is supposed to do. Ukraine
00:15saw that and they came up with an idea. Strike the dam and you flush away the Russians.
00:21So that's just what Ukraine did. A drone strike turned a Russian dam into a giant weapon,
00:27and the flood that resulted has created some brutal problems for Putin and his cronies.
00:32On July 20th, the Pepel-Belgorod telegram channel broke the news. Ukraine had just carried out a
00:38devastating drone strike that caused serious damage to the dam located in the Shevokinsky district of
00:44Belgorod. The dam is located at the main Belgorod reservoir and it appears that Ukraine targeted
00:49it on July 19th. And that's not all. As the same channel reported, efforts to fill and restore the
00:56dam are further hindered by drones that continue to attack the dam itself, as well as the personnel
01:02and machinery approaching it. In other words, Ukraine's attacks haven't stopped. Its drones
01:07have done the bulk of the damage that they want to do. Next on the agenda is preventing Russia from
01:13making repairs and scoring strikes against any military personnel who get too close. Ukraine wants
01:19the water to keep flowing, and as you will soon find out, the water is already becoming a major problem
01:24for Russia. But first, the damage. Medusa reports that a spillway section of the dam, roughly 30
01:30meters long, has been damaged by the drone strike, and that water is pouring through at an alarming
01:35rate. Spillways are safety structures either built as part of or beside a dam that are used to safely
01:42pass flood water away from a reservoir once that reservoir is filled up. The key here is control.
01:48The water still passes over, around or through the dam, but it's directed in such a way that it doesn't
01:53cause any problems. The Belgorod dam has essentially lost one of its spillways, which means the water it
01:59was supposed to control isn't being directed to where it needs to go anymore. On top of that,
02:04Ukraine also appears to have scored a direct strike on the road that runs along the crest of
02:09the dam. Taking out a road doesn't cause flooding, of course. However, it does make it much harder for
02:14Russian repair teams to reach the damaged spillway. They need to navigate around the road to get to where
02:20they need to go. It's no easy task given that the dam's crest is pretty narrow. We also mentioned
02:25follow-up attacks. A July 21 report by AA reveals that drones launched after the main barrage are
02:31further compromising the Belgorod dam. Hydraulic equipment has also been struck, which has caused
02:36a further uncontrolled release of water to go along with that caused by the spillway destruction.
02:41Warnings are now blaring in Belgorod. Authorities warn that if further attacks happen,
02:45a more serious breach of the dam might occur, which could flood several settlements and cause
02:50the evacuation of thousands of people. That's already well on its way toward happening.
02:55Militani offers more details, noting that the initial surge of water has led to the Nezegol River,
03:01which flows alongside Shebekino, rapidly filling to the point where it's burst its banks.
03:07Infrastructure and buildings on the banks of this river have already started to flood,
03:10and the situation may end up getting worse as Ukraine continues the assault.
03:14In nearby Bezlyodovka, which is located downstream of that river, we've also seen water levels rise.
03:21And on Popedi Street, in this general region, residents are reporting the formation of a lake
03:26that is making it incredibly difficult for vehicles and pedestrians to pass through.
03:30The residents of Belgorod should be used to this flooding. It's happened to them before.
03:35Back in October 2025, Ukraine launched a similar drone strike targeting the same Belgorod dam
03:41that it hit on July 19. We saw a similar strategy back then. An initial drone strike caused a breach,
03:47leading to river waters rising. Ukraine then followed up with further strikes to delay repair
03:52efforts and force more uncontrolled water into the surrounding regions. The commander of Ukraine's
03:57Unmanned Systems Forces, Robert Brovdy, confirmed which Ukrainian unit carried out the strike and
04:02mentioned some of the damage done. The Belgorod reservoir cracked today. Since the initial strike,
04:08the water level has dropped by 100 centimeters. The hit was carried out by the birds of the first
04:13separate center of the unmanned system's forces, Brovdy declared. Satellite photos also emerged
04:18in the wake of the October strike, revealing that the scale of the flooding was dramatic.
04:23The area around Bezlyodovka ended up being covered in water,
04:27meaning the settlement was almost surrounded, Exile Never Plus reported. The same outlet said that the
04:32Belgorod regional governor kept suspiciously quiet about the whole thing, suggesting that,
04:36as the Telegram channel puts it, the scum is trying to hush up the incident in the best
04:41Soviet traditions. That hasn't happened this time. There's no denying the damage that Ukraine has
04:46done to the Belgorod Dam with its July attack, and warnings about potential evacuations are being
04:51delivered. Following the October strike against the dam, water levels in the nearby reservoir remained
04:56low for more than a month afterward. Ukraine will be hoping for a similar result this time around.
05:01At this point, you may have a few concerns rattling around you. What Ukraine appears
05:05to have done is strike what many would consider a civilian target. Indeed, it's the settlements
05:10around the Belgorod Dam that are immediately affected, and Russia is trying to paint this
05:14strike as a terrorist attack by Ukraine's drone forces. Ukraine would respond to those concerns with
05:20two points. This is revenge, and the Belgorod Dam has more military importance than many realize.
05:25On the revenge front, Russia is no stranger to destroying dams if it thinks doing so could
05:30damage Ukraine in any way. We can head all the way back to the beginning of the invasion to see
05:35that, in September 2022, Russian missiles struck the reservoir dam in the southern Ukrainian city
05:41of Kriviri. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blasted the attack as terroristic,
05:46noting that this particular dam held no military value whatsoever, meaning Russia had no justification
05:52for launching it. That isn't the case with the Belgorod Dam, as you'll soon discover.
05:56Almost a year later, in June 2023, the Kokovka hydroelectric power plant in Kherson was destroyed.
06:03This dam, which is one of six that sits on the Dnipro River, held back a reservoir so massive
06:08that residents call it the Kokovka Sea, due to it being so large that you can't see the opposite bank
06:14in some places. This attack was a little more complicated than the earlier dam strike.
06:18NATO and Ukraine accused Russia of destroying the dam, while Russia claimed that it was a
06:23Ukrainian strike that had done the damage, the BBC reported at the time. The latter seems unlikely.
06:28Not only would that mean Ukraine launched attacks against its own infrastructure,
06:32but it would have also put thousands of its own people at risk to do so. Furthermore,
06:36the dam was built specifically to withstand a powerful impact from the outside, the BBC says.
06:41As such, its complete destruction was more likely to have been caused by an internal explosion,
06:46and given that Russia occupied the region where the dam was located, it seems far more likely
06:50that Russia itself blew up the dam, perhaps as an attempt at a false flag operation.
06:56The point here is that Russia is no stranger to attacking dams.
06:59For Ukraine, the strike against the Belgorod Dam on July 19th is a case of tit for tat.
07:05If Russia can do it without being punished, then Ukraine can attack dams to bring the war back
07:09to the Russian people in return. However, and as is usually the case with Ukraine strikes,
07:14this latest attack wasn't just about revenge. Despite Russia's claims, the Belgorod Dam does
07:19serve a military purpose, making it a legitimate target for Ukraine. Before we explain what that
07:25purpose is, this is a quick reminder that you're watching the military show. If you haven't subscribed
07:30to the channel yet, then what are you waiting for? We deliver daily videos covering the latest
07:34developments in the Ukraine war and other global military events. It's not just civilians who live
07:40near the Belgorod Dam that have been affected by Ukraine's strike. Russia has brigades stationed
07:45in the surrounding area, four of them in fact, most of which are located near the village of Grafovka,
07:51which sits downstream from the river that's bursting its banks due to Ukraine's drone attacks.
07:56We learned this fact during Ukraine's October 2025 attack against the dam, when RBC Ukraine revealed
08:01the resulting flooding had impacted a series of bunkers used by the 68th, 116th, 128th,
08:08and 136th Russian Armed Forces Brigades. That lends an entirely new perspective on Ukraine's latest
08:15Belgorod Dam assault. Remember, Belgorod is a border region. Its proximity to Ukraine makes it a prime
08:20location from which to launch strikes and inject soldiers into the Ukrainian mainland. Four entire
08:26brigades downstream of the dam aren't just sitting around in Belgorod for no reason. They are there with
08:31a purpose. What that purpose may be isn't 100% clear. However, we do know that Russia has used
08:37Belgorod as a launching pad for attacks on Ukraine. Displacing four bridges, even if those brigades
08:43haven't been wiped out by the flooding, leads to disorganization and chaos, which is only a good
08:48thing from a Ukrainian warfighting perspective. There is another aspect to consider here, and it
08:53has something to do with the thing that is now spilling out of the Belgorod Dam in massive amounts,
08:58water. Now you might think that Ukraine's main aim with its dam attack was the flooding that has
09:02resulted. That's certainly part of it, but there is a bigger story at play when it comes to the
09:07Russian water that is flooding away from the dam right now. To understand that story, we again go
09:12back to the October 2025 strike on the Belgorod Dam. At that time, Russia was making a push to try
09:18to
09:18capture more territory in the Ukrainian region of Vovchantsk. By October 26th, Putin was claiming that
09:24Russia held about 70% of the region. Its task from that point was to cross the Vovcha River. That
09:31had been a
09:31problem. When that river is flowing, Russia faces a hell of a time making a crossing. However, a very
09:36dry summer in Ukraine had caused some issues, as a statement from Ukraine's 16th Army Corps revealed
09:41at the time. The enemy tried to fully exploit a window of opportunity. After a dry period and an
09:46extremely hot summer, the Sivirsky, Donetsk and Vovcha rivers had dried up, simplifying logistics for
09:52the adversary. At the same time, reserves had been stockpiled and there were still enough leaves on the
09:57trees. Altogether, this led to a sharp increase in activity in the Vovchantsk direction,
10:01the Corps' statement read. In other words, the Vovcha River's waters were running low and that
10:06was on the verge of providing Russia with a means to make a much easier and faster crossing.
10:10And if that crossing happened, Russia would then be able to push deeper into Vovchantsk.
10:15Bursting the Belgorod Dam sent water careening far enough to fill the rivers that were running dry.
10:21Whatever plans Russia had for a crossing were foiled.
10:24Fast forward to July 2026 and something similar seems to be on the verge of happening.
10:28Ukraine, like much of Europe, has been hit by heat waves for much of the summer.
10:32In fact, it was leading much of Europe at the end of May for heat,
10:35with temperatures exceeding 30 degrees Celsius in many regions.
10:39More intense spikes in heat have followed, placing greater demands on Ukraine's struggling
10:44energy grid, Euronews reports. But Ukraine's bigger problem is that Russia is still trying to
10:49get its troops across the Vovcha River. Putin's soldiers have labeled the waters in that river a
10:54death trap, but they are still being forced to attempt crossings, often in groups of two or three,
10:59in an attempt to approach Ukrainian positions on the other side. Crossing that river is key to any
11:04Russian attempt to push deeper both into Vovchantsk and the wider Kharkiv area.
11:08With these factors in play, it looks like Ukraine has just run a repeat of its October strike on the
11:13Belgorod Dam to ensure that the waters keep flowing into a river that is keeping Russia's soldiers at bay.
11:18The flooding that affects four brigades is great, but if Ukraine can keep Russia's troops on the
11:22other side of the Vovcha for the rest of the year with this attack, that's an even bigger winner
11:27from a long-term perspective of defending Ukrainian territory. So the destruction of the dam at the
11:31Belgorod reservoir isn't the terrorist attack that Russia wants you to think it is. Taking out that dam
11:37serves several military purposes. Still, having said all of that, we can't ignore the fact that this
11:42strike will impact civilians in Belgorod. And while Ukraine has no intention of attacking those
11:47civilians directly, it would also argue that putting pressure on the Russian people is another
11:52legitimate military tactic that it has just employed. How so? Well, the psychological impact
11:57of attacks in Belgorod on the region's people adds up to more pressure placed on Putin to end his
12:02Ukraine invasion. It's fair to say that the people of Belgorod are more tired than most of Putin's
12:07seemingly never-ending thirst for war. Living in a border region, they have spent years having the
12:12war brought back to their doorsteps by Ukraine. On two occasions in 2023 and 2024, Ukrainian forces
12:18entered the Belgorod village of Kozynka, leading to part of that village being destroyed in fighting.
12:24In the city that gives the oblast its name, bomb shelters have been erected, anti-drone nets are draped
12:29over important buildings, and there are even barricades at the bus stops. All are supposed to be temporary,
12:34though increasingly seem to be permanent signs that the war that Putin started isn't as one-sided as he
12:40claimed it would be. Even now, the residents of Belgorod are still being forced to suffer because
12:44of Putin's war. On July 7th, the New Voice of Ukraine reported that water shortages and blackouts
12:50had resulted from an overnight attack that triggered several fires at Belgorod linear production management
12:55of main gas pipelines. These sorts of incidents are becoming everyday occurrences for Belgorod's
13:01civilians, and many will view Ukraine's latest dam-busting attack with a combination of exasperation
13:06and outrage. Yet another signal that Putin's war has come home to Russia. You might think that the
13:12exasperation and outrage we just mentioned are being directed at Ukraine. After all, they're the
13:17ones conducting the attacks against Belgorod. However, that doesn't seem to be the case. Belgorod's
13:22war-weary residents are simply tired of the war as a whole, and many are far angrier at Putin than
13:27they
13:27are at Ukraine. There are signs of this all over. In a January 28th report, The Economist revealed that a
13:33local news website named Fonar had run a survey asking Belgorod residents various questions about
13:39Putin's war. Around 25% said they were devastated and disappointed that it had happened at all,
13:46with a similar number stating that the war had put their lives on hold. But the most eye-opening
13:50result came from the question asking whether respondents had given aid to Russian participants
13:55in the war. Only 6% said they had, which indicates that many in Belgorod never supported the war to
14:01begin
14:01with and perhaps even view what Ukraine is doing as a necessary evil to bring an end to the conflict.
14:06We can also go back to May 2023 and an interesting Newsweek report. The outlet reported on comments
14:13made by Anton Gerashenko, who was then Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs for Ukraine. Gerashenko
14:18claimed that members of the Freedom of Russia Legion, which is a paramilitary group made up of Russian
14:23citizens who are battling against Putin, had told him that some in Belgorod were making some interesting
14:28requests. We were even approached by the people of Belgorod with a request to conduct a peacekeeping
14:34operation on the territory of the region because, of course, they are tired of being bombed,
14:38the Legion members said. This means that residents were asking a group that is actively pro-Ukrainian
14:43to do what they could, up to and including entering Belgorod territory, to try and end the fighting.
14:49In essence, a friendly invasion by Ukraine's supporters. It never came to pass, but all of this casts an
14:54interesting new light on Ukraine's Belgorod strikes. Russia wants to cast Ukraine as an aggressor.
15:00However, it seems that support for the so-called Special Military Operation in Belgorod is far lower
15:05than the Kremlin wants to believe. Many in the region feel abandoned by Russia, left to absorb
15:10Ukrainian attacks because of Belgorod's clear military importance and its status as a border region,
15:15which makes it an easier target than most. Ukraine is very aware of this fact. The Kyiv Post reports that
15:21Brovdy himself has alluded to Ukrainian strategies that involve raising the ire of Russian people to
15:26put pressure on Putin. Brovdy said that he wants to add to the negative sentiment inside Russia,
15:32which could potentially raise tensions to the point that they create a destructive process within the
15:36country. That negative sentiment seems to be growing, not just in Belgorod but throughout Russia.
15:41In a July 1st report, TVP World said that the Ukraine-based Institute of Conflictology and
15:46Analysis of Russia had conducted a telephone poll of 1,600 Russian respondents. 81% of them said they
15:54would support an end to the war as early as tomorrow if the option was on the table, and 58
15:59% said that
15:59ending the war should be Putin's top priority, allowing him to focus on improving Russia's financial
16:04situation. As a final note, 73% of respondents said that they would oppose a second wave of mobilization,
16:11suggesting that most would rather an end to the war come through peace negotiations than yet more
16:15fighting. All of this brings us back to the dam on the Belgorod reservoir. Another attack on that
16:21dam serves a clear military purpose, several in fact, but perhaps the most important aspect of
16:26the strike is that it makes an already war-weary population in Belgorod even angrier at Putin
16:31for putting them in the situation they are in and then seemingly leaving them to their fate.
16:36Who knows, Belgorod might even end up being the first Russian region to outwardly rise up against
16:40Putin in protest. Its residents don't seem to blame Ukraine for their situation. It's their leader
16:46who is responsible for everything that is happening. More pressure on that leader is sure to come if
16:51these types of attacks continue. Unfortunately, it seems unlikely that Putin is going to stop until
16:56he gets what he wants, no matter how long it takes, how many have to die, and how much of
17:01a shambles he
17:02creates in Russia. Desperate to cement his legacy, Putin has ended up making Russia weaker on the global
17:07stage than it has been at any other time under his leadership. To find out why, watch our video
17:12where we cover all of the reasons why invading Ukraine was the worst decision that Putin ever
17:16made. And if you enjoyed this video, remember to subscribe to The Military Show and ring the
17:21notification bell to ensure that you see more of our coverage and analysis of the latest developments
17:25in the Ukraine war.
17:27And thank you for watching.