Ukraine's Combat DIVERS Just Pulled Off Something So INSANE… Hollywood Couldn't Write This

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00:00:00 - Ukraine's DIVERS Just Pulled Off Something So EPIC… It Belongs in a MOVIE 00:17:33 - CIA and Ukraine Unite… Now Russia Can NEVER Win This Fight 00:36:54 - Putin's Inner Circle TURNS on Him… Ukraine Gets a HISTORIC Chance to End the War 00:54:30 - Russia’s FSB Hid in a Paradise Resort… Then Ukraine Turned It Into HELL  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

Transcript

00:00:00Russia must have thought that it had seen it all in Crimea. The stronghold had already been

00:00:05turned into a liability as Ukraine's drones ruined logistics, shattered shipping and seemed to fly

00:00:11all over Crimea itself nightly to take out air defenses, depots and other targets. But Russia

00:00:17should know by now that Ukraine always has more tricks up its sleeve and what we've just seen

00:00:23was a big one. Divers from Ukraine's Omega unit have just pulled off the unthinkable.

00:00:29Operating deep behind enemy lines, they've done something that a Hollywood scriptwriter

00:00:34would be proud of coming up with. And what this tells Russia is that the battle for Crimea has

00:00:39escalated. Ukraine is no longer just striking from afar. It can get people onto the peninsula.

00:00:45We'll start with the basics. On July 17th, the news broke that Ukraine had pulled off yet another

00:00:51strike against the Saki airbase in Crimea. This was the fourth repeated strike against Saki in the

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

00:01:02to strike. Rather than attempting to attack Russian aircraft while they were hidden away in hangars,

00:01:08Ukraine's operators allowed those aircraft to start taxiing. False hope for the Russian patsies.

00:01:14As Ukraine waited, an Su-24M took to the tarmac. It was about to take off when Ukraine's drones struck.

00:01:21Two of them hit the Su-24M in a precise attack that shows just how effective Ukraine's drones have

00:01:27become. The first scored a hit on the Su-24M's nose, breaking it into pieces, as the pilot just

00:01:33inches away watched. As the nose fell apart, Ukraine's second drone struck the fuel tanks,

00:01:39destroying the Russian fighter jet completely. Footage has already been shared.

00:01:44There can be no doubt that Ukraine pulled off what it said it did. We can watch one of Ukraine's

00:01:49drones

00:01:49with the Su-24M in its sights, descending rapidly and then scoring a hit. In one fell swoop, Russian air

00:01:56operations in Crimea became more expensive, as the Kremlin needs to scramble to find a fighter jet that it

00:02:01can send to the embattled peninsula to replace the Su-24M it just lost. But this isn't the real story.

00:02:08As

00:02:09impressive as the fourth strike against Saki in a month was when viewed merely on the basics,

00:02:14this attack was unlike anything Ukraine has pulled off in Crimea before. Normally we'd be telling you

00:02:19about drones launched from the mainland or perhaps from the surfaces of maritime drones in the Black Sea

00:02:24when reporting on this type of strike. Not this time. Ukraine's latest success didn't come by way of

00:02:31its usual drone operators. In a story worthy of a movie, Ukraine sent combat divers directly into

00:02:37Crimea to launch the attack on Sakiya base. Those divers are members of the Ukrainian National Guard's

00:02:44Omega Special Forces Center, and they are trained to take on the sorts of missions that the average

00:02:49Ukrainian soldier isn't equipped to pull off. Omega is special. Though rarely given the spotlight in

00:02:55Ukraine's war against Russia, Omega operators are among the best of the best that Ukraine has to

00:03:01offer. The Special Forces Center that bears the Omega name has eight detachments, all also named Omega

00:03:07in a nod toward the unit's cohesiveness and its ability to stay in the shadows. Omega's remit is simple.

00:03:14Ensure national security and defense by combating terrorism and repelling armed aggression against

00:03:19Ukraine. In the context of Putin's so-called Special Military Operation,

00:03:24that roughly translates to find anything Russian and destroy it.

00:03:28Only Ukraine's elite operatives become part of Omega. The center is believed to have somewhere

00:03:33between 501 and 1,500 service members, military land reports. And every one of those members is a

00:03:41highly trained specialist. Paratroopers, mountain warfare experts and others who have spent their careers

00:03:47training for very specific circumstances find their way into Omega. And of course there are the combat

00:03:53divers, the stars of the Saki Show. We don't know a huge amount about the precise nature of the

00:03:59operation that Omega pulled off in Saki. That's part of the course. A center like Omega isn't going to

00:04:04broadcast every aspect of a clandestine operation after the fact. After all, a strategy that worked

00:04:10once can work again as long as Russia doesn't know exactly how it was done. But we do know a

00:04:15little

00:04:16thanks to a telegram post by commander of Ukraine's National Guard, Oleksandr Pivnenko. In his July 16th

00:04:23post, Pivnenko said, Our special forces of the Omega Special Operations Center destroyed a Russian Su-24M

00:04:31bomber at the Saki military airfield in temporarily occupied Crimea. The successful operation was

00:04:37carried out by combat divers of the Omega Special Operations Center, who once again confirmed their ability

00:04:43to carry out high precision strikes on enemy targets far behind their lines. More information

00:04:49comes from United 24 media, which says that the operation took three weeks to prepare, and it was

00:04:55conducted with the help of Ukraine's Air Force and Security Service. Pivnenko then went on to share

00:05:00some small details of what the operation involved. Identification of the target took place in the days

00:05:06leading up to the diver's assault. The National Guard knew that Russia had an Su-24 Emetsaki, which was likely

00:05:12being used to launch missiles at mainland Ukraine. Planning followed as Omega Special Forces prepared

00:05:17an operation that would see them infiltrate Crimea itself from where they would launch drones to target

00:05:22the Su-24M. But beyond that, we can only assume based on what we know about the work of combat

00:05:28divers.

00:05:28Those divers would have had to be deployed to Crimea in some way, perhaps via a patrol boat or a

00:05:34submersible to keep them hidden away from sight. They would have also had to deal with the challenges of

00:05:38navigating to a coastal area in Crimea where they could launch their drones and then escape.

00:05:43And don't forget, they also had to transport the drones. All of this while managing the

00:05:48navigational aspects of the work, which involves swimming underwater, dealing with tides and currents

00:05:53to reach their objective. Any mistake would have been costly. Arriving at the wrong coastal location

00:05:59could have meant the end of the operation before it even started. Sure, those combat divers would have

00:06:04had the tools to help them with the job. Waterproof tablets are now available to many who take on this

00:06:09role, offering navigational help via GPS and Doppler satellite positioning. But still the task was

00:06:15massive. Get into Crimea, conduct a perfectly timed drone strike at Saki and then get back out again.

00:06:22We told you these people were specialists, now you see why. There is some precedent for this kind of

00:06:28operation. During the early days of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Russia managed to capture Snake Island,

00:06:34a short bombardment that captured the Ukrainian border guards who had essentially told the Russian

00:06:38invaders to screw themselves after those invaders ordered the guards off the island. Snake Island was

00:06:44a pretty big win for Russia. If Russia had held on to it, the island's location in the Western Black

00:06:49Sea

00:06:49would have made it the perfect place to locate air defenses. Plus the island, which is less than a

00:06:54kilometer in length, also happened to be located on one of the shipping paths that Ukraine uses to send

00:06:59merchant ships through the Black Sea and into international waters. Russia started to play

00:07:04games with Snake Island soon after capturing it. On June 30, 2022, Putin's forces announced their

00:07:10withdrawal, supposedly as a gesture of goodwill to Ukraine. Osprey Publishing reports, Ukraine didn't

00:07:17believe Russian forces had truly left. What goodwill could exist in a nation that was trying to subjugate

00:07:22Ukraine. So on July 7, 2022, combat divers from Ukraine's 73rd Maritime Special Operations Center

00:07:29were called into action. Approaching Snake Island covertly using underwater vehicles,

00:07:35those divers who had received training from the UK's Special Boat Service alighted and checked Snake

00:07:41Island to see if Russia's claims were true. Sure enough, Russian warships soon began an approach,

00:07:47telling Ukraine that Russian goodwill extends about as far as Putin's thinking about the future of his own

00:07:52country. The divers retreated, but a blueprint was in place. Over the years since, Ukraine's combat

00:07:58divers have been involved in assaults on the Kinburn Spit, which also offers whoever controls it some

00:08:03measure of control over Black Sea traffic and the Dnipro River. Those divers have a lot of experience.

00:08:09We believe that experience was put to the test in Crimea against the Saki Air Base,

00:08:14and Ukraine's divers passed that test with flying colors. Still, so much of this is speculation.

00:08:20Omega doesn't want to reveal its secrets, nor should it. However, there is one thing that we know about

00:08:25the Saki operation that Ukraine's National Guard hasn't revealed, but has since been reported. But

00:08:30before we reveal what that game-changing nugget of information is, this is your reminder that you are

00:08:35watching the military show. If you're getting insight from our channel, we have plenty more in store.

00:08:40Hit subscribe and ring the notification bell to ensure you see what's coming next.

00:08:46Ukraine's combat divers and the specifics of their work may be shrouded in secrecy,

00:08:51but the drones that they use to take out Russia's Su-24M aren't. The divers used the famous AI-powered

00:08:58Hornet drones that have become such a major feature of the logistical lockdown campaign that Ukraine is

00:09:03using to isolate Crimea. Only these weren't Hornets as we know them. In a July 17th follow-up report on

00:09:10Russia's Saki disaster, United-24M revealed that Ukraine's remarkable combat diving mission

00:09:16was also used as a test for an upgraded version of the Hornet drone. This new version retains the

00:09:22AI-infused guidance system that has made it so effective in occupied Ukraine. However,

00:09:27it was upgraded by Omega's technical specialists into a fixed-wing variant that can fly much farther

00:09:32than the original Hornet. That's massive for Ukraine. With this new version of the Hornet,

00:09:37which is reported to cost somewhere between $10,000 and $11,000, Ukraine can force Russia to

00:09:43move its Crimean airpower even further back. That limits effectiveness in terms of the launching

00:09:48of missiles and glide bombs from the Crimean Peninsula. It also introduces some terrifying cost

00:09:53implications for Russia. A single Su-24M costs Russia about $25 million per unit. Ukraine just took

00:10:01one of them out with drones that cost a combined total of about $20,000. This is a massive return

00:10:07on

00:10:07investment. And now that Ukraine has developed this new Hornet to go along with its innovative

00:10:11method of sending combat divers into Crimea, Russia knows that it has a multi-million dollar

00:10:16problem on its hands. What if it isn't an Su-24M next? What if Ukraine uses its upgraded Hornets to

00:10:23take

00:10:23out an $85 million Su-35? That's now a very real possibility, which will only further encourage Russia

00:10:31to pull its airpower even deeper into Crimea and perhaps off the peninsula altogether. Putin's

00:10:37Crimea catastrophe continues. And this is what Omega's mind-boggling operation tells us. Ukraine

00:10:44has come up with a method of getting soldiers onto Crimea without launching the sort of full-scale

00:10:50amphibious assault that would almost certainly end in disaster. Ukraine simply doesn't have the resources

00:10:55it needs for such an assault. The Ukrainian Navy, such as it is, doesn't really contain warships.

00:11:00It's mostly patrol vessels and mine warfare ships, which makes a traditional amphibious assault

00:11:06impossible. Ukraine may be able to liberate Crimea with a large enough force, but getting that force

00:11:11onto the peninsula is always going to pose a problem. Attempting to storm the Crimean beaches is

00:11:17also a very obvious form of attack. Russia's defenses would be in full force, and Ukraine would have to

00:11:23absorb far too many casualties to make such an attack possible, even if it had the amphibious

00:11:28landing vessels it needs for an all-out assault. Not that any of this has stopped Russia from panicking.

00:11:33In a June 17 report, The Kiev Independent revealed that Russia was preparing for possible Ukrainian

00:11:38landings in Crimea by trying to buff up its coastal defenses. That's when you know a nation is terrified.

00:11:44Getting ready for an invasion that is so unlikely to come tells us that Russian command is little more

00:11:50than one massive headless chicken when it comes to Crimea. What we've just seen with the Omega combat

00:11:55divers is Ukraine doing what it's done so many times against Russia. Going against all expectations.

00:12:02Russia expected Ukrainian landings, but it didn't expect a small team of divers armed with new Hornet

00:12:08drones to sneak onto Crimea, unleash an Su-24M destroying assault against an already battered airfield,

00:12:14and then get back out again. What we've just seen is a compounding of Putin's Crimea crisis,

00:12:19as Ukraine has shown Russia that all of the defenses that it tries to build up can do nothing to

00:12:24stop

00:12:24a country that has become one of the world's foremost experts in asymmetric warfare. This

00:12:30wasn't a counter-invasion of Crimea. It was a precise operation, and we'll likely start seeing Ukraine

00:12:35pull off more of this kind of operation as Putin's hold over Crimea crumbles. Eventually, Russia won't

00:12:41go out with a bang in Crimea, it will go out with a whimper. We know that if we look

00:12:45at Crimea through a wider

00:12:47lens. As impressive as Omega's operation was, it was just one more punch to the gut for a Russian

00:12:52occupying force that has become punch drunkly. Saki alone shows that. Russia's air power has

00:12:58already been diminished to the point where it can use its fighter jets and bombers for little more

00:13:02than taking off from airfields, hovering around those airfields to launch missiles and bombs,

00:13:07and then landing. There are rarely Russian sorties carried out beyond the occupied territories, which

00:13:13might have a little something to do with Ukraine having already destroyed 438 of Russia's planes

00:13:18and 354 of its helicopters, as reported by Ukraine on July 20th. Airfields like Saki are now the

00:13:25lifeblood of Russia's entire aerial campaign. If those airfields are compromised, Putin's strategy of

00:13:31using Crimea to launch aerial assaults against Ukraine is in serious trouble. And Saki is compromised,

00:13:37big time. We mentioned earlier that the Omega operation that destroyed an Su-24M at Saki airbase

00:13:43is just one of four that Ukraine has conducted during the past month or so. Just a couple of weeks

00:13:48before, on July 3rd, the Kyiv Post revealed Saki had been attacked with a drone strike so powerful

00:13:53that it destroyed or damaged seven aircraft, including Su-30s and Su-24Ms. That strike came in the wake of

00:14:01another, carried out just a few days before, where Ukrainian drones scored five confirmed hits on

00:14:06hangars in Saki. One of those drone strikes caused a fire at a hangar that Russia used to store

00:14:11an Su-30SM. If Russia hasn't gotten the message yet, we'll spell it out for any of their bots that

00:14:17are

00:14:17watching this video. Saki airbase isn't safe anymore. The same could be said for the rest of Crimea.

00:14:23We call what is happening on that peninsula a catastrophe for Putin, and we don't use that

00:14:28word lightly. Omega's combat divers completed their operation as Crimea has been isolated

00:14:33through a massive Ukrainian campaign that has sliced through logistical arteries on the mainland

00:14:39and is destroying supply and fuel ships in the Sea of Azov as we speak. The peninsula is in the

00:14:45grips of a severe energy crisis as a result of these strikes. Fuel is running low at gas stations,

00:14:51assuming occupiers can find gas stations that have any fuel at all. There are also rolling blackouts

00:14:56in Crimea, as Ukraine takes aim at power substations and thermal power plants. In the 10 days leading up

00:15:02to July 16th, Ukraine had struck 147 fuel tankers, trying to get gasoline and diesel to Crimea via the

00:15:09Sea of Azov. Ukraine's campaign is also expanding to the point where it unleashed 7,028 successful

00:15:17mid-range strikes against Russia in June. Latvia is close to double the 3,800 successful strikes from the

00:15:23U.S. Army of the Sea of Azov. Ukraine's campaign in the U.S. Army of the U.S. Army

00:15:27of the U.S. Army.

00:15:27What Omega's combat divers did could be called a middle strike of its own, albeit one that was

00:15:33conducted in a way that we haven't seen before. But what Omega's operation also shows us is that

00:15:38Russia has lost control of the waters that surround Crimea. The Black Sea, in particular, has transformed

00:15:44from an asset that Russia could use to attack mainland Ukraine into a liability that now serves as a

00:15:50route Ukraine can use to conduct operations like the combat diver mission we've just seen.

00:15:55Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said as much on July 5th, as he declared that Russia had lost

00:16:01the Black Sea. It's hard to argue with. Ukraine, with no navy, remember, has systematically destroyed

00:16:07warships that make up the Black Sea fleet to the point where what remains of Russia's fleet is now

00:16:12hiding as far away from Ukraine's drones and missiles as possible. Ukraine has conducted 33 strikes

00:16:18against main combat ships, 34 against Russian landing ships, and 23 against auxiliary vessels.

00:16:26That Black Sea campaign has made the waters around Crimea more dangerous for Russian occupiers

00:16:31than they are for Ukraine's defenders. So dangerous that Ukraine can now send combat

00:16:36divers to Crimea itself. This Black Sea transformation from asset to liability extends to Crimea itself.

00:16:43The key to Russia's imperialistic ambitions in Ukraine is supposed to be a symbol.

00:16:49Russia took Crimea with barely a fight back in 2014. Putin has held that over Ukraine's collective head.

00:16:55The market's Crimea is the place to be for all of Russia's most affluent people. Now it's a war zone,

00:17:01with no fuel, limited food, no electricity, and burning fighter jets at air bases.

00:17:07Many of the occupiers in Crimea may never hear about what Omega pulled off,

00:17:11at least not until long after the fact. Russia will do everything to hide this remarkable combat

00:17:16diving operation from its people. But hiding what happened changes nothing. Ukraine is already

00:17:22isolating Crimea. Now it has a new way to strike and Crimea's offensive potential has been weakened.

00:17:29Ukraine's Omega divers just pulled off the unthinkable in Crimea.

00:17:33On the morning of December 17th, 2024, Lieutenant General Igor Kirilov walked out of an apartment

00:17:40block on Ryazanskyy Prospect in southeastern Moscow, roughly seven kilometers from the Kremlin.

00:17:47He was the head of Russia's radiological, chemical and biological defense forces,

00:17:51one of the most senior officers in the entire Russian military, standing in the heart of the best

00:17:56protected capital in the country. An electric scooter was parked near the entrance. As Kirilov and his

00:18:02assistant passed it, the scooter exploded. Russian state media later estimated the device carried

00:18:08around 300 grams of TNT equivalent, enough to shatter windows in the building across the street.

00:18:14Both men were killed instantly. Within hours, a source inside Ukraine's security service, the SBU,

00:18:21confirmed to multiple Western outlets that this had been their operation, carried out one day after

00:18:26Ukrainian prosecutors had formally charged Kirilov with overseeing the use of banned chemical weapons.

00:18:32Now think about what that actually means. For years, Russia told its own people and the world

00:18:38that its heartland was untouchable. The war in Ukraine was something happening far away,

00:18:43on someone else's soil, and Russia was fully in control and winning. And yet, here was one of its top

00:18:49generals killed by a bomb on a scooter, just a few minutes drive from Red Square.

00:18:54But whether you call this a murder or an assassination, it was the visible tip of something

00:18:58built quietly and patiently over more than a decade. Let's walk through how Ukraine's

00:19:03intelligence services went from a broken, infiltrated, half-collapse wreck in 2014,

00:19:09into one of the most feared covert forces on the planet, and show the role the CIA played in building

00:19:15it.

00:19:16To understand how we got here, we need to go back to 2014, when Russia seized Crimea and lit the

00:19:22fuse

00:19:22on the war in the Donbass. Ukraine's security services weren't just weak, they were compromised

00:19:28from the inside out. In fact, the SBU headquarters in Luhansk, which is in Donbass itself, were stormed

00:19:35in April 2014 during the prelude to the war in the Donbass. One analysis from Marek Shvyacek,

00:19:41a Polish internal security agency officer and a specialist on Russian secret service operations,

00:19:47suggest that the SBU was in fact already penetrated by the Russian secret services.

00:19:53The bare facts of that day are not in dispute. On April 6, 2014, a crowd surged toward the regional

00:20:00SBU building, and by the time it was over, the headquarters had fallen and its armory was empty.

00:20:05An entire stockpile of military-grade rifles, grenades and explosives vanished, which was

00:20:11enough to help arm the insurrection that was about to engulf the Donbass and trigger the war.

00:20:16And the manner in which the building fell is peculiar. The officers inside, including men

00:20:21from the elite Alpha Unit, had been ordered to give up even their service pistols. The weapon store

00:20:26was secured with dummy mines. A nearby garrison of 12,000 troops sent no reinforcements, and the

00:20:32detainees who had been arrested the night before were released back into the crowd, where they

00:20:37promptly helped lead the assault. Taken one at a time, each of these could be written off as panic

00:20:42or incompetence. Taken together, the Polish analysts argued that the building was actually open from

00:20:48the inside. His case is that Russia didn't need to recruit individual officers when it could lean on the

00:20:54local politicians who controlled them. The party of region's patrons, whose networks ran through the

00:20:59police, the administration, and the security service itself. But even this was actually coincidental.

00:21:06The supporting evidence for just how weak the SBU was at the time was the testimony of the man who

00:21:11took over it after the revolution, Valentin Nalivayachenko. He said he inherited a service that was

00:21:18hollowed out. Its previous leadership having fled to Russia or Crimea, with no operative files and no

00:21:23weapons left behind. He's described the agency as heavily infiltrated by Russia's FSB, and he claimed to

00:21:30be the first SBU chief who actually began detaining FSB officers inside Ukraine. None of that proves

00:21:37what happened in Luhansk, but it tells you the soil was right for it. When the man who ran the

00:21:42service

00:21:42says it was rotten with Russian agents, the question of whether one of its outposts was handed over

00:21:48rather than lost, stops being a conspiracy theory and becomes a reasonable thing to ask.

00:21:53So that's the wreck Ukraine started from. The country could be absorbed back into Russia's orbit,

00:22:00with the heirs of the KGB running the show, or it could try to build genuinely democratic,

00:22:05western-facing services out of the rubble. Kyiv chose the second path. The man who became central to

00:22:11that rebuild was Valery Kondratiuk, who worked first inside the SBU and later took over the HUR,

00:22:18Ukraine's military intelligence service. In 2015, according to investigations by the

00:22:24Washington Post and the New York Times, the CIA helped support the creation of a new specialized

00:22:29SBU unit called the Fifth Directorate, which combined counterintelligence with special operations.

00:22:36That unit began building networks of agents inside occupied territory, running surveillance,

00:22:41and carrying out some of Ukraine's earliest covert actions against Russian proxy forces.

00:22:46But none of this was a given, and the Americans were deeply wary, for good reason.

00:22:51They knew Ukrainian intelligence was riddled with Russian sources,

00:22:54and they worried that anything they shared would land on a desk in Moscow within days.

00:22:59So Kondratiuk decided not to leave it up to chance. He handed over a stack of top-secret Russian

00:23:04military documents, essentially as a gift, to prove that Ukraine had access worth having

00:23:09and the discipline to protect it. Former CIA operations officer Ed Bogan, who spoke to journalist

00:23:15David Kirichenko for Forbes, described the Ukrainian mindset in those years as something close to what

00:23:21Americans felt after 9-11. But Ukrainian officers had to overcome decades of Soviet-era mistrust

00:23:27before the Americans would open up. And when one side consistently delivers useful, accurate information,

00:23:33and proves it can keep a secret, the other side starts to share more in return. So for years,

00:23:39the Ukrainians delivered. And here's the part that's important for the story here. Ukraine wasn't

00:23:44simply a charity case receiving American help. Many Ukrainians speak Russian as a native language,

00:23:50and the languages themselves are closely related. Many also have family, friends, and an intimate cultural

00:23:55knowledge of the country they were now fighting. So Ukraine understood Russia in a way no Western

00:24:01service ever could, and that allowed it to gather intelligence to generate for the CIA. In turn,

00:24:07the CIA was getting an extraordinary window into the Russian military and its decision-making.

00:24:12The notable contributions were intercepted material that helped establish Russian involvement

00:24:17in the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine and pursuing the Russian

00:24:24operatives behind interference in the 2016 US election. So by the eve of the full-scale invasion in

00:24:302022, the cooperation had reportedly expanded to include around a dozen secret forward bases strung

00:24:37along Ukraine's border with Russia, built and equipped with CIA support, from which Ukrainian officers

00:24:42tracked Russian troop movements and ran their own networks. By one account, the Ukrainians were

00:24:48generating more intelligence on Russia than the Americans could fully process in CIA's Kyiv station.

00:24:54The two services also began running joint operations together in other parts of the world,

00:24:59which in the intelligence trade is the highest expression of trust there is.

00:25:03Out of this period came a new generation of officers, one that was made completely detached

00:25:08from Ukraine's past in the Soviet Union and made entirely from people born in independent Ukraine.

00:25:13By far the most important of them was Kirill Budenov. The New York Times reported in February

00:25:192024 that Budenov served in Unit 2245, an elite military intelligence formation that worked closely

00:25:27with the CIA after 2015. Its speciality was recovering Russian military hardware, communications gear,

00:25:34and other equipment that could be torn apart and studied by both Ukrainian and American analysts.

00:25:39Budenov would go on to lead HUR, and the officers trained in those years now sit at the top of

00:25:45nearly

00:25:45every Ukrainian intelligence and security organization. They became the architects of

00:25:51the campaigns we're about to walk you through. Now, one feature of that system is that Ukraine

00:25:56runs two major services that openly compete with each other. There's the HUR, the military intelligence

00:26:02directorate focused largely abroad, and the SVU, the domestic security service. The competition between

00:26:08domestic and foreign intelligence and covert operations pushes both services to be better and to

00:26:14deliver results. Whether or not you accept that framing, the so-called rivalry has produced an

00:26:19extraordinary run of operations, and nowhere has that race been more visible than at sea.

00:26:25But before we get there, make sure to subscribe to the military show to watch all the military

00:26:30specifics of the operations we're about to mention and keep in touch with all the news in the war in

00:26:35Ukraine and global geopolitics. Now, when Russia invaded in 2022, Ukraine had almost no navy to speak of.

00:26:43It had lost most of its fleet when Russia took Crimea in 2014, and it scuttled its own flagship

00:26:49frigate in the opening days of the war to keep it out of Russian hands. On paper, Russia owned the

00:26:54Black Sea. Its fleet blockaded Ukrainian ports, choking off grain exports that fed people from North

00:27:00Africa to the Middle East, and it launched cruise missiles at Ukrainian cities. But in April 2022,

00:27:06the cruiser Moskva, the flagship of the entire Black Sea fleet, caught fire and sank. Ukraine had hit it

00:27:13with two domestically built Neptune anti-ship missiles. While it's important to underscore the

00:27:18success of Ukraine's military forces here, it's the intelligence services from the US who flagged

00:27:24Moskva's location, and Ukraine services who acted on the information. The Moskva became the first Russian

00:27:30flagship lost in combat since the Russo-Japanese War of 1905, and losing it forced Russia to pull its

00:27:37ships back and play it safe. This created a new problem for Ukraine, which was then solved by

00:27:43the naval drone, and this is where Ukrainian improvisation became genuinely revolutionary.

00:27:47The SBU developed a C-drone called the C-Baby, built early on from the parts of jet skis and

00:27:53motorboats,

00:27:54and off-the-shelf electronics. In line with the rivalry, HUR developed the Magura drone to continue

00:28:00operations that would target Russian ports, chiefly in Crimea. These machines were small, fast, low to

00:28:06the water, hard to spot, and packed with explosives, and they could be controlled from hundreds of kilometers

00:28:12away using satellite links. In effect, two rival Ukrainian agencies had each built a robot navy from

00:28:19scratch. In February 2024, a swarm of Magura V-5 drone sank a missile corvette near Crimea. Two weeks

00:28:26later, they sank the landing ship Cesar Kunikov. In March, they sank the patrol ship Sergei Kotov,

00:28:33a vessel Ukraine valued at around $65 million destroyed by drones that cost a tiny fraction of that.

00:28:39By various Western estimates, by March 2024, Ukraine had sunk or disabled roughly a third

00:28:45of Russia's Black Sea fleet and forced the rest to relocate east to Novorossiysk, hundreds of kilometers

00:28:51from Crimea, too far away to threaten Ukrainian shipping or defend the peninsula they were supposed

00:28:56to be protecting. The same campaign, alongside repeated SBU operations, battered the Kerch Bridge,

00:29:03the symbolic and logistical link between Russia and occupied Crimea that Putin had personally driven

00:29:09a truck across to open in 2018. Then the drone started doing things no one had ever done before.

00:29:15On the last day of 2024, a Magura drone fired a modified heat-seeking missile and shot down two

00:29:21Russian Mi-8 helicopters off the coast of Crimea. That was the first time in history a naval drone had

00:29:27destroyed a military aircraft. The following spring, an upgraded Magura V-7 carrying American-made sidewinder

00:29:34missiles shot down two Russian Su-30 fighter jets over the Black Sea, according to Ukrainian officials.

00:29:41But that's only a part of how Ukraine's intelligence services directly helped in the war effort.

00:29:46For the bigger picture, we need to return to dry land and to the campaign that Kirilov's death was

00:29:52part of. That death was a small line in a long ledger, and some of the earlier strikes were never

00:29:57officially claimed. In August 2022, a car bomb near Moscow killed Darya Dugina, the daughter of

00:30:03prominent Russian nationalist Eidolog. American intelligence officials later assessed that elements

00:30:09of the Ukrainian government were behind it, which Ukraine denied. In the spring of 2023,

00:30:14a bomb hidden inside a statuette killed the prominent Russian war blogger,

00:30:18known as Vlad Len Tartarsky, in a St. Petersburg cafe. Russia initially blamed Ukraine and found a Russian

00:30:25political activist who actually delivered the statuette. As it would turn out from Ukraine's

00:30:29own reporting a year later, the entire operation was fully orchestrated by Ukraine secret services,

00:30:35and the Russian activist was used as the most expendable piece of the puzzle, further degrading

00:30:40the influence and prestige of Russian services. The event also showcased just how cutthroat the

00:30:45operations became, using Russian people in operations against the Russian government with 42 casualties,

00:30:51in an effort to remove prominent military strategists, analysts, and anyone close to Putin. And as the

00:30:58war ground on, that pace quickened, and the targets climbed higher up the chain of command.

00:31:03In April 2025, a car bomb in Balashishka, just east of Moscow, killed Lieutenant General Yaroslav

00:31:10Moskalik, a deputy head of the main operational directorate of the Russian general staff,

00:31:15who once sat at the Normandy-format ceasefire talks. Days later, Ukrainian President

00:31:20Vladimir Zelensky said he'd received a report from Ukraine's foreign intelligence chief on the

00:31:25liquidation of senior Russian figures, adding that justice inevitably comes, though he didn't name

00:31:30Moskalik directly. In December 2025, another car bomb in Moscow killed Lieutenant General Fenil Savarov.

00:31:38And in June 2026, an artillery commander named Demir Davidov was killed in that same Balashishka

00:31:45neighborhood, less than a kilometer from where Moskalik died. You might ask what all of this actually

00:31:50achieves militarily. Killing one general does not win a war, and that's a fair assessment.

00:31:55Ukrainers argue that the value here is partly psychological, both for Ukrainians who see war

00:32:00criminals being held to account, and for a Western audience learning that Ukraine's reach goes further

00:32:05than anyone had credited. But there's a colder logic too. Each of these killings tell every Russian

00:32:11officer that a uniform and a desk in Moscow aren't a safe place from which to plan a war against

00:32:16Ukraine. It forces Russia's security services to spend enormous resources looking inward,

00:32:22guarding their own and hunting for leaks, instead of focusing entirely on the front.

00:32:26But Ukraine's secret services also set the conditions for Ukraine's biggest battlefield surprises.

00:32:32The networks of agents that the Fifth Directorate and the HUR built inside occupied territory

00:32:38fed targeting information back to Ukrainian forces, allowing precise long-range strikes

00:32:43with sophisticated drones and newly developed missiles. And when Ukraine stunned the world in

00:32:48August 2024 by pushing across the border into Kursk, the first siege of Russian soil by a foreign army

00:32:54since the Second World War, it was the reconnaissance of these services that underscored the operational

00:32:59deficiencies in the region. The covert war and the conventional war enabled one another,

00:33:05because every time Ukraine would capitalize on intelligence, it could push the front line

00:33:10just a bit farther, unnerve Russian services and allow its own operatives to get more intel for the

00:33:15next push. All of this came together at the start of June 2025 in the now famous Operation Spiderweb.

00:33:23In what was revealed to be an 18-month effort, Ukrainian operatives had been smuggling drones and launch

00:33:29equipment into Russia and concealing them inside wooden cabins, built to look like ordinary pre-fabricated

00:33:35homes mounted on trucks. On the day of the attack, the cabin roof slid open at staging points near

00:33:40several Russian air bases. One of the targets was the Belaya in eastern Siberia, which is more than

00:33:464,000 kilometers from Ukraine. The drones poured in droves and damaged 295 and 222 M3 bombers, which

00:33:53Russia had been using to rain cruise missiles on Ukrainian cities and which were one of the few

00:33:58options that could carry nuclear missiles. Ukraine's SBU initially said it had hit 41 aircraft,

00:34:05taking out around a third of Russia's strategic cruise missile carriers, and that the damage came

00:34:10to around $7 billion. The defense intelligence firm Jaynes used satellite imagery to assess that the

00:34:16strike destroyed around 12 aircraft and damaged several more. A senior NATO official split the

00:34:22difference at roughly 10 to 13 aircraft destroyed, with around 40 damage in total, and estimated the

00:34:28operation knocked out a fifth of Russia's operational long-range aviation. Whichever number you take,

00:34:33the key is that Russia doesn't actually build these bombers anymore, so every loss was permanent

00:34:38and directly hurt Russia's ability to project power. And the final campaign that the secret

00:34:43services undertook was against Russia's economy, and it's here where CIA's fingerprints reappear.

00:34:50A New York Times investigation reported that CIA officers and American military planners

00:34:55helped Ukraine refine its long-range campaign against Russia's energy sector. Rather than hitting

00:35:01refineries at random, the planning reportedly focused on the components that are hardest and slowest to

00:35:07replace. In one case, described in that reporting, a CIA expert identified a specific refinery cupola,

00:35:14whose destruction could leave a facility offline for weeks. The same logic was applied to Russia's so-called

00:35:20Shadow Fleet, the aging tankers Moscow uses to move sanctioned oil around the world and keep the cash

00:35:26flowing into its war. The CIA was authorised to support elements of that effort as well. What began

00:35:32in 2014, as help rebuilding a broken spy service, had evolved a decade later into a joint campaign to

00:35:39strangle the financial lifeblood of the Russian war machine. And the broader political angle here is just

00:35:45as important. After the public clash between President Donald Trump and President Zelensky in February

00:35:512025, Washington temporarily suspended intelligence cooperation with Kyiv. And publicly, it looked like

00:35:57this was it for the CIA-SBU partnership. But the pause proved short-lived. Intelligence sharing was

00:36:03restored in March 2025, allowing the CIA and Ukraine's intelligence services to resume their close cooperation.

00:36:11The reason is simple. For as much as Ukraine depended on the CIA for support, the CIA also benefited from

00:36:18having Ukrainian operatives lodged deep inside Russia. Ukraine understands Russia in ways Western

00:36:23intelligence services can't easily replicate, making it a vital partner in intelligence operations,

00:36:29not only on Ukrainian and Russian soil, but anywhere Moscow projects influence, including the Middle East.

00:36:35So how does this factor into the broader war? Putin's rule hinges on the story that Russia has

00:36:41much sharper claws than Ukraine, and that it would inevitably win the invasion, and that the

00:36:45underlying secret services from Russia could infiltrate Ukraine and keep it imbalanced,

00:36:50towing the line toward Russia's geopolitical sphere of influence.

00:36:54Moscow will burn. That's the warning that Ukraine has been delivering for months. Putin has heard it,

00:37:01he has tried to ignore it. But after Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivered a pair of brutal bombshells

00:37:07back to back, Putin has to realize that the end is coming. Why? Ukraine might be bringing the gasoline,

00:37:15but it's Putin's own people who are going to light the match. Ukraine now has a historic chance to end

00:37:21the

00:37:21war once and for all, as Putin has just been told that members of his own inner circle are united

00:37:26with

00:37:27Ukraine in a desire for peace. And if peace doesn't come, well, Ukraine's second bombshell will ensure

00:37:33that Putin submits to force if he doesn't submit to pressure. We'll start with the inner circle,

00:37:39and we'll let Zelenskyy do the talking. On July 10th, Zelenskyy delivered his evening address as he does

00:37:44every day. And he used it to send a message to Putin that will feel like a dagger plunged directly

00:37:50into the heart of Russia's leader. The fuel crisis in Russia is deepening,

00:37:55which is entirely fair in response to Putin's unwillingness to end this war.

00:37:59We have made proposals on how to bring peace closer, Zelenskyy said. Okay, so far so standard,

00:38:04but then the bomb was dropped. We have support not only among partners around the world, but also among

00:38:09Putin's circle regarding peace. They understand what is happening there and that there is no alternative

00:38:15to peace, Zelenskyy declared. And just like that, paranoid Putin realized that there are traitors in

00:38:22his midst. Members of his own inner circle who do not share his insane thirst for a war that has

00:38:27caused

00:38:27over 1.42 million casualties and counting. Panicked, Putin will be wondering who has turned on him.

00:38:34Is it just one or two people? A handful? Everybody? We'll speculate soon, but frankly,

00:38:40none of this would come as a surprise to any leader who isn't as purposefully ignorant as Putin.

00:38:45Zelenskyy mentions the fuel crisis that is rocking Russia and that is a crisis of Ukraine's design

00:38:50that was specifically created to make Russia's people turn against their leader. Ukraine's long-range

00:38:56strikes can now reach every part of Russia that matters. Refineries are burning all over the country,

00:39:01with the most remarkable of Ukraine's strikes being a 2,500-kilometer-plus assault on Siberia's Omsk

00:39:09refinery. That facility was never meant to be in Ukraine's range, not even close. But now that it

00:39:15is, every Russian from the elite Zelenskyy claims are circling Putin like sharks to the average person

00:39:21on the street is unhappy and wants a change. As we speak, almost all of Russia's 83 regions are

00:39:28dealing with fuel shortages. Of varying levels of severity, CNN reports and gas station queues extend

00:39:34for miles in many locations. There is desperation inside Russia. And some think that desperation

00:39:41could lead to Putin jumping before he's pushed. Literally. Zelenskyy isn't the only one saying that

00:39:47Putin has trouble with his inner circle. On July 13th, Metro reported that Estonia's foreign minister,

00:39:53Margus Tsakna, is saying something similar. Even among the oligarchs, more and more are doubting

00:39:58Putin's war. Many who spoke of victory a year ago no longer believe it, Tsakna revealed. And when

00:40:04talking about pressure piling onto Putin's shoulders, Tsakna didn't hold back. It's just as possible that

00:40:10one day he'll jump out of a window with his family. After all, things like that happen in Russia.

00:40:15Things like that do indeed happen in Russia. Only it's usually at Putin's command,

00:40:20and there is a lot more pushing out of those windows involved than jumping.

00:40:24We get a little insight into the desperate mindset that some believe Putin now has as he watches his

00:40:29war against Ukraine not only stall out on the ground, but evolve into a fight that Ukraine is

00:40:34winning. The drones flying all over Russia are a constant reminder to Putin that he has failed to

00:40:39protect his people as he always claimed that he would. That failure stings. And even an authoritarian

00:40:45like Putin has to know that there is only so much of this that his people and his inner circle

00:40:50will

00:40:50be able to take before they collectively have enough and join Ukraine in forcing the peace that

00:40:56Putin doesn't want. As we said before, Ukraine has brought the gasoline. It's Putin's own people who

00:41:02may light the match. But Zelensky mentions members of Putin's inner circle, and that can only lead to

00:41:07speculation running rampant about who is close to Putin but showing support for Ukraine. Perhaps that's the

00:41:14point. A vague mention of somebody supporting Ukraine is enough to get the gears in paranoid

00:41:19Putin's head whirring. And it's almost inevitable that Russia's leader will be looking over his

00:41:25shoulder as he remembers that there has been talk of coups and mutinies in the very recent past.

00:41:30It was only in May that rumors were swirling that former Russian defense minister and now head of

00:41:36Russia's security council, Sergei Shoigu, was involved in some sort of coup plot. Shoigu has the

00:41:42motivation. After years serving under Putin, he was shunted from his prominent role as defense

00:41:47minister to a role where he can have little real impact. That looks like Putin passing the buck for

00:41:52Russia's military failures to us, and Shoigu may well just carry a little resentment about it all.

00:41:57Could he be the member of the inner circle who wants peace just to get back at Putin?

00:42:01Nobody knows, and Zelensky isn't telling. On top of those rumors, a very tangible threat of mutiny

00:42:07has been made against Putin by a former Russian soldier. At the end of June, Alexander Lunin

00:42:12posted a video on Instagram where he called out Russia's military for giving troops mindless

00:42:17suicidal orders, and he claimed that abuse was rampant in the military. Lunin demanded a meeting

00:42:23with Putin. He threatened that a mutiny was brewing, and though he has been arrested since his

00:42:28social media outburst, Lunin also made the claim that he was simply passing along the message that

00:42:33high-ranking officials in Russia's ministry and security services wanted Putin to hear.

00:42:38More snakes in the grass. More silent members of the inner circle plotting against Putin.

00:42:44One thing we know for sure is that Putin has tightened security around himself as all of these

00:42:48rumors and outright displays of discontent have been going on. The Organized Crime and Corruption

00:42:54Reporting Project says that the Kremlin has been on high alert since March due to coup rumors.

00:42:59Those who work directly for Putin are no longer allowed to use their cell phones or take public

00:43:04transport, all because Putin is scared of them being influenced or of them leaking details about

00:43:09where he is. In the home of every bodyguard, cook, and even photographer who serves Putin,

00:43:15security cameras have been installed so that Russia's leader can keep an eye out at all times.

00:43:20Putin is scared. That much is clear.

00:43:23And now Zelensky claims to have support from an inner circle that already seems to be on

00:43:28the verge of falling apart. Putin's paranoia will only grow deeper. But there's another

00:43:33question that nobody seems to be asking. Is Zelensky telling the truth? It could be that

00:43:38Zelensky has thrown in this casual mention of Putin's inner circle, wanting to turn against him

00:43:43and force peace with Ukraine into his evening address to take advantage of Putin's paranoia.

00:43:48Ukraine knows the lengths that Putin is going to in order to protect himself. There's the insane

00:43:53level of security, of course. There are also the reports of Putin spending the vast majority of

00:43:58his time hidden away in underground bunkers, only emerging when he has to make a public appearance.

00:44:03Well, assuming that those appearances aren't just being made by body doubles.

00:44:07Ukraine's drone strikes have been credited as the main reason why Putin now spends time in his bunkers.

00:44:12But maybe it's about more than that. Perhaps Putin thinks that he can control things

00:44:17inside the bunkers while keeping the inner circle wolves at bay.

00:44:21Pravda adds that Putin is now more fearful than ever of assassination attempts, most likely by drone,

00:44:27but perhaps by an angry member of the elite who is done with over four and a half years of

00:44:31a fruitless

00:44:32war that seems to exist only to massage Putin's fragile ego. And now even artificial intelligence and

00:44:39the threat that it poses is infecting Putin's mind. In the wake of the killing of former Iranian

00:44:44supreme leader Ali Khamenei, the news broke that the assassination was made possible by the use of

00:44:50AI to examine hours upon hours of videos shot by Iranian traffic cameras. That analysis showed the

00:44:57US and Israel where Khamenei was and bunker-busting bombs followed. Putin is now so worried about the

00:45:03same happening to him that he's trying to stay hidden as much as possible, France 24 reports.

00:45:08The point we're making is that the strong man is filled with fear. Then you have Zelensky in front

00:45:14of his people, often on the front lines or visiting other countries to gather support.

00:45:18Perhaps Zelensky's mention of Putin's inner circle is a very carefully planted seed that Ukraine's

00:45:24president knows will burrow its roots deep into the brain of a Russian leader who is terrified of

00:45:28everything around him. Maybe there is no inner circle rebellion at all. If that's the case,

00:45:33Zelensky might just be setting the stage for Putin to go on the warpath against his own elites.

00:45:38And if that happens, the possibility of a betrayal will only rise. It's a no-win

00:45:43situation for Russia's leader. And whichever way this goes, whether Zelensky is telling the truth or not,

00:45:48this is a masterclass in playing on Putin's paranoia. Scared leaders make rash decisions.

00:45:54They make mistakes. Zelensky may be banking on that fact. And if Ukraine's president is indeed

00:45:59telling the truth, that's even worse for Putin. He doesn't want peace. Putin wants his people

00:46:05to back every crazy decision that he makes. Knowing that there are people that he's supposed

00:46:09to be able to trust who are going behind his back and telling Ukraine that they want peace

00:46:13is a blow that Putin may not be able to absorb. Zelensky has just sent a message to Putin here.

00:46:19Make peace or your own inner circle will either force you to do it or push you out.

00:46:23However, Ukraine also knows that Putin isn't likely to listen. He's too wrapped up in his obsession.

00:46:28Too trapped by his own war to the point where he feels like he can't end it or the traitors

00:46:33that Zelensky says are in the midst will come out of the shadows.

00:46:36Okay, Ukraine says, if the inner circle bombshell isn't enough, maybe the second bombshell will do

00:46:42the job. But before we reveal what that bombshell is, this is the military show, where we dig beyond

00:46:48the headlines to give you the full story. If you haven't already, hit subscribe to stay ahead of the curve.

00:46:55In his second bombshell, Zelensky gave Putin a glimpse into the future. If Putin doesn't accept

00:47:00peace, Ukraine is going to make his already difficult situation so much worse. And it's

00:47:06going to do that by officially formalizing a deep strike campaign that is already tearing through

00:47:11Russia. This isn't a maybe in the future, we'll set something up situation. The decree has been signed,

00:47:18and it's all official. Ukraine is creating a new deep strike command named the Long Range Global

00:47:23Impact Command, or LRGIC, that will centralize all of Ukraine's long range capabilities with the

00:47:30ultimate goal of reducing the Russian military's capacity to the point where it can no longer fight

00:47:35the war that Putin started. The LRGIC isn't quite active yet. Zelensky says that a commander for the

00:47:41organization needs to be found, and he promises that this commander will be one of the strongest and

00:47:46most capable leaders that Ukraine's military has at its disposal. But it's coming soon. And the only

00:47:52way that Putin is going to be able to avoid what the LRGIC brings to the table is by finally

00:47:57declaring

00:47:57peace. But what does the LRGIC bring to the table exactly? Zelensky explains a little. This command must

00:48:05focus 100% of available resources in order to reduce the Russian war potential even more tangibly.

00:48:11The commander in this direction will be strong and definitely maximally experienced, Ukraine's

00:48:16president revealed. Granted, that doesn't tell us much. However, it suggests that Ukraine is going

00:48:21to bring all of its various long range units together into a new command structure, much as it did for

00:48:27frontline drone units when it created the unmanned systems forces. Through that centralization,

00:48:32information will be easier to share, and coordinated long range attacks against Russia will be simpler

00:48:37to plan. At least that's our assumption. Zelensky isn't giving much away, and much like his claims

00:48:42about Putin's inner circle, that looks like a purposeful move to inspire more fear in a Russian

00:48:46leader who is already on the edge. What we know for sure is that the LRGIC represents the formalization

00:48:52of a deep strike campaign that is already crippling Russia. In 2026, we have seen Ukraine escalate the

00:48:58range, scope, and damage done by its strikes in the Russian rear, both inside Russia itself and in the

00:49:04occupied territories. Everything is a target, from refineries and oil infrastructure to military

00:49:10bases and ammunition depots. The Russian military needs it to function, Ukraine is hitting it. And

00:49:17those hits are coming harder and faster than ever before. According to Euromiden Press, Ukraine has

00:49:23increased the number of deep strikes carried out against Russia by 1,150% during the first half of

00:49:292026, when compared to the same period last year. These strikes, which occur between 500 and 2,000

00:49:35kilometers beyond the front lines, and sometimes even deeper than that, have hit 172 military or

00:49:42energy facilities. The latter are especially damaging to Russia. US news reports that Russia's gasoline

00:49:48output is down 65% due to Ukraine's strikes against oil refineries, and that fuel crisis we mentioned

00:49:55earlier has come off the back of this long-range campaign. The point we're making here is that

00:49:59Ukraine's deep strike approach was already lethal. Now, with Zelensky's new decree, it's going to become

00:50:05even more dangerous. Streamlined, efficient, and brutal on a level that Russia hasn't seen yet,

00:50:11that long-range campaign is set to ruin Russia beyond repair, if Putin doesn't take Zelensky's call for

00:50:17peace seriously. Deep strikes are becoming institutionalized within Ukraine's military.

00:50:22A dedicated operational branch is being set up, and that is very bad news for Putin.

00:50:29Do you know what else is bad news for Russia's president, as if he needed any more? The US seems

00:50:34to believe that Ukraine's deep strike strategy is working. Perhaps the more cynical among you might

00:50:40think that Zelensky is referring to members of the Trump administration when he talks about an inner

00:50:44circle turning against Putin. We won't go that far, but what we will point out is that there has been

00:50:49a remarkable turnaround in the US approach to the Ukraine war, and it seems to be Ukraine that is

00:50:54getting all of the support now that it's clear that Putin isn't going to accept peace unless he is forced.

00:50:59For instance, US President Donald Trump was full of praise for Ukraine's long-range approach when he

00:51:04met Zelensky during the July NATO summit in Ankara. He called Ukraine's approach an escalation,

00:51:10but this escalation could bring the war to an end. Trump also used that summit

00:51:14to announce that he was willing to license the production of Patriot air defense missiles to

00:51:18Ukraine, allowing Ukraine to build its own to tackle the problem of Russia's ballistic and

00:51:23cruise missile attacks. That is huge. It basically amounts to the US encouraging Ukraine to keep

00:51:29doing what it's doing on the long-range front while also helping Ukraine take a step closer

00:51:33toward minimizing the impact of Russia's own long-range strategy. Putin doesn't know where to turn

00:51:39anymore. And for one last little dig into his side, Ukraine has also announced something else.

00:51:45On top of the LRGIC, Ukraine is also going to restructure the leadership and management of its

00:51:50existing assault forces, with the commander of the country's 8th Air Assault Corps, Brigadier

00:51:55General Dmitry Voloshin, seemingly having been tapped up to lead a new reaction force that will oversee

00:52:00this restructuring. Dubbed the Joint Rapid Reaction Forces, this new component of Ukraine's armed forces will

00:52:06combine existing assault, drone, and artillery units into a single force capable of rapid deployment

00:52:12across the front while equipped with the sort of technology that Russia simply isn't able to offer

00:52:16to its soldiers. This is military reform on the front to complement what Ukraine plans to do in the

00:52:21Russian rear, and it means that Putin's faltering forces inside Ukraine will face even bigger challenges.

00:52:27Rapid responses to Russian weakness will lead to territory being liberated and Russian assaults

00:52:33being shut down before they start. So, what do you see from all of this? Putin's inner circle is

00:52:39braying for peace, albeit not in earshot of their leader, and Ukraine is more than willing to work

00:52:44alongside those elites to achieve that peace. Pressure is being piled on with the formation of new groups

00:52:49that make Ukraine's deep strike and assault units stronger than ever. And even the US is sending signals

00:52:55to Putin that enough is enough. Ukraine is winning. Russia can't turn this around. Back down now or the

00:53:02end will come for Putin sooner than he thinks. As for Putin himself, the paranoia that has always defined

00:53:08him as a leader is now his greatest enemy. The former KGB man has twisted and turned his way into

00:53:14a

00:53:14situation where he is running out of options. What does he do now? Escalate? Send the war he started into

00:53:21Europe. Putin may do that out of desperation, but he'd only be forcing an already drained Russia into

00:53:26a fight against NATO at a time when the US seems to be behind Ukraine, and NATO's European members

00:53:32are preparing for a fight. That's not a good idea. But what else does Putin have? His traditional scare

00:53:38tactics aren't working anymore. If anything, it's Ukraine that has the upper hand in the fear department,

00:53:43just as it has the upper hand on the battlefield. Putin can't force more manpower into the Ukraine war

00:53:49without mobilizing, and it has become impossible for Putin to conceal the fact that the war he started

00:53:54has come back to bite the Russian people. They feel that pain at the gas pumps and every time they

00:54:00see the smoke rise from yet another refinery or factory that Ukraine's drones hit. Putin has to

00:54:05face up to the fact that he really only has two choices remaining. Agree to peace in the Ukraine war

00:54:11and then try to deal with his inner circle that is sick of him, or keep pushing the fight knowing

00:54:15that

00:54:16Ukraine is getting stronger, the strikes are getting deeper, and those members of the inner circle who

00:54:20want peace right now may soon decide that the only way to get it is to get rid of Putin.

00:54:25You made your

00:54:26own bed, Putin. Ukraine is just making you lie. They were all going on a lovely summer holiday,

00:54:32hiding away in a paradise resort deep in the occupied regions of Ukraine. Russia's FSB enjoyed some sun,

00:54:40sand, and scheming. They thought they were being smart. Ukraine would never think to check a resort

00:54:46for Russian soldiers when there were so many places in the occupied territories that would seem more

00:54:51logical for the FSB to use. But the FSB was wrong. 100 FSB officers were hiding in a beach resort,

00:54:59but their vacation ended in hell. What happened when Ukraine found them was brutal and efficient.

00:55:07The location was Kherson, where dozens of FSB staff had set up a coordination center on the grounds of

00:55:13a resort in the Oblast. Vehicles in their dozens were at the site, along with armed guards and checkpoints

00:55:19that controlled access. The FSB has also created underground shelters that surrounded their base,

00:55:25along with engineering barriers to prevent unauthorized personnel from gaining access. If the

00:55:31goal was to hide what was happening at the resort, the FSB wasn't doing a very good job. One of

00:55:35the most

00:55:36secretive organizations in Russia seemed intent on giving the game away. Perhaps they truly thought

00:55:42that Ukraine's powers of observation were so limited that they only needed to make minimal effort to hide

00:55:48their activity. Or worse for Russia, the FSB didn't care. Arrogant in their belief that they were safe,

00:55:54these FSB staffers may have thought that it didn't matter if there were signs of what they had turned the

00:55:59Kherson resort into. But they learned a harsh lesson. Boy, did they learn. Ukraine discovered the

00:56:05location of the resort and it unleashed a firestorm. Here's what we know. Ukraine decided to fight fire

00:56:11with fire. The FSB is Russia's Federal Security Service. The perfect counter to the FSB is Ukraine's

00:56:18SBU or Security Service of Ukraine. Like for like in duties, but not like for like in capabilities.

00:56:24The SBU assigned its notorious Alpha Special Operations Center to the task of destroying the

00:56:30FSB base. Alpha has a big reputation. According to a July 19th Defense Express report,

00:56:36this single unit of the SBU has recorded over 50,000 Russian troop casualties since the beginning of

00:56:422026. There are Russian soldiers to eliminate. This is the team that Ukraine wants to do it. Alpha didn't

00:56:49disappoint. Using 13 drones, the Alpha unit struck the FSB facility over and over. FSB officers who

00:56:56were sunning themselves at the resort felt the heat ramp right up as massive fires broke out all over

00:57:01the facility. This wasn't their idea of getting a tan. The resort was burnt to a crisp and in a

00:57:07heartbeat,

00:57:08the FSB's subterfuge was all over. Speaking about the strike, the SBU was straightforward in its

00:57:14assessment. Special forces of SBU's Alpha Special Operations Center successfully struck the coordination

00:57:20center and location of FSB officers, which was located in one of the boarding houses in the

00:57:25temporarily occupied Kherson region, is said in a telegram post. Adding that the strike was conducted

00:57:30as part of a 40-day plan for the SBU outlined by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a few weeks prior.

00:57:36We'll be coming back to that plan. It could be a game changer in Ukraine.

00:57:40As for what the SBU managed to destroy, that remains the big question. We know that multiple

00:57:45large fires now rage at the Kherson resort. We also know how many FSB staffers the SBU believes

00:57:51were stationed at the resort base. Around 100 personnel and more than 70 vehicles were on the

00:57:57territory of the facility. The odds are high that many of those FSB staffers were casualties of the

00:58:03massive fires, along with vehicles being destroyed. However, Ukraine doesn't want to jump the gun on its

00:58:08reporting. The true scale of the damage done is still being assessed at the time of the creation

00:58:12of this video. What we know for sure is that Ukraine has just scored a devastating strike

00:58:17against the FSB, which is supposed to be filled with some of the elites of the Russian military

00:58:22and security services. We also know that Ukraine targeted a communications hub, which will have an

00:58:28impact on the front line in Kherson. It seems likely the FSB is coordinating assaults on the front and

00:58:34arranging special missions via its resort hideaway. Not anymore. Sun and sand have been replaced by

00:58:40searing flames. We also have some footage of the strike, published by the SBU on X and Telegram.

00:58:47The video proves every claim made about the Alpha unit and its ruthless efficiency. The SBU didn't reveal

00:58:53the precise date of the strike or the exact location of the resort. The Institute for the Study of War,

00:58:58or ISW, suggests the geo-located footage shows that it was a region called Shazlevsteva, which is about

00:59:04130 kilometers away from the west bank of the Dnipro River. What we do know, thanks to the footage, is

00:59:09that the FSB appears to have been practically defenseless at its hidden base. Several times over, we see the

00:59:15view as shot by an FPV drone as that drone comes crashing down on part of the facility. Buildings are

00:59:21hit,

00:59:21massive explosions are recorded by reconnaissance drones flying high above the target zone.

00:59:26Often we see the flames of one destroyed target still raging as a drone zones in on the next.

00:59:31One snippet of footage even shows FSB personnel running for their lives as a drone comes in for

00:59:36the kill. It's unlikely those FSB staff survive. The final shot is the most revealing. A reconnaissance

00:59:43drone hovers above the battered site, filming footage of the aftermath of Ukraine's attack. We see flames

00:59:49everywhere. Entire buildings have erupted into infernos. There could be no hope of escape for

00:59:55FSB staffers stuck in those buildings. The resort has been transformed into a hellscape. Russia was

01:00:01going to twist the location that is supposed to bring joy to those who visit into another

01:00:04foul cog in Putin's infernal war machine. The SBU's Alpha unit was going to sap any remaining

01:00:10resemblance to a resort that the base once had. Nobody will be going on vacation in this patch of

01:00:16kerson anymore. And now what's left of the FSB in the region has to find a new hidey hole. As

01:00:22for the

01:00:23drones that Ukraine used, the SBU hasn't revealed anything. However, we can speculate. Due to the

01:00:29scale of the damage caused and the size of the explosions with each successful strike, it seems likely

01:00:33that FP2 drones were the weapon of choice for the devastation of the FSB's hideout. If so, this drone

01:00:40would have been the perfect choice. Not quite an FPV drone, but also not quite the type of jet-powered

01:00:45drone that Ukraine uses to strike targets inside Russia, the FP2 is a middle strike behemoth that

01:00:51delivers explosive firepower to any target it strikes. Developed by Firepoint and in use since

01:00:572025, the FP2 is a fixed-wing drone that has a top speed of 205 kilometers per hour and an

01:01:04operating

01:01:04range of about 200 kilometers. Perfect for striking targets in the occupied territories beyond the front

01:01:11lines. The drone can carry a payload weighing up to 105 kilograms and it also stays in the sky for

01:01:17up

01:01:17to 2.5 hours. Again, that's perfect. An hour or so is needed to get to its max operating range

01:01:24and then

01:01:24plenty of time for adjustments before a target is struck. The Alpha unit is also very well versed in

01:01:30the use of these drones. A series of strikes conducted in February proves that, with those attacks seeing

01:01:35Alpha take out ammunition depots and command posts through the Russian rear. Those strikes are just a

01:01:40sample of the SBU's use of the FP2, so it makes sense that this well-known drone would be trusted

01:01:45to wreak havoc on the resort that the FSB used to create its communications base. Whatever the drone

01:01:50model used, it came in clutch in the strike against the FSB, and what the Alpha unit has just achieved

01:01:56has the potential to make a massive difference to the war in Ukraine. There are several reasons why,

01:02:01but before we dig into them this is a quick reminder that you're watching the military show.

01:02:05If you're getting insight from our channel, remember to hit subscribe and ring the notification bell,

01:02:10so you see more of our analysis of the latest Ukrainian strikes.

01:02:15The first of the reasons we just touched on is something we mentioned earlier in the video.

01:02:19This strike against the FSB was part of the 40-day campaign of strikes that Zelenskyy announced in

01:02:24June that are designed to cripple Russia's military and economic potential. That announcement was made

01:02:30on June 25th, meaning we're only a little more than halfway through the strikes. That will worry Russia.

01:02:36Ukraine is taking out large FSB communications hubs just halfway through its campaign.

01:02:41The Kremlin will be very concerned about what the SBU has in store for the crescendo of this

01:02:45dangerous campaign. And when we say dangerous, we mean in the context of a lot of Russian bases and

01:02:50equipment being blown to pieces. Zelenskyy has assigned the SBU to carry out this 40-day campaign,

01:02:56which primarily uses drones to strike targets in the Russian rear. Ukraine even gave an early hint

01:03:02of the type of targets it would strike as part of the campaign, as Zelenskyy's announcement of it

01:03:06happened to coincide with attacks against an oil depot in Krasnodar Krai and strikes on a pair of oil

01:03:12refineries located in Ufa, which is in the Russian Republic of Bashkortistan. The message seems to be

01:03:18that if it's within range of SBU drones and it can be used to serve Putin's war goals, then it's

01:03:23a target.

01:03:24That's our assumption at least. Ukraine has kept the precise targets it wants to hit and the tactics

01:03:30it will use a secret. Meaning we only know that a strike was part of the 40-day campaign after

01:03:35the

01:03:35fact and if Ukraine chooses to reveal the information. That's smart. Don't let Russia know what you're

01:03:40planning until FSB officers are on fire. Zelenskyy chose the SBU for a very specific reason when

01:03:47announcing this campaign. The SBU has been demonstrating the highest indicators of protecting

01:03:52Ukraine's positions at the front for several months in a row thanks to the use of drones of various

01:03:56types. The Special Operations Center, SOC Alpha, is the leader in terms of the results of destruction

01:04:02of personnel and equipment of the occupier's forces, he said during his announcement. So the Alpha unit was

01:04:08already on top of the pile when it came to Ukraine's destructive potential against Russia. It's just added

01:04:14a massive scalp to its collection with the burning of the FSB's resort base. What we see in this

01:04:19campaign is twofold. First, Ukraine has developed such a varied stockpile of drones that almost

01:04:25nowhere in the Russian rear is safe, be the target in occupied Ukraine or Russia itself. For example,

01:04:31the Ufa refinery is about 1,400 kilometers away from Ukraine and that's the target the SBU used to

01:04:37launch the 40-day campaign. Kherson is much closer obviously and that's the point. If it's a high value

01:04:43target that Russia really needs, the SBU and the Alpha unit have a drone for the job. Second,

01:04:49the 40-day campaign shows us just how expansive Ukraine's intelligence network has become.

01:04:54Remember the FSB was supposed to be hiding in the Kherson resort. It may not have been doing a good

01:04:59job of it but it was supposed to be a secret base. The SBU found it and destroyed it. That's

01:05:04what it's

01:05:05been doing for weeks now as target after target is struck. And beyond the targets themselves,

01:05:10Ukraine's intelligence is now so impressive that it's able to guide the drones it unleashes through the

01:05:15gaps in Russian air defenses to strike hundreds and sometimes thousands of kilometers deep into Russia.

01:05:21That's a game changer. It means Ukraine knows more than Russia realizes and nothing inside Russia is

01:05:27safe. The entire point of this 40-day campaign is to damage Russia's military and economic potential,

01:05:33which is what the SBU has been doing. Militarily, the SBU strikes anything that has something to do with

01:05:38Russian command and coordination. That's what we've just seen in Kherson. The communications hub is

01:05:44down the drain, which will have a huge impact on Russia's frontline forces. Economically, we see the

01:05:49SBU striking refineries, oil depots, transport hubs and shadow fleet tankers in the Black Sea

01:05:54and Sea of Azov. This is all oil and fuel that Russia can't export. And even if these products weren't

01:06:01meant to be sold abroad and were instead for domestic use, Russia loses money. Burning oil and

01:06:06fuel has to be replaced. And that doesn't come cheap. This type of pressure is starting to pay off.

01:06:13Ukraine's campaign against Russian fuel has led to shortages all over Russia and the occupied

01:06:18territories, particularly in Crimea, which is being increasingly isolated. The 40-day campaign is part of

01:06:24a pressure operation that is forcing Putin to look at what awaits his soldiers and his people in the

01:06:29winter. The fuel burns now and Ukraine will follow up with strikes against energy infrastructure as the

01:06:35weather gets colder. There is an element of self-interest for Ukraine here too. Ukraine is

01:06:40a cold country in the winter and Russia has taken advantage of that with its own strikes against the

01:06:45Ukrainian energy grid. The winter of 2025 was particularly difficult for Ukraine as Russian strikes knocked

01:06:51out electricity and heating for huge swathes of the population, often for days at a time. For Ukraine,

01:06:58pressure now could pay off by forcing Putin to the table, perhaps preventing another difficult winter.

01:07:04Ukraine is leading into the advantages it has with its 40-day campaign. It's ahead of Russia

01:07:09technologically, as the emergence of AI-powered drones shows us. Drone-based air defense is also

01:07:15another advantage that Ukraine holds. That tech is coming to the fore now and the SBU and especially

01:07:20the Alpha unit are showcasing how it can be used. So the continuation of the 40-day campaign is a

01:07:26major

01:07:27reason why this strike is a potential game-changer for Ukraine. Another lies in what Ukraine struck,

01:07:32the FSB. Officially, the FSB is a federal executive body that works to protect Russia itself. Issues of

01:07:40national security, counter-terrorism and the protection of state borders all fall under the FSB's remit,

01:07:45as does the protection of Putin against the threats, both real and imagined, that Putin sees in the shadows.

01:07:51None of these duties involve attacking Ukraine, but the FSB has been doing just that, marking a

01:07:56departure from what the organization is supposed to be about. The reality of the FSB's work is much

01:08:02murkier than Russia claims. Thanks to an August 2022 report by Business Insider, we know that the FSB

01:08:08was preparing since at least 2019 for the full invasion of Ukraine, and it had quintupled in size

01:08:14between then and 2022. Protection of Russian interests isn't the real goal of the FSB. Aggression

01:08:20against Ukraine is, at least for as long as it takes for Russia to subjugate Ukraine.

01:08:25Since Putin invaded, the FSB has evolved from a civilian organization into a military one.

01:08:30King's College London points out that FSB officers won't be on the front lines. Instead,

01:08:35they engage in far more malevolent activities, often deep in the Ukrainian or Russian rear.

01:08:40In Ukraine, the FSB sends spies to uncover whatever they can to aid in Russia's war effort.

01:08:45In the Russian rear, both inside Russia and occupied Ukraine, FSB agents often engage in what the

01:08:51college calls the filtration of Ukrainian citizens. This involves identifying potential collaborators and

01:08:57attempting to remove anybody who could be a danger to Russia from the streets. The FSB engages in torture,

01:09:03data mining and social media account inspection, all to learn as much as it can and to provide

01:09:09evidence of its false convictions against Ukrainian citizens. In short, the FSB has become a cancer

01:09:14within Ukraine. That's its job now, to be a malignant force that exists to hurt Ukraine rather than

01:09:20protect Russia. By taking out the FSB facility in Kherson, Ukraine has just struck a blow against

01:09:26one of the shadiest organizations that Russia has operating on its territory. Ukraine will be hoping

01:09:32that FSB officers were engulfed in the flames along with the buildings. Every officer down is a well-trained,

01:09:38professional Russian spy who is very difficult to replace. Even if most of the 100 or so personnel

01:09:44at the Kherson resort survived, they've lost communications equipment and perhaps key data.

01:09:50This creates opportunities for Ukraine. Future strikes that the FSB may have once seen coming

01:09:55can now be carried out. Plans for assaults against Ukraine have gone up in smoke. For a while at least,

01:10:01the FSB has become a non-factor in Kherson. And speaking of this region, which has been partially

01:10:06occupied by Russia since the beginning of the invasion, Ukraine wants to limit the effectiveness

01:10:10of Russia in Kherson as much as possible. Stripping away the FSB presence in Kherson is a great step.

01:10:16It's also the latest in several under-reported moves that Ukraine has been making to weaken

01:10:21Russia in Kherson. Reuters reported in late June that the puppet governor of Kherson, Vladimir Saldo,

01:10:27has claimed that the Russian-occupied territories in the region were now without power due to Ukraine's

01:10:33strikes against fuel and energy infrastructure. In its July 20th report on the state of Russia's

01:10:38offensive, the ISW said that neither Russian nor Ukrainian sources had reported any movement on

01:10:44the ground in Kherson. That's good for Ukraine. It suggests a stalemate was already in place before

01:10:50the attack on the FSB facility. Now that facility is done, Ukraine may have created opportunities for

01:10:55pushing back. At the very least, it's bought time to strengthen fortifications as Russian soldiers on the

01:11:01front panic and delay assaults due to communication with their FSB masters being cut off. Ultimately,

01:11:07what the SBU and its Alpha unit have just shown Russia is that it can't hide anything away from

01:11:12Ukraine. Whatever Russia tries to hide, Ukraine will always find. Around 100 FSB staff just learned

01:11:19that the hard way. They were enjoying themselves a nice little summer vacation in occupied Kherson,

01:11:24but they're at war and Ukraine just sent them a lethal reminder of that fact. Ukraine has a habit of

01:11:30locating what Russia tries to hide and then sending drones to destroy it. The same thing happened in

01:11:35Donetsk just a few days before the Kherson strike. There, Russia was hiding a fuel depot in an abandoned

01:11:41concrete factory. Ukraine found it and unleashed Operation Hell to destroy it.

01:11:46Find out more by watching our video. And if you enjoyed this analysis of Ukraine's latest victory

01:11:50over Russia in the FSB, then make sure you subscribe to The Military Show to see what we have coming

01:11:55next.

01:11:56And thank you for watching.

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