Ukraine has struck again, destroying a Russian MiG-29 fighter jet and the Pantsir-S1 air defense system meant to protect it at Khalino Airfield in Russia's Kursk region. This video examines how the operation unfolded, why the strike is strategically significant, and what it reveals about Russia's air defenses, drone warfare, and the broader battlefield. Watch until the end for the full analysis, and don't forget to like, subscribe, and share for more military updates.
⏱️ CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Ukraine Drone Strike Hits Russian Kursk Airfield
01:35 - Ukraine Destroys Russian MiG-29 and Pantsir System
03:52 - Ukrainian Drones Destroy 45 Million in Russian Weapons
05:04 - Ukrainian Drone Strikes Target Russian Radar and Depots
07:16 - Russian Air Defenses Lose 50 Percent of Pantsir Systems
13:21 - Can Russian Air Defenses Stop Ukrainian Drone Attacks
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SOURCES: https://pastebin.com/xk0wriJc
⏱️ CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Ukraine Drone Strike Hits Russian Kursk Airfield
01:35 - Ukraine Destroys Russian MiG-29 and Pantsir System
03:52 - Ukrainian Drones Destroy 45 Million in Russian Weapons
05:04 - Ukrainian Drone Strikes Target Russian Radar and Depots
07:16 - Russian Air Defenses Lose 50 Percent of Pantsir Systems
13:21 - Can Russian Air Defenses Stop Ukrainian Drone Attacks
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/xk0wriJc
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NewsTranscript
00:00There's an old saying that goes, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. If Putin
00:06were capable of feeling shame, it would be coursing through his body right now. Russia has just been
00:11humiliated at an airfield in the Kursk region. There, Russia was hiding one of its fighter jets
00:16behind one of the country's best air defense systems. Ukraine destroyed them both, first one,
00:22then the other. An unstoppable weapon has been burned to the ground, and Russia has been fooled
00:28twice in a matter of drone strikes. This is embarrassing. Humiliating. But then that's
00:34become a regular occurrence for Russia these days. We head to the Kalino airfield, which is located
00:39about 7 kilometers east of the center of Kursk. That oblast might ring a bell. It was the location
00:45of Russia's greatest humiliation in the Ukraine war to date, when Ukraine launched a counter-invasion
00:50in August 2024 that resulted in it taking several hundred square kilometers of Russian territory.
00:55Though that invasion was eventually repelled, it marked Kursk, which is a border region,
01:00as one of the most vulnerable oblasts in all of Russia. And now, the sight of Putin's greatest
01:05source of shame has once again been rubbed in his face. Since launching its invasion,
01:10Russia has turned Kalino into a dual-use airfield. The Kursk-Vostochnyi airport is located there,
01:16but hidden away in Kalino in a military airbase that supports Russian aviation activities.
01:21Protected by some of the most advanced air defenses that Russia has, this airbase is home
01:25fighter jets and bombers that have been launching missiles and glide bombs at Ukraine for much of
01:30the war. Ukraine needed to do something about the base, and on July 21st, the news broke that
01:36it had done just that. The basics are brutal. Ukraine's 15th separate Artillery Reconnaissance
01:41Brigade, which is also known as Black Forest, conducted a lethal drone attack that destroyed
01:45two of Russia's most valuable weapons. A MiG-29 fighter jet went down in the blasts,
01:51which is embarrassing enough for Russia. But even worse than that, Ukraine's drones also took out
01:55Pantsir S-1 air defense system that was in place to protect the jet. In one fell swoop,
02:00Ukraine destroyed two high-value targets, as Russia lost a combat aircraft and a short-range
02:05air defense system that is supposed to protect the Kalino airfield against the very threat that
02:09Ukraine just sent. Think about that for a moment. The entire point of an air defense system is to
02:13destroy incoming projectiles, be they missiles or drones. Russia installed its Pantsir S-1 at Kalino,
02:19thinking that it would do just that. It didn't. The very weapon that was supposed to stop Ukraine's
02:24drones was destroyed by those drones, and that opened the door for a follow-up attack
02:28that took out the MiG-29. As we said, humiliating. The attack was announced by Ukraine's general
02:34staff in a telegram post, with the threat of,
02:37More to come. Along with that post came a video, showcasing the strikes in such detail that Russia
02:43won't be able to refute that they happened or fall back on its usual drone debris excuse
02:47for why Ukraine's drones were able to reach yet another Russian base to take its valuable targets.
02:52The footage, which lasts about 50 seconds, begins with snippets of the reconnaissance work and
02:57planning that went into the strike. We see the base being identified, along with the MiG-29 and
03:02Pantsir S-1 that Ukraine would go on to target. We see the MiG-29 in flames, which is as
03:06clear an
03:06indicator of a successful strike as anybody could want. But the highlight comes during the last few
03:11seconds. Footage shot from the perspective of Ukraine's drone shows the Pantsir S-1 lined up in its
03:16sights. This is one of Russia's best air defense systems. You might think that system would be
03:20wheeling around, rattling off rounds of missiles at the drone. But no, the drone approaches with the
03:25air defense system seemingly oblivious. The footage cuts off just before the drone makes contact.
03:30But the message is clear. Not only did Russia's Pantsir S-1 fail to protect the MiG-29, but it
03:36was so
03:36useless that it didn't even seem capable of responding to Ukraine's drone. Was this a legitimate
03:40system? A decoy? Does it matter? The headline is that Ukraine just struck an airbase in Kursk
03:46that is supposed to be very well guarded, and Russia failed to do a thing about it.
03:51The pain piles on even more when we start digging into the numbers. It's not just that Russia has
03:56lost two important weapons. That's embarrassing enough. It's also that when we said that these
04:00weapons were high value, we meant it. A single MiG-29 fighter jet, back when these Soviet-era airframes
04:06were still being built, set Russia back about $25 million. A Pantsir S-1 costs about $20 million.
04:13So Russia has just been forced to absorb a total of $45 million in losses,
04:17thanks to a devastating 1-2 punch delivered by Ukrainian drones.
04:22And don't forget that the drones that did the damage would have cost a fraction of this amount.
04:26Ukraine hasn't confirmed which drones it used for its Kursk strike. However, we can assume the cost
04:30would have been in the low six figures at most for this strike, which is an immense return on investment.
04:35And all of this doesn't account for the broader operational impact of losing these assets.
04:40Kalino is more vulnerable than before due to losing its Pantsir S-1, which means future
04:44Ukrainian drones are more likely to reach their targets. Plus, the loss of a MiG-29 means one
04:49less platform that Russia can use to launch missiles and glide bombs. That leads to less damage done to
04:54Ukraine, and when Ukraine isn't under aerial pressure, it can focus more on inflicting losses
04:59against Russia on the ground. So July 21st wasn't exactly a great day for Russia. But by now,
05:05you know how Ukrainian strikes go. Rarely does Ukraine focus on a single location,
05:09and that was the case here. As equipment at Kalino burned, Ukraine's drones struck hard elsewhere in
05:14Russia and the occupied territories. Euromiden Press offers the full rundown. In Horley,
05:20which is located in the occupied region of Kherson, Ukraine destroyed a Bussol-S radar station.
05:25This station wasn't used to help Russian air defenses. Instead, the Russian military uses it to
05:29monitor maritime targets, likely in the Black Sea and on the Dnipro River. It's a coastal surveillance
05:35system, and now that it's gone, Russia won't be able to detect Ukrainian maritime drones as they
05:39make their way to positions in the occupied territories in Crimea. In Luhansk Oblast, Ukraine took out an
05:45ammunition depot close to Kundryutsche, and a logistics depot close to Davidovska in Donetsk.
05:51Zaporizhia was also a target, as Ukraine's drones destroyed a pair of control posts,
05:55once in Kamianska and the other in Komar. And it's not like Kursk only had its airfield to worry about,
06:01either. Ukraine's drones also hit a logistics warehouse close to Popov-Olozachi in the Kursk
06:06Oblast. Overall, it was a night of aerial terror and air defense failure for Russia.
06:11The MiG-29 and the Pantsir S1 were the showstoppers, but they weren't the whole show. Ukraine seems to be
06:16making the targeting of Russian airfields a habit. Only a few days before announcing the Kalino strike,
06:21Ukraine revealed that a precision drone operation against the Saki airfield in occupied Crimea
06:26had also been pulled off. This strike, which is a repeat target for Ukraine,
06:31involved the use of upgraded versions of the Hornet drone that Ukraine has been using in its
06:35logistics lockdown campaign, which is designed to isolate Crimea. An Su-24M went up in flames,
06:42leaving Russia to deal with the loss of two of its fighters in the space of a week.
06:45Was this new version of the Hornet used in Kursk, or did Ukraine employ a different drone?
06:50Ukraine isn't saying, it doesn't need to. The burning MiG-29 and destroyed Pantsir S1 say all
06:56that Ukraine needs to say. But now we're ready to go deeper. Why does taking out these high-value
07:01targets matter, and what does Ukraine's strike mean for Russia in the wider context of the war?
07:05We'll answer those questions in a moment. First, you're watching The Military Show. If you haven't
07:09subscribed yet, now's the perfect time to hit the button and enable notifications so you don't miss what we
07:14have coming next. Let's come back to the two systems that Ukraine destroyed in Kalino.
07:19You already know that the MiG-29 and Pantsir S1 are high-value targets monetarily.
07:24Another multi-million dollar hole has just been punched into the Russian war chest via these
07:28strikes. But the true value in these weapons lies in their capabilities.
07:32Now, we're not going to tell you that the MiG-29 is some world-dominating fighter jet that is among
07:36the best that any country can field, not by a long shot. A fighter jet that dates back to the
07:41Soviet era,
07:42the MiG-29 was designed to be an air superiority fighter during the 1970s and was intended to be a
07:48counter to the then-new F-15, according to Odin. There are around 20 variants of the jet and it's
07:53unclear which Ukraine struck at Kalino. However, the key stats are that this fighter jet has a combat
07:58range of 1,500 kilometers when loaded with external fuel, can reach a top speed of 2,400 kilometers per
08:05hour and can be loaded with a range of missiles and bombs. Only most of that doesn't really matter
08:10when it comes to how Russia is using MiG-29s against Ukraine. Despite having a massive numbers
08:15advantage when it comes to fighter jets, Russia uses most of its fighters to launch missiles and
08:19glide bombs at Ukraine from behind the front lines and, as we see in Kursk, ideally outside of Ukrainian
08:25territory. There's a good reason for that. Russia tried to send fighter jets into Ukraine early in the
08:29invasion, only to see dozens of those jets get shot down as they tried to conduct bombing runs against
08:34Ukrainian targets. So far, Russia has lost 438 aircraft against Ukraine, a large percentage of
08:41which were lost during the initial attempts to assert traditional air superiority. MiG-29s,
08:46along with plenty of other Russian fighters, were among these initial losses, and Russia had to
08:50quickly adapt how it uses its fighter jets for them to have any impact. So Russia came up with the
08:54bombing from behind the front strategy. That has the benefit of keeping Russia's fighter jets out of
08:59the range of Ukrainian air defenses, albeit with the downside being that those jets have to stay at
09:03airfields close enough to Ukraine that they can unleash their missiles and glide bombs. Still,
09:08Russia is willing to make that trade-off, especially given the effectiveness of glide bombs up to this
09:12point and the belief in some circles that glide bomb attacks are going to define the next phase of
09:16the war. That's what Forbes says is going to happen, at least. In a July 1st piece, Vikram Mittal wrote
09:22that
09:22glide bombs are gradually replacing traditional artillery as the main means of applying pressure against
09:27fortifications. This is the case for both sides. For Russia, constant glide bomb launches allow
09:33it to bombard Ukrainian settlements from afar using old fab bombs that have been converted using wing
09:38kits, providing them with greater range and more precision. What does this have to do with the MiG-29
09:42that Ukraine just destroyed? That fighter jet was based in Kursk, which is a border region. It's
09:47practically a certainty that Russia was using its now-ruined fighter jet as part of its aerial
09:51bombardment strategy, perhaps focusing on Sumy and other nearby regions. By taking it out, Ukraine has
09:56delivered a shot against an aerial strategy on which Russia has become increasingly reliant. Plus,
10:01Ukraine sent the message that no fighter jet sent to Kalina will be safe, which could force Russia to
10:06withdraw other airframes. Again, that will limit the impact of the missile and glide bomb campaign.
10:11Then there's the Pantsir-S-1. We call this air defense system one of the most important that Russia
10:16has in its arsenal because, in theory, it should be among the most effective against Ukraine's drones.
10:21Portable enough to be loaded onto the back of a truck, which allows it to be easily moved into position,
10:25the Pantsir-S-1's main strength is supposed to be its versatility. The system combines missiles with
10:31a pair of automatic 2A38M 30mm anti-aircraft guns to give it an extremely high kill probability.
10:38Army technology says this probability lies somewhere between 70 and 95 percent,
10:43though whether that's based on verifiable performance or Russian claims isn't clear.
10:47When a Pantsir-S-1 is fully loaded, it packs about 1,500 rounds of ammunition for its guns,
10:52which can vary between armor-piercing, fragmentation, and high-explosive rounds.
10:56The guns can rattle off 700 rounds per minute and have a range of 4 kilometers. The system also
11:01comes loaded with 12 57E6 air defense missiles. The point we're making here isn't about firepower,
11:07it's about versatility. The Pantsir-S-1 should be able to handle anything that Ukraine throws at
11:12it, from missiles to drones, due to having such a wide variety of ammunition that its users can mix and
11:17match to suit the situation. And yet the Pantsir-S-1 at Kalino failed.
11:22We know that Ukraine has come up with a strategy for destroying Pantsirs. Ukraine has regularly
11:26deployed entire swarms of drones to deal with these systems. The idea here is simple,
11:31creates so many targets that the Pantsir doesn't know where to fire, or if it does,
11:35can't fire enough to stop everything before one of the drones strikes. But that doesn't seem to be
11:39what happened at Kalino. The possibilities there are that the Pantsir-S-1 installed at the base didn't
11:44have a radar or had a malfunctioning radar that failed to track Ukraine's drone.
11:48Alternatively, and far more worrying for Russia, the Pantsir-S-1 may simply not be all that it's
11:53cracked up to be when it comes to defending against drone assaults. There are hints that
11:57the latter is indeed the case. In February, Pravda reported that Ukrainian strikes in 2025 halved the
12:02number of Pantsir surface-to-air artillery and missile systems that Russia has available.
12:07That's 50% of the stockpiles gone in a single year, which indicates that the Pantsir-S-1 isn't as
12:12capable as Russia would like the world to believe. That destruction of Pantsir systems had a strategic
12:17goal, as Ukraine's SSU pointed out when it said, that is why the systematic destruction of Pantsir
12:22systems has a strategic goal, to break through the enemy's air defense and create corridors to
12:27strike targets deep in its rear. This enables Ukraine's defense forces to operate effectively
12:31against military bases, warehouses, airfields, and other occupier facilities. But the real news here
12:37is 50% of systems destroyed. That tells us everything we need to know about the Pantsir-S-1.
12:42Despite being one of Russia's most advanced, close-range air defense systems, it simply isn't
12:47good enough to stop Ukraine's ever-evolving drones. Carlino just proved that firsthand,
12:52and Russia has been dealt a humiliating blow where yet another expensive air defense system has been
12:57destroyed by a drone that cost a fraction of the amount to build. Russia's Pantsir losses are now so
13:03extensive that it's been forced into using hybrid systems that combine different types of ground
13:08launchers for missiles. That's a sign that not only is Russia losing Pantsir-S-1s, but it also isn't
13:14able to replace them. Ukraine just keeps wearing it down, and every Pantsir that goes down leads to
13:20more vulnerability. So where does all of this leave Russia? In the grand scheme of the war, the
13:24destruction of a MiG-29 and Pantsir-S-1 at a Russian airbase is embarrassing, but hardly war-ending.
13:30What's more troubling for Putin is that this strike showcases how Russian air defenses
13:34simply aren't good enough. That extends far beyond the Pantsir and to every single system
13:39that Russia has in its arsenal. Thomas Withington, who is a fellow of military sciences at the Royal
13:45United Services Institute, lays the problem out. Russia's air defenses are simply not fit for
13:50purpose, that's very clear. They are not equipped to detect, track, and engage this kind of attack,
13:55and barring some massive redesign of the Russian air defense system, that will remain the case,
14:01Withington declares. In other words, drones are a problem that these defenses can't handle,
14:05and that problem isn't going away. And if you need any evidence of that, we offer a number, 174.
14:12That's how many Russian air defense systems were destroyed during the first five months of 2026,
14:17costing Russia $5.4 billion, United 24 Media reported on June 5th. On top of this air defense
14:23problem, Russia has lost a MiG-29 that can't be replaced. It's not that Russia can't build fighter
14:28jets, it's that the MiG-29 is long out of production. If Russia sends a new jet to Carlino,
14:33it could be a more expensive model that is far too valuable to lose or another MiG-29 from its
14:38existing
14:38and aging stockpiles. Neither is ideal for Russia. It doesn't want to risk more modern fighter jets for
14:44the relatively simple task of launching missiles and glide bombs. But each Soviet-era airframe that goes down
14:50eats into the stockpile of jets Russia has for this task. Compounding all of this is another problem.
14:55Ukraine's drones are only getting better when it seems that all of Russia's defenses are stuck in
15:00an era before drone warfare dominated. On July 17th, United 24 Media reported that Ukraine's drones,
15:06from frontline FPVs to deep-strike UAVs, have passed the 1 million strikes milestone for 2026.
15:13At this rate, it seems likely that Ukraine will hit 2 million drone strikes by the end of the year,
15:17especially as these weapons now account for 90% of all the strikes that Ukraine pulls off.
15:23The approach that worked in Carlino seems to work everywhere, and it makes sense for Ukraine to lean
15:28more into this strategy as we move deeper into the year. On the tech side, the Wall Street Journal reveals
15:33that Ukrainian soldiers are now receiving satellite intelligence in real time, allowing them to locate
15:38targets and arrange strikes much faster than ever before. Maybe that's what we saw at Carlino. Maybe satellite
15:44intelligence showed Ukraine that a MiG-29 was exposed, and it immediately sent the drones to
15:50take it out. Opportunities come knocking faster than ever before, and Ukraine keeps showing that
15:55it can react with deadly force. One thing is certain. Russia has been humiliated once more,
16:00as it tried to hide a fighter jet behind one of its best air defense systems, only to see both
16:05taken out.
16:06And the embarrassment keeps on coming. At least these targets were destroyed by drones,
16:10that Russia can understand even if it isn't happy about. But elsewhere, Ukraine is using
16:15fence posts to reshape the front line. Confused? Find out what we mean by watching our video. And if
16:21you enjoyed this one, remember to subscribe to The Military Show as we cover every Ukrainian
16:26strike against Russia and strike against Russia that matters. And thank you for watching.
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