Russian Forces Hid THIS in CRIMEA… So Ukraine Turned It Into Ash

The Military Show

Russia tried to copy Ukraine’s successful maritime drone strategy by building a covert base in Snizhne, Crimea. However, Ukraine’s elite Kairos battalion discovered the secret facility and launched a devastating drone strike, wiping Moscow’s copycat sea drones completely off the map. With Russia’s Black Sea Fleet paralyzed and air defenses failing, Kyiv continues to dominate the region through relentless innovation and precision asymmetric naval warfare.  ⏱️ CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Ukraine SBS Kairos Battalion Strikes Russian Sea Drone Base 01:30 - Ukrainian Drones Destroy Russian Copycat Sea Drones in Crimea 02:45 - Ukrainian Magura V5 Sea Drones Neutralize Russian Warships 04:00 - Ukrainian Sea Drones Cripple 200 Russian Shadow Fleet Ships 05:15 - Russian Maritime Drone Program Struggles Against Ukrainian Attacks 06:30 - Ukrainian SBS Strikes 50,109 Russian Targets in Single Month 07:45 - Ukrainian Asymmetric Naval Strategy Forces Russian Fleet Into Hiding 09:00 - Russia Designs 500 Ton Giant Unmanned Sea Drone 10:15 - Is Russia About to Lose Control of Occupied Crimea?  Support us directly as we bring you independent, up-to-date reporting on military news and global conflicts by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/@TheMilitaryShow/join  #militarystrategy #militarydevelopments #militaryanalysis #themilitaryshow  SOURCES: https://pastebin.com/pzDJJdi9

Transcript

00:00Russian innovation is a strange old beast. The country doesn't really come up with anything.

00:05Instead, it looks at what others build and says, let's make some of that only worse.

00:10And wouldn't you just know it, Ukraine's maritime drones have become the latest

00:14target of Russia's so-called inventors. Russia saw Ukraine's success with its drones in the Black Sea,

00:19so it built a base, and in that base was something that Russia truly thought could

00:23turn the tide of the naval war. Its own maritime drones, built to rival Ukraine's far better

00:29designs. But Russia had a problem. It needed to hide its sea drones in a base close enough to the

00:35Black Sea where they could actually have an impact. That was a mistake. Ukraine found the base and it

00:40just wiped Russia's copycat drones off the face of the earth. Nestled close to the settlement of

00:46Yevpetoria lies Snezna. It's far from the most impressive of Russia's naval bases on the stolen

00:52Crimean peninsula. Sevastopol is much larger and until recently was the home base of the dreaded

00:58Black Sea fleet. However, Snezna is important because it hides something that Russia needs.

01:03A fleet of maritime drones has been sent to this small base as part of Russia's attempts to seize

01:09control over the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. Russia wants to copy Ukraine's game plan. Knowing that

01:15the Black Sea fleet has been rendered practically useless as warships that are part of the fleet are

01:20massive targets for Ukraine's maritime drones, Russia wanted to fight fire with fire. Sea drone with sea drone.

01:27It was playing catch up and copying Ukraine's homework as always, but Russia thought that if

01:32it could just protect Snezna, it could build a base filled with maritime drones that it could use to

01:37retake control. Ukraine had something to say about that. On July 30th, Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces,

01:44or SBS, announced that it had launched a devastating strike against the Russian base. Declaring the success on

01:51Telegram, as he so often does, the exuberant commander of the SBS, Robert Brovdy, revealed that

01:57operatives from the Kairos battalion were responsible for the attack. Kairos has a reputation, one of

02:03Ukraine's most secretive battalions. Kairos operates under the tightest of security protocols. Members are

02:09banned from drinking alcohol and aren't allowed to tell anybody where they are serving or what they are doing.

02:15Even polygraph tests are in place, regularly testing Kairos members and ensuring their compliance with

02:22the strict secrets entrusted to them. That secrecy pays off. The only time we hear about what Kairos

02:28is doing is in the aftermath of the group's strikes. Never before. Every scrap of planning is kept under

02:34wraps and it's only the fires and destruction Kairos leaves in its wake that reveal what the battalion has

02:39been up to. Such was the case in Snizna. Kairos struck and a key Crimean maritime drone port burn.

02:47Much of the operation is still shrouded in secrecy. We don't know for sure which of Russia's drones have

02:52gone down, though we'll speculate soon. But what we do have, beyond Brovdy's confirmation, is some footage.

02:59Three minutes of video, which shows us that Ukraine did what it does best to take out the Snizna base,

03:04send aerial drones in to shatter Russian infrastructure. Over and over we see the view

03:09from Ukrainian drones as they hurtle toward the base and later to other targets across Crimea and

03:15the occupied territories. We also see the aftermath. Flames emitting clouds of smoke so massive that they

03:22fill the screen are seen rising from Russia's sea drone base. We see hangars being struck and large blasts

03:29rolling up and down the port. Whatever Russia was trying to hide here clearly went up in flames,

03:35and careful observers will also notice that something seems to be absent from the footage.

03:40Russian air defense fire. Where is it? Nobody knows, but the video demonstrates a complete

03:46lack of tracer fire that we often see in footage like this, and no hint of the missiles that Russia

03:51usually launches to try to destroy Ukraine's drones. We can't say for certain that Kairos has a clear

03:57path to Russia's Crimean sea drone base, but what we seem to be seeing is the impact of an isolation

04:03strategy that Ukraine has followed for much of 2026. Perhaps there is no air defense fire because

04:08the increasingly limited systems that Russia has left in Crimea could not be spared for its sea

04:13drone base. Even if Russia did have defenses that it could have sent to the base, it might not have

04:18been able to get them there. The fuel crisis that racks Crimea due to Ukraine's isolation strategy

04:23is making it difficult for Russia to transport air defense systems to where they need to be,

04:28UK are informed reported on July 14th. Perhaps it wouldn't have even mattered if Russia discovered

04:33the Kairos battalion's plan. The strikes would have probably happened anyway. We may never know.

04:38And that's the point of Kairos. Any information we learn about what, how or when this battalion strikes

04:44is carefully disseminated to the public. And the battalion never offers more than it wants the world to

04:49know. The only reason we know this strike happened at all is that Kairos clearly wanted to send a

04:54message to Russia. You can't hide your sea drones, Putin. Kairos knows where they are and it can strike

05:00at any time. As for what Kairos hit at Snizna, we know some things for sure. The footage shows hangars

05:06being hit hard. Presumably those hangars were filled with the sea drones that Russia would have

05:11eventually sent into the Black Sea and Sea of Azov. As for what those drones might have been, we can

05:16only

05:16speculate based on what we know about Russia's copycat program and the maritime drones that it's

05:21produced. Perhaps Ukraine took out Orkans. These small maritime drones are similar to those Ukraine

05:27initially deployed in the Black Sea, and they are believed to be capable of carrying payloads of

05:31around 100 liters. Or maybe Russia was keeping Katran Sea drones at Snizna. These aluminium maritime drones,

05:38which shroud their engines in the metal as a possible means of disguising their infrared signatures,

05:42have been seen with machine guns mounted on their hulls. The Dandelion,

05:46with its reported 43-knot speed and 600-kilogram payload, may also have been at Snizna,

05:52as might the Mirena 300S, which is basically Russia's version of Ukraine's Magura V-5,

05:58though it can reportedly be armed with torpedoes. Ukraine would be happy with destroying any of

06:02these types of sea drones at Snizna. Who knows, it might have gotten all of them. The only way we'll

06:07find out is if Ukraine reports on the results of its strike at Russia's sea drone base in Crimea

06:11beyond the initial reveal. Russia is stinging. What just happened at Snizna was a massive blow to

06:17Putin and his desire to re-establish dominance in the Black Sea arena that has long ago slipped out

06:23of his control. The copycats have just been killed off. But before we explain why that matters and why

06:29Russia was working so hard to play catch up to Ukraine on the sea drone front, this is a reminder

06:34that you are watching the military show. If you like what you see from our channel, remember to

06:38hit subscribe and enable notifications to see more insight-packed videos like these.

06:44Now, you might be wondering why Russia would bother to build sea drones in the first place.

06:49After all, Russia has the Black Sea Fleet. Before Putin launched his invasion, that fleet,

06:54which was believed to have 40 surface warships and seven submarines, was supposed to be one of the

06:59most important assets that Russia had. This fleet would offer control over the sea that gives it the name

07:04it carries, and Ukraine wouldn't be able to do a thing about it. Russia, in its arrogance, thought

07:09Ukraine brought nothing to the naval battle. What did it even have? A few patrol ships and mine warfare

07:15vessels? Pfft, that would be nothing against the might of the Black Sea Fleet. With its warships,

07:20Russia would control the Black Sea, giving its troops and equipment an easy waterborne route into

07:25Ukraine, along with the ability to hinder Ukraine's attempts to export grain via Black Sea waters.

07:30That was the plan, at least. In 2026, we know that Russia's plan did not work.

07:36The little nation with no navy has devastated the Black Sea Fleet. By the summer of 2024,

07:42about a third of that fleet had been taken out. With many of Russia's warships having absorbed

07:47Ukrainian strikes, Ukraine still didn't have a single warship in play. But what it did have was missiles,

07:53such as Storm Shadow, provided by its Western allies, an increasing stockpile of aerial drones and,

07:59of course, maritime drones. Those drones, which Ukraine started developing in the spring of 2022,

08:05have been a game-changer in the Black Sea. The first to make headlines was the Magura V5,

08:10which can carry up to 300kg of explosives and has conducted kamikaze raids against Russian warships

08:16throughout the war. Other innovations followed. The Sea Baby now has a huge range of up to 1,500km

08:24and can carry a 2,000kg payload. It can also drop mines and even serve as a mothership for aerial

08:30drones.

08:31With the Moby Dick, Ukraine has a modular sea drone platform that has a ton of different uses,

08:36from reconnaissance to assault. Ukraine didn't need a traditional navy. It could overpower

08:42Russia's massive and plodding ships with small and fast drones that are incredibly difficult to detect

08:48and deadly when they get into range. Ukraine's sea drones have overpowered the Black Sea fleet.

08:53That fleet has been forced to retreat from its traditional home base and Russian warships are

08:58now very rare sites in Black Sea or Sea of Azov waters. Russia's entire naval calculus has been changed

09:05and it's all due to Ukraine mastering an asymmetrical approach with sea drones at its core.

09:11Ukraine also hasn't stopped with the Black Sea fleet. Now that Russia is too scared to send its warships

09:16into the one place they need to be if they are to have any impact on the war, Ukraine has

09:20turned its

09:20sea drone sights towards the Shadow Fleet. In July, Ukraine's security service took out the Black Sea

09:26oil tanker Averro using a naval drone. These drones have also been key to a wider assault on Russia's

09:32Shadow Fleet in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov. By the end of July, more than 200 of these

09:37ships have

09:38been crippled in a three-week campaign. Not all were hit by sea drones, but enough were,

09:44once again proving to Russia that naval warfare, at least in Ukraine, if not for the rest of the

09:48century, has been transformed. It's not the size of the ships or the fleet that matters anymore.

09:54Sea drones have changed everything, and Russia knows it.

09:57That brings us back to Snizna. The very existence of this Crimean base is an acknowledgement from Russia

10:02that Ukraine is winning the naval war. The Black Sea fleet has been rendered almost useless.

10:07Russia's only means of competing now is to build its own naval drones that it hopes will go toe-to

10:13-toe

10:13with what Ukraine brings to the table. In the wider geopolitical context, Russia stealing Ukraine's

10:18strategy is a concern. Though other nations have started to build sea drones, they are a long way

10:23behind Russia, and even further behind Ukraine. Denmark has sent its sail drones to protect the

10:29Baltic Sea, for instance, and the US has started deploying its Corsair naval drone in its war against

10:35Iran. However, Russia playing catch-up to Ukraine means it's ahead of most Western nations when it

10:40comes to this technology. As the Center for Maritime Strategy warned in a March report, Moscow now fields

10:46a growing mix of surface and deep-sea platforms designed for reconnaissance, seabed work, and military

10:51operations. While these platforms can be used worldwide, their primary operating environments

10:57remain the Arctic, the North Atlantic, and the Baltic Sea. That's all well and good for Russia's

11:01future, assuming it has one after Ukraine. But it doesn't mean much right now. There's a reason why

11:07most of Russia's sea drones are operating far away from the Black Sea, and we just saw what that reason

11:12is

11:12on July 30th. If Russia is to stand any chance of evening the playing field on the sea drone front,

11:18it first needs to be able to reliably deploy those drones into the waters around Crimea and Ukraine.

11:24It can't do that. The flames rising from Snizna are the proof. As soon as Ukraine identifies a Russian

11:30maritime drone base, it's going to respond by sending drones of its own to take that base out

11:35of the equation. So Russia's so-called innovators may be trying to copy Ukraine's homework to bring

11:41maritime drones to Moscow. But they're getting black eye after black eye every time they try to take a peek

11:46at what Ukraine is doing. This most recent black eye was even bigger than it appears on the surface.

11:52The strike at Snizna was just the highlight of a July that saw the SBS hit 50,109 targets,

11:59and the headliner of a day of strikes that went far beyond Crimea and Russia's sea drone base.

12:04On the same night, SBS birds also rained down on radio transparent shelters at the I-Petri

12:11radar station in Yalta, which is also in Crimea. Kairos was responsible for that strike too,

12:17Euromiden press reports. Ukraine also took out a Buck M3 air defense system in the Donetsk Oblast

12:23as it was being transported on a low loader, along with conducting an attack against the occupied Donetsk

12:28airport, which Russia uses to store and launch its Shahid-type strike drones. At Ivanovka in the Zaporizhia

12:35Oblast, the SBS's nemesis brigade took out a P-18 radar station. The same brigade also hit a Sopka-2

12:42complex in Fedorovka and a Nebo SVU system at Rusky Kolodets, both of which are now in Russia's

12:49Rostov Oblast. So it was a productive night from the SBS. Beyond the sea drones, Ukraine took out yet

12:55more radars and air defense systems that were part of Russia's ever-shrinking network of aerial defenses.

13:00You know what that means for the future. More safe aerial corridors have been created and strikes

13:06against other high-value targets are almost certain to be coming from Ukraine. The SBS is getting

13:12stronger. That's bad news for Russia if it plans on trying to send more of its copycat sea drones

13:17into Crimea. After seeing all of this, we can make one inarguable conclusion. Ukraine is winning the

13:24naval war against Russia in the Black Sea and it's not even close. Russia only has itself to blame for

13:31this situation, as has been the case ever since Putin launched his invasion. Russia seems to believe

13:37that size and supposed strength matter more than strategy. Ukraine keeps on proving Russia wrong.

13:44In the Black Sea, Russia wasn't prepared for anything that Ukraine sent its way. That's been the case ever

13:49since sea drones came to the fore. In January 2025, Ukraine's intelligence service revealed that Russia

13:55hadn't managed to come up with anything that it could use to counter Ukraine's maritime drones,

14:00meaning that its only real form of defense was to fire on those drones, assuming that they were spotted

14:05in time. They are primarily defending against the attacks already being carried out directly by

14:10maritime drones. Currently, they do not have any effective countermeasures or alternatives to strike our

14:15maritime drones, a representative from Ukrainian intelligence said at the time.

14:19Fast forward to the summer of 2026, and this theme of Russia having no real answers for Ukraine's

14:25sea drones is still very apparent. Andrey Ryzenko, who was the deputy chief of staff of the Ukrainian

14:31Navy between 2004 and 2020, says that Russia didn't realize that the Black Sea fleet was incredibly

14:37vulnerable until it was far too late. As usual, Russia thought that pure power would win. What it didn't

14:44account for was that its entire fleet was essentially trapped in the Black Sea. What we've seen is

14:49Ukraine's Rorschach moment. Ukraine wasn't locked in the Black Sea with Russia. It was Russia that was

14:55locked in with Ukraine and its genius asymmetrical approach. The strategy relied on deploying such a

15:00massive force that would effectively overwhelm the opponent and accomplish its objectives. But thanks to

15:05this asymmetric approach, a critical vulnerability of all these massive Russian ships to maritime drones

15:11was exposed, Ryzenko points out. He adds that a naval approach that saw Russia outnumber Ukraine 12

15:17ships to 1 in 2022 has failed so badly that the difference now is 4 to 1, and the Russian

15:23ships that

15:24remain are basically hiding in bases hoping not to get hit. So that leaves Russia where it is right now,

15:30trying to play catch up with sea drones while Ukraine dominates the Black Sea and Crimea so thoroughly

15:36that it can ruin Russia's drones before they ever get a chance to be deployed. And as a funny little

15:41coder, there is a hint that Russia, despite once again stealing from Ukraine, still hasn't quite

15:46grasped why sea drones work so well. In a July 27th report, the insider revealed that Russia is working

15:52on a massive sea drone that can displace 500 metric tons of water, essentially making it the same size

15:59as a Russian missile boat. The commander-in-chief of Russia's navy, Alexander Mosayev, has already

16:04appeared on Russian TV to boast about the project. He didn't provide any details, such as how much the

16:10drone will cost, who is building it, when it will be launched, or how Russia intends to control it.

16:14But it's totally real, you guys. Trust Mosayev. It's going to be the first ship of its kind,

16:19says the Russian commander. There's a reason why Ukraine hasn't tried something similar. A warship-sized

16:25sea drone is a massive target that can and will be sunk by much smaller drones if it ever tries

16:32to

16:32enter the Black Sea. What Russia claims to be building is an unmanned version of ships that

16:36have already failed against Ukraine. Again, it's Russia making the same mistake it's made repeatedly

16:41in Ukraine. Bigger is always better in Russia. Plus, a massive sea drone looks good when it's

16:47presented to Putin, even if it's tactically irrelevant to the war that Russia is fighting right now.

16:52The most hilarious thing is that this upcoming drone, assuming it's even real,

16:56is the one true example of Russian innovation that we've seen in the sea drone arena so far,

17:00and it's so utterly pointless in the context of the Ukraine war that it may as well not exist.

17:06So, um, good work there, Russia's navy. While Mosayev goes on about a sea

17:10drone that may be years away from completion, Russia is watching a base that contains drones

17:14that might actually be of some use burn. Kairos strikes again. Ukraine's massive maritime

17:20drone advantage in the Black Sea remains. With that advantage comes the ability to isolate Crimea.

17:26Russia's situation in the illegally annexed peninsula is bad. Really bad. Putin's greatest

17:32geopolitical victory has become an albatross around his neck, dragging him into deep waters that will

17:37drown him. Russia is on the verge of losing Crimea. You can find out how and why by watching our

17:43video.

17:44And if you enjoyed this video, we have plenty more waiting and many more upcoming. Subscribe to The

17:50Military Show today to make sure you don't miss any of our coverage of the Ukraine war. And thank you,

17:55as always, for watching.

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