CIA + France + Ukraine UNITE… NOW Russia Burns ALL Day and Night

Name: CIA + France + Ukraine UNITE… NOW Russia Burns ALL Day and Night | Other War Stories
Uploaded: 2026-08-09T04:58:21+00:00
Duration: 1 h 25 min 21 s
Channel: The Military Show

00:00:00Something has changed about Ukraine's deep strikes. Refineries are still being hit.

00:00:05A campaign designed to strip away the blood of Russia's war machine is still in place.

00:00:09But those strikes are different, more precise. They've become less broad,

00:00:14as Ukraine takes aim not at the refineries themselves, but the vital machinery and components

00:00:19that are incredibly difficult and sometimes impossible for Russia to replace.

00:00:24It's a masterstroke by Ukraine. But Ukraine hasn't done it alone.

00:00:29Ukraine is taking something irreplaceable away from Russia with the help of two other countries,

00:00:34France and the United States. The French-American connection has given Ukraine the step-by-step guide

00:00:40on how to break Russia's balls and Ukraine is kicking away.

00:00:44Everything hinges on refinery strikes. But if you've been paying attention to Ukraine's deep

00:00:49strike strategy, you know that these types of strikes aren't new to 2026. In fact, 2025 was

00:00:56the breakout year for this particular strategy. Ukraine started hitting Russian oil hard and

00:01:01repeatedly. By the end of the year, a tonne of damage had been done. Ukraine had targeted over

00:01:07half of Russia's total refining capacity, conducting strikes against 21 of Russia's 38 largest refineries

00:01:14between January 2025 and the beginning of October of the same year. Successful attacks were on the

00:01:21rise. Significant. Ukraine's drones broke through to their targets 48% more in 2025 than they did in 2024.

00:01:29Ukraine managed to shut down about 20% of Russia's refining at one point and by the end of the

00:01:34year,

00:01:34it had reportedly done more than $13 billion worth of damage to Russia's oil sector.

00:01:39The strategy was good, but it was far from perfect. Ukraine had a problem,

00:01:43and it was rooted in the broad nature of its refinery strikes.

00:01:47In 2025, it was enough for Ukraine to get through Russian air defenses and hit something at a refinery.

00:01:53Anything. Starting fires was the goal, which made the massive storage tanks at these refineries

00:01:57Ukraine's priority targets. One hit from a drone, and a storage tank goes boom, with the fire

00:02:03potentially encompassing more around it. Again, it worked. Refineries were forced to shut down as

00:02:08fires were put out and repair work was underway. Ukraine would even hit refineries several times in

00:02:14quick succession to keep them offline for longer. However, the refineries kept bouncing back.

00:02:19Once the fires were out, storage tanks and buildings weren't all that difficult to replace.

00:02:23Something had to change. Ukraine had to start getting surgical with its strikes.

00:02:29The massive fires at refineries were great for grabbing headlines, but as 2025 rolled into 2026,

00:02:35Ukraine altered its goals. The fires would be a bonus. Ukraine's real aim became to shut down

00:02:41refineries for as long as possible. How would it do that? By striking critical machinery that

00:02:47requires components that are incredibly difficult for Russia to source due to Western sanctions.

00:02:52Another problem reared its head. Ukraine's intelligence is clearly strong enough to

00:02:57enable the nation to carry out refinery strikes, but attacks at this level of precision are far from easy.

00:03:03Ukraine needed help to both identify the targets it should be taking out in Russia's refineries,

00:03:08and to ensure its drones could navigate to those targets in the first place.

00:03:12That help has come from two different sources, the United States and France.

00:03:16In an explosive report, the Financial Times has revealed that both American and French intelligence

00:03:21agencies are providing Ukraine with the targeting assistance that it needs to transform its refinery-focused

00:03:27strategy. Fires are no longer the objective. Destroying key machinery at the refineries has become

00:03:32the main goal, and Ukraine is doing it with alarming regularity.

00:03:37Disrupt essential components and the entire war machine grinds to a halt.

00:03:41France's role is a big one. Back in January, French President Emmanuel Macron revealed that France

00:03:46is responsible for providing about two-thirds of the intelligence that Ukraine uses in its war with

00:03:51Russia. Macron even made it a point at the time to note that France had ascended to this role after

00:03:56a

00:03:56year of uncertainty in the relationship between the US and Ukraine. While Ukraine was largely dependent on

00:04:01American intelligence capabilities a year ago, today two-thirds of that intelligence is provided by

00:04:06France. Two-thirds, Macron declared. That declaration gave the impression that Ukraine was doing everything

00:04:12that it could to move away from US-provided intelligence. It wasn't. Perhaps Macron could

00:04:17have also pointed out that most of the other third of the intelligence Ukraine was receiving,

00:04:21and perhaps more now that the relationship between the US and Ukraine has defrosted in 2026,

00:04:26attacks, is coming from the US. And not just any branch of the US, the country's foremost intelligence

00:04:32agency is working directly with Ukraine to ensure that it can carry out its surgical strikes against

00:04:37Russia's refineries. The CIA is in play. And Ukraine is making the most of the agency's help

00:04:44to build an intelligence advantage that Russia can't handle. United24 media reports that it is often

00:04:50CIA specialists who identify the specific industrial machine that Ukraine needs to strike. There are

00:04:56two conditions attached to this machinery. It either has to be incredibly difficult for Russia to replace

00:05:01or, failing that, almost impossible for Russia to repair due to its inability to get its hands on the

00:05:07western components needed. The outlet adds that CIA intelligence has also been crucial to Ukraine's

00:05:12attacks against Russia's Wildberries warehouses. Wildberries, which is often referred to as Russia's version of

00:05:17Amazon, provides an online portal through which Russian entrepreneurs sell and Russian consumers buy.

00:05:23But Wildberries also allows sellers to list military items such as drones and body armor.

00:05:28So it became a target. A big one. With help from the CIA, Ukraine has struck eight of the company's

00:05:34fulfillment centers, taking out about 860,000 square meters of product-filled industrial space in the

00:05:40process. Just like that, 15.4% of Wildberries' entire storage capacity has been swallowed by fire,

00:05:47costing the company and its sellers billions of dollars. None of this would have been possible

00:05:51without the CIA. Wildberries has since tried to hide military goods from its search results in what

00:05:57amounts to a desperate plea to Ukraine to stop sending its flying sanctions. It isn't going to work.

00:06:02Ukraine knows how important Wildberries is, both as a military supplier and a logistical network

00:06:07inside Russia. With the CIA's help, it's going to keep identifying the company's facilities and

00:06:13striking with flaming fury. Forbes adds that the CIA has been helping Ukraine

00:06:18behind the scenes for a very long time. From the moment that Russia began its campaign of aggression

00:06:23with the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, the CIA has been working with Ukrainian intelligence.

00:06:30Institutions that have been weakened by corruption have been rebuilt. The remnants of Russian systems and

00:06:35Soviet-era spying methods have been eliminated. The result is a Ukrainian intelligence service that

00:06:40is as lean and lethal as any other, all backed by two of the world's most powerful nations.

00:06:46Right now, France and the US are combining to help Ukraine carry out refinery strikes and other

00:06:51attacks against targets all over Russia. But the CIA has its tendrils and so much more. There have been

00:06:57bombings and covert operations happening inside Russia since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.

00:07:02Key Russian generals and leaders have been taken out. Ukraine doesn't take credit for these attacks,

00:07:08but they are obviously behind them. And behind Ukraine, Forbes says, is the CIA.

00:07:13Everything we are seeing now is the result of more than a decade of collaboration that has been

00:07:18taken to the next level in 2026. Today, France and the United States are helping Ukraine's military

00:07:23planners to chart a course and plan out long-range strikes. But how does it work and what is the

00:07:28ultimate goal of all this? We are going to reveal all, including the shocking role that Russia

00:07:33itself plays in enabling Ukraine's strikes. But before we do, this is the military show.

00:07:38We dig behind the headlines to find the real stories. If you are getting value from our channel,

00:07:42then remember to subscribe and ring the notification bell so you don't miss any of our daily videos.

00:07:48Details about how Ukraine carries out its strikes with the support of France and the US are provided by the

00:07:53Financial Times. The outlet spoke to two drone operators, who both said that engineers behind

00:07:58the scenes put in a lot of work before a single drone ever leaves the ground. Those engineers select

00:08:04targets based on the intelligence that they receive, along with carrying out detailed technical analyses

00:08:09to map out the route to the target, the logistics involved in the strike, and what purpose the target

00:08:14serves in the broader operational scheme of Ukraine's war against Russia. Once all of this work is done,

00:08:20the engineers brief Ukraine's drone units. This is where energy industry experts come into play,

00:08:26as they will define the specific components that Ukraine's operators need to strike,

00:08:30with a particular focus on which would take Russia the longest to repair or replace.

00:08:34As one of the operators puts it, these experts will tell Ukraine's drone specialists to

00:08:39hit these pipelines here, or this chimney, hit here in this space, or this part of the equipment

00:08:44connection, or this box, and so on. Depots and oil storage units aren't neglected, but they're now

00:08:49secondary in Ukraine's long-range planning. However, these missions aren't planned with a single

00:08:54target in mind. Contingencies are built into everything. If Plan A isn't going to work, perhaps

00:08:59because Russia has moved air defenses into position, or the objective that Ukraine wants to strike

00:09:03has been protected in some other way, then there is a Plan B, Plan C, and so on. Multiple objectives

00:09:09are

00:09:09built into every mission to ensure that Ukraine's drones don't make the long journeys only to leave empty

00:09:14handed at the end of it all. If an operator can't reach their primary target, they divert to pre-selected

00:09:20secondary or tertiary targets. There is no strike abandonment here, only contingency built upon

00:09:26contingency to make sure that damage is done. Ukraine also doesn't ever assume one-and-done

00:09:31with its long-range strikes. That was already the case in previous years, but Ukraine absolutely

00:09:36ensures that it gives itself the best chance to hit whatever it targets repeatedly, to the point where

00:09:40that target can't be recovered by Russia. This could be achieved through sheer drone volume during a

00:09:45strike or by sending a new wave of drones over if Ukraine feels the need. But either way, a refinery

00:09:51that is visited by Ukraine's flying sanctions can count on more than one. And if Ukraine's first drone

00:09:56manages to hit the target right off the bat, well, there are always those secondary and tertiary targets

00:10:01that can be taken out. What we are seeing here is the systematic dismantlement of Russia's entire

00:10:06oil and fuel industries, all supported by French and US intelligence. It's a combination of shock

00:10:12and technological pressure transplanted into the drone age. And as Ukraine's acting defense minister

00:10:18Yevheni Kamara notes, it's an approach that Ukraine can and should scale up to do as much damage to

00:10:24Russia's war machine on Putin's own turf as it can. Russia won't want that. It's dealing with enough

00:10:29problems at the current scale of Ukraine's strikes. Ukraine's attacks against Russian refineries in 2026

00:10:35have been far more effective than those in 2025, sparking a fuel crisis that has spanned the entire

00:10:40country in the process. By the end of July, Russian fuel output had dropped up to 40% due to

00:10:46key

00:10:46refineries remaining offline. That's all due to Ukraine's increased precision. A strike in the

00:10:52previous years that may have taken a refinery offline for a few days now takes weeks or even months for

00:10:57Russia to recover from. Sales of gasoline have been restricted in over 40 of Russia's regions.

00:11:02Russian oil refining has dropped by 25% year on year, reaching a 20-year low. And gasoline production

00:11:09in the country has fallen by 17%, United24 media revealed in a July 2nd report. And as all of this

00:11:16is happening, Russia somehow has to find a way to deal with its domestic peak in fuel demand, which

00:11:21typically arrives between August and September. Combine Ukraine's drones with US and French intelligence,

00:11:26and you get a lethal cocktail that is being forced down Russia's throat. But there's another ingredient

00:11:31added to that cocktail, a dash of Russian vodka that has been unwittingly provided by Russia itself

00:11:36by way of its former Soviet empire. What do we mean by that? Well, when speaking about Ukraine's

00:11:41strikes, Ukraine's former defense minister and now the chair of the Kyiv-based Center for Defense

00:11:46Strategies, Andrei Zagorodnyuk says, We think of Russia as a system. Understanding that system

00:11:53allows you to identify the critical parts where the effect is much more substantial. Shock the system

00:11:58by ripping out its heart and brain and the body crumbles. And beyond the Western intelligence,

00:12:02Ukraine knows exactly how to deliver these shocks because of Russia itself. Russia and Ukraine have

00:12:08very similar energy systems. Built using Soviet-era designs, those systems are still used in Ukraine.

00:12:13And due to that, Ukraine knows exactly what types of industrial processes Russia's refineries use,

00:12:19as well as their key operational vulnerabilities and equipment layouts. Ukraine only needs to look

00:12:24at its own energy infrastructure to see where it needs to hit inside Russia, which nodes need to be

00:12:29taken offline. And once the US and France get involved to add the what to the where, Russia ends up

00:12:35in

00:12:35the embarrassing position of being the architect of its own demise, based on the Soviet empire building

00:12:40that has inspired Putin. It's a dreadful sort of irony for Russia, as is the fact that Ukraine has

00:12:45learned from Russia during this war how damaging strikes against energy infrastructure can be.

00:12:51Sadly, we learn from Russians, Zagorodnyuk tells the Financial Times.

00:12:55They are doing exactly the same to us here, he adds. The key difference is that Ukraine can access

00:13:00what it needs from Western partners to carry out repairs and replace damaged equipment. Russia can't.

00:13:05It's stranded, isolated and surrounded by a sea of sanctions that prevent it from getting its hands

00:13:11on the Western components that it needed to quickly repair the damage that Ukraine is doing.

00:13:16Russia is getting desperate. In a July 3rd report, Vladislav Vlasiuk, who is the Ukrainian

00:13:21president's advisor and representative on sanctions policy, told UKR informed that Russia is now having

00:13:27to rely on China to get its hands on the components it's using. The problem, Vlasiuk says,

00:13:32is that Chinese knockoffs aren't reliable. The best example is navigation modules and certain

00:13:38high-precision microcontrollers. In a number of cases, the Russians have been forced to switch

00:13:43to alternative components that have inferior performance or require significant system

00:13:48redesigns. Our task is to make this process as difficult and expensive as possible, Vlasiuk stated.

00:13:54Something similar will be happening at Russia's refineries. That only plays into Ukraine's plan.

00:13:59A knockoff component that breaks easily can force redesigns, as we see in Russia's missiles.

00:14:04And it could even result in breakages that take refineries offline again. But Russia has no choice.

00:14:10It can pick crappy components or nothing at all. And it has to take the former.

00:14:14As for what happens next, it's only going to get worse for Russia from here.

00:14:18The flow of French and US intelligence isn't going to be curtailed, which means Ukraine's drones aren't

00:14:23going anywhere. Actually, that's not strictly accurate. They're going somewhere, and that somewhere is

00:14:27deeper into Russia than Putin ever thought possible. As Ukraine's drone technology gets better,

00:14:32it's able to strike deeper, which opens up more possibilities to leverage the Western intelligence

00:14:37it has to do more damage. Ukraine can now strike any target inside European Russia.

00:14:42Its best drones can travel over 3,000 kilometers, and it's working on a new generation of long-range

00:14:49sanctions that will strike even deeper. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky says that drones with

00:14:53ranges over 5,000 kilometers are on the table and may be available to Ukraine's operators by the

00:14:59end of 2026. In 2027, Ukraine will hope to have drones that can travel 10,000 kilometers. Yet more

00:15:06targets open up, which is very bad news for Russia. Ukraine isn't getting complacent either. Just as it

00:15:11built on its 2025 successes with a more refined strategy, pardon the pun, it's planning to build on

00:15:17what it's achieved so far during this year. Zelensky holds regular meetings with his top military

00:15:21officials to update target lists and outline new priorities. Toward the end of July, a new plan for

00:15:26deep strikes was approved, which saw Zelensky give the go-ahead for new strikes. Nobody outside of

00:15:32Ukraine's upper echelons knows what is going to be hit yet. That's by design. The less Russia knows,

00:15:37the less it can do about Ukraine's attacks before the drones come calling. If we were betting people,

00:15:42we'd gamble that most of the targets on Ukraine's list have been influenced by the intelligence that it's

00:15:46getting from France and the US. Russia can't defend against any of this anywhere near as well as it

00:15:51needs to. The country is so vast that it's impossible to defend every military critical

00:15:55site against Ukraine's drones. That size, which is such an asset when defending against ground

00:16:00invasions, has become a burden of the highest order for the Kremlin. Putin and his cronies must now

00:16:06constantly juggle air defenses. They have to guess what Ukraine might hit and move defenses to those

00:16:11targets, leaving other targets vulnerable as a result. It's a game of prioritization that Russia never

00:16:16thought it would be playing, and that game is going in Ukraine's favor. Now that Ukraine's

00:16:21drones can fly so far they can hit refineries in Siberia, Russia faces more of these choices.

00:16:26If the extended ranges that Zelensky talks about come to pass later in the year and into 2027,

00:16:32already stretched Russian defenses have to be pulled apart to breaking point. Distance is no longer a

00:16:37factor for Ukraine. Russia has no more strategic rear left. Only hundreds of targets, all within range or

00:16:44soon to be in the range of Ukraine's drones, remain. This is Russia's new reality. The CIA and

00:16:50French intelligence have united with Ukraine to wear away the Russian war machine. The ball breakers

00:16:55fly almost every day now, and every time they strike, be it against a crucial machine at a refinery

00:17:00or a military base that was supposed to be in a safe zone, Putin has to absorb another kick to

00:17:05his

00:17:05crotch. Eventually, Russia will be brought to its knees, a military superpower reduced to a trembling wreck,

00:17:11bleeding oil and fuel out of every orifice. Evidence of the brilliant collaboration between Ukraine and

00:17:16its French and American partners comes through every week, but it's in the wild berries strikes that this

00:17:21combination of Western intelligence and Ukrainian firepower made real headlines in July.

00:17:27The Ukraine war has been an embarrassment for Russia's air force, already practically forced out

00:17:34of Ukraine itself following the loss of hundreds of planes and helicopters.

00:17:43That air force has been reduced to attacking from behind the lines.

00:17:48Even Russia's best fighter jet, the Su-57, has practically been a non-factor in the fighting.

00:17:56So Ukraine had a challenge on its hands. How do you take out an Su-57 when it's inside Russia?

00:18:04The answer is with a genius trick that made Russia shoot down its own fighter jet. A modern-day Trojan

00:18:10horse, this trick possessed Russian air defenses into taking aim at the one thing they weren't supposed

00:18:15to shoot. As for the Su-57, let's just say it isn't flying anymore. The early reports were vague. On

00:18:22July 23rd,

00:18:24Euromiden Press said that a Russian fighter jet, then reported and later confirmed as an Su-57,

00:18:30had crashed in the Moscow blast. No casualties were reported as the pilot ejected and the jet didn't crash into

00:18:37a populated area.

00:18:39The incident occurred at 1350 in the Odinsovo district, which lies about 65 kilometers west of Moscow and is close

00:18:46to Zvenigorod.

00:18:48Photos soon started making the rounds, showing the burning wreckage of the jet in the middle of a field.

00:18:53Russia kept its lips sealed. All it would say was that a combat trainer had crashed during an attempted

00:18:59takeoff that the pilot had ejected and there was no damage reported on the ground. Later came claims

00:19:05of a technical malfunction that had inflicted the jet, forcing a crash. Russia's investigative

00:19:10committee also opened a criminal case under legal statute that covers violations of flight preparation

00:19:16procedures and in-flight rules. The Su-57 that crashed was an interesting case. It appears likely

00:19:22that it was based at the Kubinka airbase, which is the closest to Zvenigorod, being just 30 kilometers to

00:19:28the southwest of the settlement. Russia uses this base for evaluation and demonstration flights and

00:19:33it's also home to the Swifts and Russian Knights aerobatic teams. From this base, Russia likes to showcase

00:19:39its supposedly fifth-generation fighter as well as conduct tests. Most other Su-57s are nowhere near

00:19:45this base. They have been withdrawn to Diomgyi airbase, which is so deep in the Russian Far East

00:19:50that it's about 5,000 kilometers away from the combat lines in Ukraine. That's humiliating enough

00:19:56for Russia. It's having to keep its best fighter jet as far away from Ukraine because of its fear of

00:20:01drones.

00:20:02Now Russia has lost one of the few Su-57s that are within Ukraine's range. Was it a drone that

00:20:08did the

00:20:08damage? Did the Russian fighter experience the technical malfunction that Russia claims?

00:20:13As it turns out, neither. Something far more embarrassing happened. A friendly fire incident

00:20:19that has Ukraine's fingerprints all over it. The rumors soon started to swirl and they went against

00:20:25the grain of Russia's claims that a more technical fault in one of the most advanced fighter jets in

00:20:30the world had downed the Su-57 just outside of Moscow. And it wasn't Ukraine that started the rumors.

00:20:36Russian military bloggers were among the first to start picking holes in the Russian Defense

00:20:40Ministry's story. A blogger named Romanov was one of the first to start asking what really happened,

00:20:46posting to Telegram alongside a picture of the downed jet. A number of questions must be put to the

00:20:52bar's Moscow air defense crew. Another military blogger named Arrowsmap outright stated that the Su-57 had

00:20:59been shot down by Russia's own air defenses, and openly speculated that a crew using a shoulder-fired

00:21:05missile launcher may have done the damage. The plot started to thicken. Though questions started to

00:21:11be asked, the Russian military bloggers also pointed out that Russia has a quandary on its hands.

00:21:15So a friendly fire incident may have been recorded, and that's bad. But it would be even worse to pull

00:21:20the Su-57s still near Moscow away. That would be a nightmare for the city's air defenses. And it's not

00:21:27like the traditional air defenses can go either. Losing them leaves Moscow exposed, and that city,

00:21:32along with the surrounding territory, already has plenty to deal with when it comes to Ukrainian

00:21:36drone strikes over the past few months. These rumors turned attention toward the BARS Moscow air

00:21:42defenses. As Aerospace Global News reports, BARS stands for Combat Army Reserve, which tells us that

00:21:48Russia is using reservists to man its air defenses. Specifically, private militia groups and civilian

00:21:53volunteers have been working around Moscow, most armed with manned portable air defense systems,

00:21:58or man pads, to shoot down low-flying drones. Another wrinkle to the story. The loss of Russia's

00:22:04Su-57 evolved from a technical fault downing the jet to a reservist taking aim at the Su-57 with

00:22:10man pads

00:22:11and shooting it down. As it turned out, BARS Moscow seems to have played a role. But there's more to

00:22:16it

00:22:17than a panicked reservist firing at an Su-57. What seemed at first to be a malfunction and then a

00:22:22mistake

00:22:23is actually so much more worrying for Putin and his cronies. What happened at Odinsovo was neither.

00:22:29This was a case of possession. Of Ukraine taking over control of Russia's air defenses like the Trojan

00:22:35horse sneaking into Troy, and then unleashing them on one of the most valuable fighter jets in Russia's

00:22:40arsenal. It may have been Russian air defenses that shot the Su-57 down, but it was Ukraine that took

00:22:46aim.

00:22:47That's according to InformNapal. The Telegram channel, which is a military analysis and investigation

00:22:53channel that uses a combination of human, cyber, and open-source intelligence to expose what really

00:22:59happens in military operations, says that this wasn't a case of Russian air at all. Instead, Ukraine

00:23:05pulled off an ingenious trick against Russia, and it used a small army of hackers to get the job done.

00:23:11As a result of a complex cognitive influence and cybernetic invention, it was possible to influence

00:23:17the work of the air defense calculation of the Baars Moscow formation and turn the Russian air defense

00:23:22circuit into a tool for defeating its own aircraft, the channel reported. What followed was an interesting

00:23:29analysis of what really happened to Russia's Su-57. InformNapalm says that the story actually starts on

00:23:35July 17th, which is when the channel revealed that it was processing a new collection of materials that

00:23:40had been intercepted from the Russian occupiers. Among those materials were video streams of the

00:23:46very training ground from which the doomed Su-57 launched, which revealed that Russia was training

00:23:51its Baars Moscow crew on how to intercept long-range Ukrainian drones. InformNapalm didn't keep those

00:23:57intercepted materials to itself. It transferred them, along with an analytical note, to the

00:24:02relevant components of the defense forces of Ukraine. That note was a document providing data

00:24:07on the personnel training procedures Russia had in place, alongside combat algorithms, the hardware

00:24:13and software used, and potential vulnerabilities in the Baars Moscow air defense system. In other words,

00:24:19InformNapalm handed over the keys to the Kubinka air base castle. Ukraine started work on using those

00:24:25keys to unlock the base's air defenses. The information received was not only to observe the enemy. Approaches

00:24:31were found that allowed influencing the work of one of the Baars Moscow calculations and using the system

00:24:36created by the Russians against the Russian target, InformNapalm reports. Soon after, an Su-57 crashed

00:24:43into a field near the base. The victim of friendly fire that appears to have been caused by Ukrainian

00:24:49hackers taking control over an air defense system that is supposed to protect Moscow. This was a technical

00:24:55malfunction all right, but it was a malfunction that Moscow isn't going to reveal anytime soon.

00:25:00The Su-57 was flying fine. It was the air defenses that were supposed to protect the jet and everything

00:25:06surrounding it that went haywire. Russia just lost an aircraft that is reported to cost somewhere around

00:25:12the $100 million mark because it wasn't able to protect its cyber systems from Ukrainian hackers.

00:25:18Those hackers found a way in. They manipulated the Baars Moscow system and in a flash, Russia's best

00:25:24fighter jet was hit. That's the real story here. But this is also where things start to get interesting

00:25:29because behind this very real issue that Russia has with protecting its cyber systems against Ukrainian

00:25:34hackers lies a much bigger problem. An issue that reveals how pathetic Russia's air force really is

00:25:40and sheds light on the reality that lies behind what Putin has claimed to be the best fighter jet in

00:25:46the

00:25:46world. Before we dig deeper into all of that, this is a reminder that you're watching The Military Show.

00:25:51We reveal the stories behind the headlines. If you're getting insight from the channel,

00:25:55make sure you hit subscribe and activate notifications so you can see more of our videos

00:26:00as they're published. Let's start with Russia's dead planes. So, so many dead planes.

00:26:07The Su-57 that Ukraine just manipulated Russian air defenses into shooting down is the latest in a

00:26:14long line of fighter jets, bombers, spy planes and choppers that Russia has lost in its invasion of Ukraine.

00:26:20In fact, this kill comes in the wake of a recent incident where Ukraine managed to score an air-to

00:26:25-air

00:26:25kill against a Russian Su-35 flanker using an F-16. That isn't supposed to be possible. The Su-35

00:26:33should defeat the F-16 in a straight fight, but it failed. It's almost looking like Russia's claims

00:26:38about its fighter jets can't be backed up in real combat situations. More on that in the context of the

00:26:44Su-57 later. According to Ukraine's Ministry of Finance, Russia has now lost 439 planes and 354

00:26:52helicopters since Putin launched his invasion. If you're looking for the answers as to why Russia

00:26:56hasn't used its massive air force, which Global Firepower reports maintains 4,237 assets,

00:27:042,754 of which are combat-ready, then this is your answer. Ukraine just keeps on shooting Russian

00:27:10aerial assets down, whether they're in Ukraine or hiding away inside Russia. The Su-57 that now burns

00:27:17in a Moscow field isn't even the first that Russia lost in its war. Back in June 2024, Ukraine was

00:27:23able

00:27:23to damage a pair of them using drones in an attack at the Akhtubinsk airbase. And in the spring of

00:27:292026,

00:27:30Ukrainian drones reached the Shagol base near the Urals, taking out another pair of Su-57s,

00:27:36alongside an Su-34 and another unnamed fighter jet made by Sukhoi. This isn't even the first time that

00:27:43Russia has shot down its own aircraft, albeit it's definitely a first in terms of the confirmed

00:27:48manipulation of Russian air defenses by Ukrainian hackers. A not insignificant number of Russia's

00:27:53aerial losses have occurred due to Russian air defenses taking aim at their own aircraft.

00:27:58Aerospace Global News reports that the number of its own aircraft that Russia has downed is

00:28:02unconfirmed, but it's likely greater than 10. We know for sure that Russia itself has blamed

00:28:08friendly fire on several incidents, including a pair of A-50U mainstay AEW and C aircraft shootdowns.

00:28:14Though whether that's a case of the Kremlin preferring friendly fire stories over admitting

00:28:19that Ukraine has successfully conducted a strike remains to be seen.

00:28:23Late 2024 saw Russian air defenses shoot down Azerbaijan Flight 8243M Briar 190 over southern Russia.

00:28:31This incident apparently took place during a Ukrainian drone attack,

00:28:35so air defenses were definitely active. Russia also hit an Aeroflop plane as it flew from Belarus in

00:28:41July 2025, though that plane managed to still land safely in Moscow after taking flakfire.

00:28:47Euromiden Press adds more to the friendly fire casualty count. An Su-27 flying over occupied Crimea

00:28:53went down to Russia's own fire in March 2024. In 2023 over Tokmak, Russians killed one of their own Su

00:29:01-35

00:29:01pilots using an S-300 air defense system. And near Moscow, Russian air defenses opened fire against

00:29:07the country's own helicopters in 2025 after mistaking those choppers for drones. It's almost as though

00:29:13Ukraine didn't need to hack the Barr's Moscow air defenses at all. Wait long enough and poor coordination

00:29:19between Russian air defense crews and aviators would have done the job for them. Then we come to Russia's

00:29:24Su-57 and a question that we haven't asked yet. How did Barr's Moscow manage to take the jet down?

00:29:31We don't mean this in terms of the hacking. The Su-57 is supposed to be a fifth generation

00:29:36stealth fighter that is on par with US airframes like the F-35 and F-22. Putin even said it

00:29:43himself,

00:29:43the Su-57 is supposed to be the best fighter jet in the world. If Russia's claims are accurate,

00:29:49the jet should have barely shown up on air defense radars at all, making it practically impossible

00:29:53for Barr's Moscow to take it down. That leaves us to draw one of two conclusions. The first is that

00:29:59Barr's Moscow is so effective that it's able to take out one of the world's best and stealthiest fighter

00:30:04jets. Russia wouldn't mind that conclusion, but it's a little difficult to make this claim when we have

00:30:09seen Ukraine score hit after hit in the Moscow region over the past couple of months using its drones.

00:30:14If Barr's Moscow really is as effective as this incident of forced friendly fire makes it seem,

00:30:20Moscow should be a hell of a lot safer than it is right now. The second conclusion is the more

00:30:25interesting of the two. The Su-57 may not be all that Moscow claims it to be. As Global Defense

00:30:32Corps

00:30:32puts it, the downing of this aircraft by a Soviet-era missile system again proves that the aircraft is in

00:30:38no way a stealth fifth generation aircraft. Note the use of the word again. This is hardly the

00:30:44first time that questions have been raised about the Su-57 and its supposed stealth capabilities.

00:30:49Back in December 2022, the Aviation Geek Club released a damning report that revealed that Su-57s,

00:30:55despite being marketed to potential buyers as stealth fighters, aren't even close to their

00:31:01American equivalents. The outlet revealed that both the F-22 and F-35 have a radar cross-section,

00:31:06or RCS, that is between 1,000 and 10,000 times smaller than the Su-57s. Even the retired F

00:31:14-117,

00:31:15which was developed in the 1970s and is the first operational stealth aircraft, has a much

00:31:21smaller RCS than the Su-57. There are all sorts of reasons for this, from the weapons being carried

00:31:27on the outside of the Su-57 to the jet being little more than an upgraded version of the Su

00:31:31-27. But what it

00:31:33all boils down to is that Russia is incapable of building a stealth fighter jet. Sure, it will

00:31:38claim that it can, but the Su-57's RCS isn't an accident. It's what Russia aimed to achieve,

00:31:43and it's still nowhere close to true stealth. This is just humiliation after humiliation for Moscow at

00:31:49this point. An Su-57 crashed, that's bad enough. Then it was revealed that Russia's own air defenses

00:31:55took the jet down. And after that, we learned that Ukrainian hackers Trojan horsed their way into

00:32:00Russia's air defense system. And to top it all off, an Su-57 isn't even supposed to be detectable

00:32:06by the very defenses that took it down. Russia's supposed best-in-the-world fighter jet has just

00:32:11been exposed. Replacing this lost fighter jet isn't going to be easy for Russia.

00:32:16Global Defense Corps says that Russia's Air Force is believed to have only about three dozen Su-57s in

00:32:22service, and the Kremlin has been struggling to build more, likely as a result of Western sanctions.

00:32:27Russia has also been trying to sell Su-57s, though the only recorded sale made so far is to Algeria.

00:32:34There won't be many more sales made after Ukraine just exposed the Su-57 for what it really is,

00:32:39an updated fourth-generation fighter jet that can't even hide away from air defense systems made decades

00:32:45ago. Take a moment to think about what the people of Moscow must be thinking right now.

00:32:49Their region is under attack. Ukraine's drones have been flying, and it's clear that even the mass of

00:32:55air defense systems that have been arranged around Moscow aren't doing enough to stop them.

00:32:59Ukraine has hit the Moscow region several times in 2026, including a strike in late June

00:33:04that targeted a satellite center in the oblast. Ukraine's drones have also been on a rampage

00:33:10against a company called Wildberries, which is often referred to as Russia's version of Amazon,

00:33:15and has a nice sideline in selling drones, military gear, and dual-use components.

00:33:22Muscovites, who use wild berries from consumers purchasing products to business owners who rely

00:33:26on the service to make money, are panicking as warehouses burn and billions of dollars of

00:33:32inventory have gone up in smoke. Those living in Moscow are also only being spared from the

00:33:36fuel crisis that wracks Russia right now because fuel is being rerouted to Moscow from Siberia,

00:33:42Reuters reports. That half-measure can only work for so long before Muscovites find themselves in

00:33:47hours-long queues at the gas stations, just like the rest of the Russian population that

00:33:52doesn't happen to live in Putin's gilded city. Now they're having to watch Moscow's air defenses

00:33:57fail so badly that they're shooting down ultra-modern fighter jets that Putin has told them

00:34:01are the best jets in the world. What must those people be thinking right now?

00:34:05The war that Putin started hasn't just come to their doorstep, it's becoming increasingly clear

00:34:10that Ukraine is only getting stronger. The drones prove that. But now Ukraine has the ability to hack

00:34:16into Russian air defenses, forcing them to fire on their own equipment. Could that happen again?

00:34:21If it does, what will Ukraine force those defenses to target next? Those have to be the questions

00:34:27swirling around in the minds of Muscovites who can see, clearer than ever before, that their great

00:34:31protector Putin can't shield them from a thing. That's just what Ukraine wants. The remarkable

00:34:37possession of Russian air defenses around Moscow is a brilliant trick, and it's produced a devastating

00:34:41result for an Su-57. But it's the message that Ukraine sent with this Trojan horse that is even

00:34:47more valuable. Every day, Putin's war creeps closer to the doorsteps of those living in the one city

00:34:52that was supposed to be untouchable. How much longer are Muscovites going to take this before they start

00:34:57asking serious questions about their president and the state of the military that he has created?

00:35:03As Ukraine expands its long-range campaign, it faces a challenge. That campaign is already effective,

00:35:10but Ukraine wants more drones hitting their targets, and for that it needs to tackle Russia's

00:35:15air defenses. Too many of Ukraine's drones get sent off course or are destroyed by those defenses.

00:35:21The less effective Russian air defenses are, the more Russia burns. It's a simple concept,

00:35:27and now the UK has provided Ukraine with the solution to its problem. You won't believe what the UK just

00:35:33gave

00:35:34Ukraine as a Harry Potter-style weapon designed by the UK is set to become the next big thing in

00:35:41the war.

00:35:41Ukraine wants to send Russia back to the Stone Age, and now it can. Why the Stone Cloak is coming?

00:35:48On July 26, The Telegraph reported that the UK's new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham,

00:35:53has revealed that he is set to sign a new deal with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky.

00:35:58This new deal will be signed during a meeting between the pair at a naval yard, and it's going

00:36:03to be proof that the UK's support of Ukraine in its defense of its territory against Russia

00:36:07remains unwavering, Burnham declares. So there's a new pact waiting to be signed. What's the big deal?

00:36:14The big deal is what Ukraine will be getting. Under this pact, Ukraine will receive specially developed

00:36:19signal jammers that the UK has developed to integrate into a new series of its own weapons.

00:36:25Named Stone Cloak, these jammers will make Ukraine's incoming drones and cruise missiles

00:36:31practically undetectable to Russian air defense systems. Think of it like the Cloak of Invisibility

00:36:36from Harry Potter, only for weapons. That's what the UK has promised to deliver. But it goes much

00:36:41deeper than that. The UK isn't just handing over some Stone Cloaks and calling it a day.

00:36:46Ukraine is receiving a license to produce these ingenious jammers for itself. Stone Cloaks are

00:36:51nothing new for Ukraine. The UK has already provided thousands of the signal jammers to Ukraine.

00:36:56However, even those thousands aren't quite enough. Ukraine's long-range campaign has ramped up

00:37:01massively in 2026, leading to tens of thousands of Ukrainian drones being launched into Russia

00:37:06and the occupied territories. That's what Ukraine needs. Tens of thousands of Stone Cloaks to go along

00:37:11with the sheer number of drones that it unleashes. With this new agreement, Ukraine will receive the

00:37:16intellectual rights to the technology so it can mass-produce them, perhaps on a scale that even

00:37:21the UK can't manage. Ahead of Zelensky's visit, Burnham explained why he made the decision.

00:37:26Britain stands with Ukraine, shoulder to shoulder, and our support remains unwavering.

00:37:31Russia should be in no doubt of our resolve, and we will not back down until we achieve a long

00:37:36-lasting

00:37:36peace for Ukraine, Burnham said, before adding, Stone Cloak is the best of homegrown British

00:37:41innovation and proven on the front line, and it will be vital to protecting our security in both

00:37:46our countries. This was a message to Voldemort, sorry Putin, that Ukraine's drones and missiles

00:37:52are about to become invisible. And there's nothing he can do about it. As much as the UK wants to

00:37:57prove that it still stands with Ukraine, which itself is a gutshot to Putin as he tries to create

00:38:01division throughout Europe, there is an element of self-interest in this new deal. Ukraine gets to

00:38:06make Stone Cloaks. In return, the UK gets to gather mass deployment data on a jammer that has already

00:38:12proven its worth on the front lines in Ukraine. British Army chiefs say that data will be collected

00:38:17on the performance of Stone Cloak once it's deployed en masse, with that information then

00:38:21being used by the UK as it develops its next generation of missiles and drones. In particular,

00:38:26the UK wants to see how the current version of the jammer works because it intends to build Stone

00:38:31Cloak into Project Breakstop, which is an upcoming low-cost cruise missile.

00:38:35We also imagine that the UK and Ukraine will both use the data collected to make tweaks to Stone

00:38:40Cloak, making it even more effective when stacked up against Russian air defenses. This new deal is

00:38:46big for Ukraine, for several reasons that we'll explain soon. But first the big question,

00:38:51what is Stone Cloak exactly? Stone Cloak is a new type of signal jammer that can be loaded into drones

00:38:57and

00:38:57missiles. It's designed to help those weapons overcome air defenses. URACTIVE has a little more

00:39:02information. These jammers are small, at roughly the size of a tablet computer. They can be fitted

00:39:07directly to a weapon that Ukraine intends to fire, and they work by jamming the signals used by air

00:39:12defense systems that allow those systems to track and target Ukraine's projectiles. From that, we can

00:39:17assume that Stone Cloak affects not just the air defense system itself, but the radar that is attached

00:39:22to the system. Apart from that, we know little beyond speculation. Stone Cloak likely uses radio frequency

00:39:29jamming to make projectiles difficult to detect. With no official data sheets made public, we can

00:39:34only assume that includes the radio frequency bands used by Russian early warning and tracking radars.

00:39:39Ukraine will also need to be able to source critical parts to make its own Stone Cloaks.

00:39:44These include semiconductors, amplifiers, and RF modules, all of which Ukraine seems to be able to

00:39:49source for its other weapons. Presumably it should have no difficulty getting its hands on these components,

00:39:54though the number of each that it's able to purchase could hamper the number of Stone Cloaks

00:39:58that Ukraine makes for itself, but that's a future problem. For now, Ukraine will be jubilant that it's gotten

00:40:03its hands on the rights to make a device that could make a massive difference to its war against Russia.

00:40:07But before we go deeper into why that difference is coming, this is a reminder that you are watching

00:40:12The Military Show. If you like what you see from our channel, then remember to subscribe and ring the

00:40:16notification bell so you never miss any of our analysis of the latest weapons used by Ukraine.

00:40:21Let's start with the thing that Stone Cloak is going to counter, Russia's air defenses. Though a lot has been

00:40:26said on this very

00:40:27channel about how badly those defenses are failing, as Ukraine's drone operators have been able to

00:40:32carry out hundreds of strikes against Russian targets in 2026 alone, they are still a problem.

00:40:37And if Russia is to be believed, far more of Ukraine's drones get intercepted than actually

00:40:42make it to where Ukraine wants them to go. For instance, Al Jazeera reports that Russia's defense

00:40:46ministry claimed that air defenses destroyed 571 of Ukraine's drones during a single overnight attack

00:40:53leading into July 24th. Toward the end of 2025, the Royal United Services Institute ran a study

00:40:59that concluded that fewer than 10% of the drones that Ukraine launches reach their targets.

00:41:04Whether that's still the case over half a year later isn't clear, but what really matters here

00:41:08is that Ukraine wants its long-range strikes to be even more effective than they already are.

00:41:12Attacking air defenses directly helps with that, as doing so leads to the creation of safe aerial

00:41:17corridors for drones and missiles. However, Ukraine's goal now is more success. What if Ukraine can

00:41:23launch 600 drones and have 20% of them find their mark, or 30%, that's what the UK's stone cloak

00:41:29decision could enable. If Ukraine is able to mass produce these devices to the point where it can

00:41:33install them on most if not all of the projectiles that it fires into Russia and the occupied territories,

00:41:38then it has a serious force multiplier on its hands. Think about what that means for things like

00:41:42the refinery strikes that Ukraine has been carrying out. Those strikes are already effective. On July 25th,

00:41:47Ukraine unleashed another, striking the Tiumen refinery that is 2,000 kilometers away from its borders.

00:41:53The attack caused a fire. That blaze would have been even bigger if more of Ukraine's drones broke

00:41:58through the defenses. There are also benefits to Ukraine in terms of the cost of these strikes.

00:42:03Though drones offer a low-cost way to carry out long-range strikes, sending swarms of UAVs that never

00:42:09reach their targets still means that Ukraine is pouring tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars

00:42:14down the drain with each attack. Again, Stonecloak could change that. The entire calculus of Ukraine's

00:42:20deep-strike strategy changes as a result. And as for the impact on Russia, well that brings us nicely

00:42:25to the second reason why this stonecloak licensing agreement is so important. A long-range strategy

00:42:30that is both expanding and working very well already now has the potential to inflict enormous economic

00:42:35and psychological pain on a Russian population that is already feeling the impact of a war that they

00:42:41never thought would come to their doorstep. When Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022,

00:42:45the prospect of drones and missiles reaching 2,000 kilometers deep into Russian territory

00:42:49wasn't even a consideration. Even when the initial invasion failed and Ukraine started to get its

00:42:54hands on Western missiles, the ranges of those missiles restricted attacks to the border regions

00:42:59of Russia, along with Crimea and the Black Sea. Fast forward to 2026 and the situation is very different.

00:43:05Ukraine isn't just capable of long-range strikes, as we saw in Tiumen, it's unleashing them with a

00:43:10frequency that alarms even the coolest-headed Russians around. In a May report, United24 media

00:43:15revealed just how much Ukraine's deep-strike campaign has escalated. In August 2024, Ukraine

00:43:21launched a little over 1,000 drones at Russian military targets. In July 2025, the number has risen

00:43:26to 3,000. But in March 2026, Ukraine was up to around 7,000 drones in a single month, which

00:43:33was enough

00:43:33to send Ukraine beyond Russia in terms of the sheer number of projectiles launched into the other side's

00:43:38territory. Russia no longer has a peaceful near-rear anywhere that matters. The only locations that are

00:43:44safe from Ukraine's drones are in the Russian Far East, which is so far away from Ukraine that it's

00:43:48practically a non-factor, outside of providing Putin with a region from which he can recruit soldiers.

00:43:53There is a purpose to these strikes beyond the numbers. Ukraine is trying to cripple Russia's

00:43:58economy, while offering constant reminders to Putin's people that the war their leader started now

00:44:02impacts them. On the economic front, Ukraine's drones are already having the intended impact.

00:44:07In a July 6 report, The Telegraph revealed that half a million Russians went bankrupt in 2025 due to

00:44:13the economic impact of the war, adding that the country now faces an explosive banking crisis.

00:44:19Growth isn't coming anytime soon either. Russia's economy ministry has been forced to adjust its gross

00:44:24domestic product or GDP growth forecasts for 2026 from 1.3% to 0.4%. The same is true for

00:44:322027,

00:44:33where the GDP growth forecast is now 1.4% instead of 2.8%. And these are Russia's massaged figures,

00:44:40so you can bet your bottom dollar that the reality in the country is much worse.

00:44:44Ukraine's deep strikes have been a huge cause of these economic problems. They've also contributed

00:44:48to a fuel crisis in Russia that extends to the majority of the country's regions,

00:44:53and has caused particular pain for Crimea's occupiers, who are increasingly being isolated

00:44:58by both middle- and long-range strikes. Ukraine has even started striking seemingly

00:45:02civilian businesses, as it has with Wild Berries, which is considered the Amazon of Russia.

00:45:07Wild Berries isn't as innocent as Russia would have you believe. The e-commerce platform makes drones,

00:45:13components, and even military gear available on its store. Striking blows against the company's

00:45:17warehouses, as Ukraine has done several times in July, means that billions of dollars of stock

00:45:22goes up in flames. For entrepreneurs who relied on Wild Berries for their businesses,

00:45:27the blows sustained are devastating and deadly. Wild Berries has now hidden the military categories

00:45:32on its online portal. That's how terrifyingly effective Ukraine's long-range strikes are.

00:45:38Now, add the stone cloak into that mix. With these invisibility cloaks strapped to their drones,

00:45:43a campaign that is already causing Russia's economy and people a ton of pain ramps up even more.

00:45:49Ukraine won't have to increase the number of drones it's launching. It will simply become more

00:45:53effective with the numbers it's already sending into Russia. And the timing of the new license

00:45:57deal couldn't be any better either. Following a July 26th meeting with military leaders,

00:46:02Zelensky announced that Ukraine has created a new list of military targets that it intends to strike in

00:46:06Russia. Today, we agreed to continue our operations and updated the list of priority targets,

00:46:12in accordance with their real impact on Russia and its ability to continue and prolong this war,

00:46:17Zelensky said, adding, The main goal is to further pressure Russia into diplomacy

00:46:22by disrupting the production of weapons components, causing oil and other economic losses,

00:46:27and bringing this war back to a familiar ground. The stone cloak licensing and production likely won't

00:46:32be set up in time to impact these particular targets, but more will be listed in the future.

00:46:37Russia. Ukraine's drones aren't going anywhere, well they are, right into Russia and with the

00:46:42stone cloaks equipped, even more regularly into the hearts of the targets that Ukraine

00:46:46assigns to its drone operators. There's one more reason why stone cloak will worry Russia.

00:46:51It is yet another sign that Ukraine is cooperating with its partners well beyond what Putin thought

00:46:56possible. Again, we take you back to what Russia assumed Ukraine would always be in 2022. To Russia,

00:47:01Ukraine was a weak nation. Sure, it managed to fend off the initial special military operation,

00:47:06but after that it was only surviving because Western nations were sending billions of dollars

00:47:10in weapons to Ukraine. Ukraine did of course rely on these weapons massively during the first few years

00:47:15of the war, but a transformation has occurred. In 2022, Ukraine would accept any weapons that were

00:47:20offered and it was very much cast in the role of aid recipient. That was okay for Putin. As much

00:47:26as he

00:47:26hated the collective West for jumping to Ukraine's aid, he also believed that he could manipulate

00:47:30Western leaders into withdrawing that aid in time. He just had to cast Ukraine as a leech that didn't

00:47:35deserve to survive. The goal was division. In 2026, Ukraine isn't the weakling that Russia wanted

00:47:40to cast it as. Frankly, it never was. But now we see a version of a country that is an

00:47:44active

00:47:45contributor to the European and global defense spaces, rather than a nation that relies solely

00:47:50on others to survive. Think about what the UK licensing stone cloak to Ukraine really means.

00:47:55This isn't just the UK allowing Ukraine to build a weapon. It's recognition of the fact

00:47:59that Ukraine's defense sector has grown so much, both in size and complexity, that it can be trusted

00:48:04to build one of the most modern pieces of equipment that the UK's military has developed. What we see

00:48:09here is recognition of Ukraine as a burgeoning defense powerhouse. The Ukrainian defense sector

00:48:14that was valued at $1 billion at the start of the invasion has ballooned to the point where its

00:48:18capacity is above $55 billion. Ukraine isn't just a recipient of aid anymore, it's a contributor. And the UK

00:48:25granting a stone cloak license is recognition of the fact that Ukraine has become a valued partner

00:48:29in British defense, just as the UK is a valued partner to Ukraine. We're seeing this kind of

00:48:34thing happen with surprising regularity in 2026. Stone cloak is just the latest in a growing line

00:48:40of advanced technologies that are being licensed to Ukraine for production. Earlier, the US made the

00:48:45shocking announcement that it was going to license Patriot interceptor missile production to Ukraine,

00:48:49meaning one of the world's most advanced air defense missiles will be built on Ukrainian soil.

00:48:54Defense Express reported on July 23rd that Patriot missiles manufacturer Raytheon is now in active

00:49:00negotiations with Ukraine to get that licensing deal over the line. France also licensed several

00:49:05weapons to Ukraine earlier in July, giving Ukraine permission to produce its own Aster-30 air defense

00:49:10missiles, Assam-Hammer bomb kits, and Scalp cruise missiles. What these deals tell us, and the Stone

00:49:15Cloak Agreement reinforces, is that Ukraine has become a linchpin in European defense. The UK

00:49:20recognizes that fact. It sees value in having Ukraine build its JAMA because Ukraine can test

00:49:26the device like no other nation, and it can build it reliably to the point where Ukraine may well be

00:49:30producing stone cloaks for the UK when the war is over. The Atlantic Council has gone as far as to

00:49:35dub Ukraine Europe's shield, and it has a point. If Russia is the enemy that all of Europe knows it

00:49:40needs to counter, Ukraine is creating the blueprint while giving its partners valuable time to

00:49:45prepare. As for Putin, the Stone Cloak deal is as sure a sign as any that he has received so

00:49:50far

00:49:51that his attempts to divide and deter Ukraine's partners aren't working. That's the key point

00:49:55that Burnham made when announcing the new deal. Russia will still try to divide. It has intensified

00:50:00its shadow war behind the scenes in a renewed attempt to stop the flow of support to Ukraine.

00:50:05Sabotage on the territory of partners has been recorded, as have drone incursions, operations close

00:50:10to subsea cables, disinformation campaigns, and weaponized migration. All of this is supposed

00:50:16to intimidate countries like the UK to the point where they stop doing things like granting licenses

00:50:20to Ukraine to produce a device that makes Russia weaker and Ukraine stronger. It isn't working.

00:50:26Ukraine's partners see through it all and know that desperation underpins everything that Putin is

00:50:31doing. The UK's Harry Potter-style weapon is just the latest to come to Ukraine, despite all of Russia's

00:50:37attempts to cajole and intimidate. It won't be the last. And Stone Cloak will join an ever-growing list

00:50:42of weapons that Ukraine is building itself to send Russia back to the Stone Age.

00:50:47If you listen to Russian propaganda, you'll hear of a Ukraine war that is going precisely to plan.

00:50:53Russia's soldiers are rampaging through Ukraine, the Kremlin will tell you. The Donbass is on the

00:50:59verge of falling and every drone that Ukraine launches into Russia is taken out by a world-class

00:51:04air defense system. It's only a matter of time before Ukraine falls. It's been a matter of time

00:51:10for four and a half years now. And digging beneath the stories the Kremlin tells reveals a very different

00:51:18reality. Russia is winning, alright. It's created the perfect soldiers and they're scoring big victories.

00:51:23But there's just one problem. None of it exists. Russia's only winning army is a fake. Putin is lying to

00:51:30you and his own people and he's using AI to do it. If you've been doom scrolling military content

00:51:35recently, you may have seen some interesting videos. Clips of interviews with military men

00:51:40claiming to be part of Poland's army have been spreading, showing these soldiers railing against

00:51:45Ukraine. There are claims of high levels of crime among refugees who have escaped Ukraine and now live

00:51:51in Poland. The soldiers also attacked the Polish government, Germany and the European Union or EU,

00:51:56with claims suggesting that Poland is well on its way to rejecting Ukraine, the EU and frankly

00:52:02everything that the country has fought to become part of ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

00:52:06But none of it is real. The news broke on July 21st. As its army fails to gain any significant

00:52:12ground

00:52:12in Ukraine, Russia has turned to outright lies in a desperate attempt to create discord and discontent

00:52:18inside Ukraine. Russia isn't relying on fake versions of its own soldiers for these lies. Those soldiers

00:52:24are too busy dying in Ukraine. Instead, Russia has created AI deepfakes of Polish soldiers, which it's

00:52:30then manipulating into criticizing Ukraine and its army. Ukraine's Center for Countering Disinformation

00:52:36revealed the Russian fakery in a mind-blowing report that showcases just how far Russia is willing

00:52:41to go in its desperate attempts to win the propaganda battle. The center says analysis has shown that all of

00:52:47these soldiers are completely AI-generated characters. It's also worth noting that the visual style and content

00:52:53delivery mechanisms are identical to those used by Russian AI bot farms. The clips, which all show men in

00:53:00Polish military uniforms, have been circulating on several social media platforms, including YouTube, Facebook,

00:53:06Instagram and TikTok. However, close examination of the videos shows several signs of manipulation, including several of the faces

00:53:13being far smoother than they should be. Other signs come from the words used in the videos. Poland's Nask

00:53:19State Research Institute has also been looking into the videos, and it says that some of the language

00:53:24used indicates awkward phrasing of the Polish language, suggesting translation from the original Russian

00:53:29text that was written for the statements. There are also stray Cyrillic characters thrown into the mix. Then

00:53:35there are the uniforms. Despite it being relatively easy to find pictures of Polish soldiers in their uniforms,

00:53:40it appears that Russia didn't even bother. The uniforms seen in the clips seem to be amalgamations of

00:53:46Russian and Belorussian military wear rather than Polish. Russia is banking on people not paying

00:53:51attention or simply not knowing enough to spot the signs, and it's working. One YouTube channel alone

00:53:57has posted about 50 of these clips, the top performing of which has reached 300,000 views, Polsky Radio reports.

00:54:04Other videos, including one generated back in October, that claim to show Polish soldiers calling for the

00:54:10seizure of the Ukrainian city of Lviv have already been easily debunked because of a visible watermark

00:54:15from the AI model VO that is seen on the video. This is dirty from Russia. Insidious. But it also

00:54:21isn't surprising. The Kremlin knows that it can't really claim that the Russian army is doing well in

00:54:26Ukraine. It tries, but the reality is clear for everybody to see on the ground. So Russia has created a

00:54:32fake army filled with non-existent Polish soldiers to score propaganda points against Ukraine and attempt

00:54:38to convince the world that a key ally has turned its back. Why Polish soldiers? Though Ukraine and

00:54:44Poland are still allies, there is tension between the two countries on which Russia has pounced.

00:54:49Earlier in 2026, a rift started to form between Poland and Ukraine. Poland's president, Karol

00:54:55Novrotsky even stripped Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy of the Order of the White Eagle,

00:55:01which is Poland's highest state honor. That happened as a result of Zelenskyy approving the naming of

00:55:06the Ukrainian military unit as the UPA, which stands for the Heroes of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.

00:55:12Many in Poland took that as an insult. There are historical tensions surrounding the UPA name,

00:55:18as a group with this name took part in the killing of 100,000 Polish people

00:55:22in Volodymyr in eastern Galicia during World War II. Poland classifies this as a genocide,

00:55:27and the naming of a Ukrainian unit after this group was a step too far for one of Ukraine's

00:55:32staunchest supporters. Russia has seized the opportunity to have its AI-generated Polish soldiers

00:55:38bring it up in many of the clips that have surfaced on social media.

00:55:41Despite the obvious conflict, Poland and Ukraine are still allies. On June 25, the BBC reported that

00:55:48Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called for truth and mutual respect during the Ukraine recovery

00:55:53conference in Gdansk. But there are still signs of tension. Zelenskyy skipped this iteration of the

00:55:59event, choosing instead to send Prime Minister Julius Verdenko. However, Zelenskyy has said that Ukraine

00:56:05would remain open to all meaningful formats of engagement with Poland in order to try to avoid

00:56:09conflicting interpretations of the difficult and painful chapters of our shared past, adding that he was

00:56:15grateful to the Polish people for their support and cooperation.

00:56:19Russia's propagandists were like moths to flames after seeing all of this unfold,

00:56:23and they've been flooding the internet in an attempt to create more division ever since.

00:56:27The Kremlin obviously thinks it's being clever here. Even such obviously fake videos can have an impact,

00:56:33as many simply don't question whether what they're watching is real or not. Others simply can't tell.

00:56:39TechRadar revealed that in a January 2026 piece where it reported on a study conducted by AI video

00:56:44company Runway. Quizzing 1,000 participants, Runway discovered that the volunteers were only able

00:56:50to correctly identify whether a video was real or AI 57.1% of the time. That's barely better than

00:56:56a coin

00:56:57toss, and it shows how easily Russia can get away with manipulating the minds of people who are perhaps

00:57:02only half paying attention when they watch these kinds of clips on social media. The Kremlin doesn't

00:57:07need people watching these videos, it wants them listening to the fake messages. In fact, Russia needs

00:57:13them listening because it knows that exposing the reality of what's happening in Ukraine would be

00:57:17a disaster. Russia's new fake army is getting views and influencing opinions, but its real army is

00:57:24failing massively. Stalled in Donetsk and losing ground elsewhere, Russia's soldiers are dying in

00:57:30droves. Russia is losing between 1,000 and 1,500 soldiers every day, and the numbers keep on climbing.

00:57:37In June, Russia lost 39,490 of its troops, and according to Al Jazeera, it's struggling to make

00:57:44up the numbers as it recruits between 24,000 and 30,000 contract soldiers monthly. This is the reality

00:57:50that Russia doesn't want you to see. An army that is failing in Ukraine and death on an unimaginable

00:57:56scale. So Russia creates fake Polish soldiers wearing hybrid Russian and Belarusian fatigues to badmouth

00:58:03Ukraine, Poland, and the EU in language that is clearly translated from Russian text.

00:58:08And the fakery gets worse. What we're seeing here is far from an isolated incident. It's part of a

00:58:14much bigger campaign of disinformation that Russia has relied on to conceal the reality of Ukraine for

00:58:20years. It's also not just Poles who are being deepfaked. Ukrainian soldiers have experienced the

00:58:26same treatment. This is exactly the kind of thing that we cover here on the military show. We give you

00:58:30insight into the reality of Russia's invasion. If you like what you see and want to see more,

00:58:35the subscription and notification buttons are just a click away.

00:58:39Beyond the fake Polish soldiers, Russia is also creating videos that see nonsense spouted from the

00:58:44mouths of AI-generated Ukrainian soldiers. Euromiden Press reported on this phenomenon on July 4th,

00:58:50noting that Russia is flooding social media feeds with videos of fake Ukrainian soldiers and authority

00:58:55figures, including rabbis, which it's using to spread disinformation throughout Ukraine.

00:59:00These fake videos have different messages from the ones discussed before. They're designed to turn

00:59:05the Ukrainian people against their leadership. Those people are being sent to die in a war,

00:59:09the AI-generated soldiers claim, and also that politicians can enrich themselves by buying villas

00:59:14and other expensive items. One of these videos received around 900,000 views, the outlet reports.

00:59:20Can they give Ukraine a serious problem? An AI-generated video can go viral and spread

00:59:25like wildfire in a matter of minutes on social media. Fact-checking videos are reactive, often

00:59:32taking several hours to get online, and don't engage as well because they aren't as inflammatory.

00:59:37The disinformation age is upon us, and Russia loves it. It's been loving it for years. These videos

00:59:43are just small parts of entire bot networks of social media accounts that have been running fake videos

00:59:47for years. For instance, August 2024 saw the Ukrainian media outlet Texty run an investigation

00:59:54on a TikTok network containing 2,000 accounts, all of which were fake, all sharing anti-mobilization

01:00:00hashtags. There is also documentation of AI-generated videos of Ukrainian soldiers supposedly surrendering

01:00:06to Russian forces in places like Pokrovsk, all designed to convince Ukrainian people that their

01:00:11country is losing the war against Russia. What has changed in 2026 is the nature of these videos.

01:00:17In the past, Russia has used AI content to spread fake videos involving AI-generated people that have

01:00:23no real authority. That's not what we're seeing in 2026. Whether through the advancement of AI,

01:00:28or Russia getting a better grip on the tech that it's using, this new wave of videos focuses on

01:00:33supposed authority figures. Soldiers, military leaders, and others claiming to be religious or

01:00:38political figures are now delivering the messages that Russia wants to send. Again, none of it is real.

01:00:44That doesn't matter. If a fake video goes viral, it takes days to undo the damage, assuming that

01:00:50viewers even bother to look beyond what they've seen in the first place. The Molfar Intelligence

01:00:55Institute has delivered a list of what to look out for if you're unsure if you're watching AI-generated

01:01:00content or not. Visual defects such as the uncanny valley effect on faces caused by irregular blinking,

01:01:07the absence of micro-expressions, which are clearly lacking in the fake Polish soldier videos,

01:01:11and sound desynchronization are all clues. So are source anonymity and the same video suddenly

01:01:18appearing across dozens of accounts within minutes? Check the accounts too, the Institute says. If they're

01:01:23new or contain nothing but the same types of videos, that's a pretty good indicator that you're looking

01:01:28at a bot farm. Hundreds or thousands of likes, often accompanied by generic comments within the

01:01:33first few minutes and hours of a video going live, could also serve as clues. Russia is betting that

01:01:38most won't follow these steps. That's why it engages in this type of fakery. What's striking here is the

01:01:45differences that are becoming increasingly apparent in how Russia uses AI versus Ukraine's use of the

01:01:50technology. Russia creates fake AI-generated armies of people spreading false messages across social

01:01:56media. It's all about disinformation for Russia. Russia knows that it can't compete with Ukraine

01:02:01when it comes to tangible military applications of using AI to actually win a war. Ukraine is miles

01:02:07ahead of Russia when it comes to using AI to carry out its strikes. We see that in the middle

01:02:11strike

01:02:12campaign Ukraine has used to destroy the Russian near-rear for much of 2026. That campaign uses AI-enabled

01:02:19drones capable of autonomously detecting and striking targets behind the front. One of the standouts is

01:02:24the Hornet drone that has a 300km range and uses AI to guide itself towards targets, making it incredibly

01:02:31difficult to stop using electronic warfare countermeasure. We've also seen Ukraine use AI in other

01:02:37interesting ways. On July 23, United 24 media reported on Marichka. This is an AI-infused battlefield

01:02:45planning system that is designed to reduce the time taken to make important battlefield decisions.

01:02:50With this system, Ukraine can take the time needed to make such decisions down from up to 12 hours to

01:02:55as little as a few minutes, all because the AI is capable of analyzing and reporting on dozens of

01:03:00documents in seconds. In the past, human commanders would have needed hours to sift through these

01:03:05documents. In a war that is as fast moving as the one waged in Ukraine, that delay could be the

01:03:11difference

01:03:11between carrying out a successful strike on a Russian target and losing that target because it's gone

01:03:16into hiding. There is a very interesting contrast at play here. Ukraine uses AI to get battlefield results,

01:03:23while Russia uses it to create fake soldiers and videos designed to trick the minds of people who

01:03:28aren't paying as much attention as they should. The fakery doesn't stop at AI-generated video.

01:03:33Seeing how well Ukraine is doing on the battlefield, Russia has resorted to lying through its collective

01:03:38teeth about what's happening on the ground. In its July 22 assessment of Russia's invasion,

01:03:44the Institute for the Study of War reported that Russia is continuing to make maximalist demands for

01:03:50peace, including the seeding of the Donbass. Russia backs those claims with reports of territory taken

01:03:56that at best can be described as exaggerated. At worst, outright lies. The Russian MOD amplified a Russian

01:04:04propaganda telegram channel on July 22nd, claiming that Russian forces seized 2,226 square kilometers

01:04:11of territory in the first six months of 2026. ISW has observed evidence to assess that Russian forces

01:04:18seized a net total of only 81.1 square kilometers thus far in 2026, due in part to a significant

01:04:27Ukrainian

01:04:27spring-summer-2026 counteroffensive and seized or infiltrated 626.85 square kilometers thus far in

01:04:352026, the ISW reports. Over 2,100 square kilometers of claimed territory not being in Russian hands is a

01:04:43pretty major exaggeration. And it's one that Russia has doubled down on with its claims that its forces

01:04:48have overrun the fortress belt city of Konstantinivka. Those claims started circulating in early July and

01:04:54were immediately refuted by Ukraine's general staff. Ukraine continues to hold its positions in the

01:04:59city, the general staff says. CNN says that independent mapping sources and video testimonials

01:05:05from Ukrainian soldiers also prove the claim false. What Russia actually seems to be doing is sending

01:05:11infiltrators into the city, having them wave flags for videos and then run back into their hidey holes,

01:05:16where they await imminent detection by Ukraine's drones. It's all lies and propaganda, just like the AI

01:05:22videos. But then that's the Russian way. Lies are Russia's real weapon of mass destruction and they

01:05:27have been wielded like that for decades. The irony in all of this is that Putin himself may be as

01:05:33much

01:05:33of a victim of these lies as anybody else. Russia's leader has a long history of distorting the truth,

01:05:38perhaps now to the point where he can't even see the reality of the false version he's created for

01:05:42himself. This is the man who still calls a war that is getting close to five years long, a special

01:05:48military operation. He will parrot the words of his sycophant generals when they tell him that Russia

01:05:53is making massive gains and he won't even question why Donetsk hasn't fallen yet given those gains.

01:05:58Putin falls for his own propaganda constant. He did it when he invaded Ukraine. Those he employs to

01:06:04tell tall tales for him said that Ukraine was weak and ripe for the taking. Putin thought Russia's

01:06:10almighty military would need just days to win. We've seen how that worked out. Putin may lie

01:06:16shamelessly and constantly but that has just led him to create a world around himself where the

01:06:20truth is impossible to determine. Today Putin is a man who seems intent on surrounding himself

01:06:26with nothing but his delusions. In May Forbes reported that Putin spends most of his time

01:06:31moving between underground bunkers surrounded by security personnel under strict orders to check

01:06:37everything and everybody who comes near. He doesn't know reality. He hasn't seen it in a very long time.

01:06:43The hilarious irony in all of this is that Putin himself would likely be tricked into thinking

01:06:47that the AI generated videos of fake Poles and Ukrainians were real if he watched them.

01:06:52We can't even know for sure that Putin ordered the creation of these videos. Perhaps he has no idea

01:06:57that they even exist. But coming back to those videos they are of course evidence that Russia

01:07:02continues to lie. But they are also signs of desperation. Of Russia trying to create a la-la land of

01:07:08its own making to distract from the dismal performance of its troops in Ukraine. Russia

01:07:13needs people to fall for the message because actually paying attention unravels the lies in a

01:07:18heartbeat. Don't fall for it. Russia is led by a man who surrounds himself with toadies and purposefully

01:07:24detaches himself from reality. What we see spreading on social media right now is just another example.

01:07:29Russia can't win in Ukraine with its real arm. The only victories it's scoring now are with an army of

01:07:35robots and fake soldiers that don't exist. How about this for a dose of reality Russia?

01:07:40You're on the verge of losing Crimea as a result of a brilliant Ukrainian isolation campaign

01:07:45that shows just how effective AI can be when used for fighting rather than fake videos.

01:07:51It's becoming an all too common occurrence. Russian drones, which the Kremlin claims are destined for

01:07:57Ukraine, keep finding their way into Romanian airspace. Those drones were never meant for Ukraine.

01:08:03They're part of Russia's intimidation tactics as Putin and his cronies tried to cajole Romania

01:08:08into withdrawing its support from Ukraine. It isn't working. Romania has had enough of Russia's games.

01:08:15Putin is aghast as Romania has started firing back against Russia's drones. This is an escalation

01:08:21you won't believe with implications for NATO and Ukraine. Starting on July 24th, Romania shot down

01:08:28three of Russia's strike drones in as many days, with these illegal incursions coinciding with

01:08:33intensified attacks that Russia is launching near the 614-kilometer border that Romania shares with

01:08:39Ukraine. Russia claims these incursions are accidental. It always says as much, but the

01:08:44pattern here is undeniable, and Romania's response leaves no doubt of what it thinks about these drones

01:08:50in its airspace. All three of Russia's drones have been taken out by F-16s, scrambled to the skies once

01:08:56those drones were revealed to have crossed into Romanian territory. The first incident happened

01:09:00on July 24th. Russia's drones slipped into Romania somewhere between Sulina and Fetesti. The latter just

01:09:07so happens to be home to an airbase. Jets were scrambled. First, a pair of Eurofighter Typhoons,

01:09:13which failed to shoot the Russian drone out of the sky. They were followed by an F-16, which unleashed

01:09:18a missile and took the Russian drone down over a field near Padina. Inspection of the wreckage revealed

01:09:23that the drone was a Russian shite. The very next day saw a repeat, only this time the Russian drone

01:09:29crossed into Romania near the Danube Delta. This time Romania unleashed four aircraft. The Russian

01:09:34drone never stood a chance. This model was more powerful than the last, a jet-powered drone making

01:09:40it a faster airframe. Then, on July 26th, the third Russian drone crossed at approximately 10.15am.

01:09:46Again, F-16s scrambled out of Fetesti, this time destroying the Russian drone somewhere over

01:09:52Romania's territorial waters in the Black Sea. One drone incursion could have been chalked up to

01:09:57coincidence. Two raised suspicions. And three, that's a pattern that seems to suggest that all

01:10:03of this was very deliberate on Russia's part. The Danube River is the key here, and understanding

01:10:08what's been happening there sheds light on why Russian drones keep finding their way into Romanian

01:10:12territory. For much of the war, Russia has been hitting Ukraine's ports on this river. It has good reason

01:10:17to. The Danube is a key export channel that Ukraine uses to get its grain out to the world.

01:10:23Through this one water-filled artery, Ukraine generates billions of dollars in revenue every

01:10:27year. Russia wants to put an end to that. It's wanted to do so for years. For centuries,

01:10:33Danube ports like Ismail and Odessa have been relatively quiet, often spared from wars that raged

01:10:39around them. Now, those ports are targets as Russia tries to take a huge bite out of the revenue

01:10:44generated by Ukraine's grain industry, which accounts for 10% of all wheat sold in the world.

01:10:50Ukraine's exports feed millions of people. Russia would rather let those people starve than

01:10:55allow Ukraine to strengthen itself. Russia strikes Danube ports constantly. In May, Ismail was hit twice,

01:11:01once on May 2nd and again on May 19th, leading to damage to port infrastructure.

01:11:06Why does all of this matter in the context of Romania? Portions of the Danube River roughly run along

01:11:11the border between Ukraine and Romania. We see that from the second of the recent drone incursions.

01:11:16That happened in Romania's Danube Delta. For years, Russia has been able to use this sharing of the

01:11:20river between Ukraine and Romania to excuse itself whenever its Shahids enter Romanian territory.

01:11:26We weren't trying to hit Romania, the Kremlin would cry. It was Ukraine that we targeted,

01:11:30and for a while these claims could have a certain amount of credibility. Electronic warfare systems

01:11:35designed to send drones off course are likely installed in all of Ukraine's Danube ports.

01:11:40It's certainly not unfeasible that Russian drones could fly into Romania accidentally after having

01:11:45their signals jammed, but there's a problem. Accidental spillover could account for the

01:11:49occasional drone here and there. But as the Kyiv Post points out, the most recent trio of incursions

01:11:54are numbers 31, 32 and 33 since the Ukraine war began. Every single time, Romania has been forced to

01:12:01scramble jets to deal with the drones, though it's previously observed rather than blasting those drones.

01:12:07On top of that, debris from Russian drones has been discovered in Romanian territory around 50 times.

01:12:13Simply put, the numbers are too big. Most of these incursions aren't accidents.

01:12:18And three in three days is certainly no coincidence. Russia can't use attacks along the Danube as an

01:12:24excuse anymore. The Kremlin is sending these drones on purpose, and there is a very good reason why.

01:12:291.71 million dollars. That's roughly how much Romania has spent from July 24 to July 26 to shoot

01:12:37down the trio of drones that entered its airspace. That's the entire point for the Kremlin. Russia

01:12:42knows that every drone it sends has to be dealt with. If that involves jets being scrambled but not firing,

01:12:48then that's fine. Fuel has to be expended and money is still burned on sorties that wouldn't have happened otherwise.

01:12:53But now that Romania is blasting Russian drones out of the sky, that cost goes higher. Missiles are

01:12:59being used. Those missiles cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. For Russia, these accidental

01:13:05drone incursions see it sacrifice shahids but cost a few tens of thousands of dollars in return for a

01:13:10much larger return on that investment. But Russia has miscalculated. What we're really seeing here is

01:13:15Romania getting sick and tired of Putin's little games, to the point where it's just transformed itself

01:13:20into a front runner in a complete overhaul of NATO doctrine. Russian drones won't be escorted anymore.

01:13:27They won't be tracked and monitored. Those drones will be destroyed. And that changes everything for

01:13:32Putin. Before we dig deeper, Russia is still claiming innocence. Of course it is. Russia has

01:13:37reacted with fury after Romania responded to these most recent aerial incursions by first summoning the

01:13:42Russian envoy to Romania, Vladimir Lepaev, and then expelling that envoy with a warning that he would

01:13:48need to get out of the country in the next five days. Romania has also recalled its own ambassador

01:13:53to Russia. The Russian embassy in Bucharest is livid. It claims the expulsion was not justified

01:13:58in any way, as it continues to tow the Kremlin's line that none of the drone incursions were deliberate.

01:14:03Russia was just trying to hit Ukraine. The same old excuse. Russia is also scared that Romania seeks to

01:14:08escalate. The threats are already being flung around like crap in a monkey enclosure. The expulsion of the

01:14:14convoy would not go unanswered, the embassy said. And Romania better not carry out any cross-border

01:14:20operations, as that would mean the country is getting directly involved in the Ukraine war,

01:14:25opening it up to a Russian response. Romania hasn't launched any cross-border operations,

01:14:29or even hinted that it might. So what we're seeing in this angry response is Russia reacting to the

01:14:34results of testing Romanian and NATO boundaries that haven't gone its way. There is fear mixed in with

01:14:39this anger, and we're going to explain why. But before we do, this is a reminder that you're

01:14:44watching the military show. If you're getting insight from our channel, then hit subscribe

01:14:47and enable notifications, so you never miss any of our upcoming videos.

01:14:52We're seeing change on two levels in Romania's destruction of the Russian drones. The first level

01:14:57is what all of this means for Russia itself. Then there's the wider level, the one that encompasses

01:15:01not just Romania, but Russia, NATO, and even Ukraine. For Romania, what we saw between July 24th and 26th

01:15:07was the execution of a response to Russian drones that has been in the works for a long time.

01:15:11As far back as May 2025, Romania enacted a new law that would allow its military to shoot down

01:15:17unauthorized drones that entered Romanian airspace. Later in the same year, it was reported that Romania

01:15:23was deploying the US-made MEROPS system to help with its drone defense. This system is essentially

01:15:28an interceptor drone. Small enough to fit in the back of a small truck, MEROPS is capable of

01:15:33identifying incoming drones. It can also destroy them using AI-assisted guidance to overcome signal

01:15:38jamming and other electronic interference. However, despite making these moves, there was opposition

01:15:43to destroying Russian drones in Romanian airspace. Even as the incursions became more frequent,

01:15:48the legislation allowing shoot downs was opposed by several of Romania's more nationalistic

01:15:53political parties, likely because they saw the law as a potential escalation that could draw Russia's

01:15:58desire. That opposition has clearly faded, and the reason why stems back to an incident in May

01:16:03that Romanian military analyst Radu Tudor tells ABC News likely served as a psychological trigger

01:16:09for Romania to finally do something about the Russian drones. Until now, it was probably an

01:16:14allied decision in NATO not to respond with firepower, because it was somehow a danger of escalation,

01:16:19Tudor says. Now, it's a Romanian decision. Here's why.

01:16:23On May 28th, the news broke that Romania had been the victim of yet another drone incursion.

01:16:28Only this one was different. It was certainly more dangerous. A Russian drone smashed into an

01:16:33apartment building in eastern Romania, injuring a mother and her child. Romania knew that the drone

01:16:38was coming. It had been tracked by radar. However, jets weren't scrambled to shoot it down,

01:16:43and two people almost lost their lives as a result. That was the enough is enough moment.

01:16:47Unwilling to take the same risk again, Romania has made it clear that any Russian drones that enter

01:16:52its territory from now on will get shot down. It just proved that claim three times in three days.

01:16:58For Putin, that means Romania is sending the clear message that it's not a country to be messed with.

01:17:03Russia tested boundaries one too many times. Romania will now come out swinging every time

01:17:09the Kremlin tries again. This change in response from Romania isn't limited to this one NATO member.

01:17:15Rather, Romania has just established itself as the front-runner in a transformation of NATO

01:17:19doctrine when it comes to dealing with Russian hybrid warfare. This is one of the wider implications.

01:17:24Romania has become a load-bearer for NATO policy regarding Russia, not least because it shares a

01:17:30border with Ukraine and is key to NATO's Black Sea strategy. We can now view Romania as the first layer

01:17:35in a series of defenses stacked against a future Russian attack. The F-16s are proof of that. 70 of

01:17:42them are

01:17:43now deployed in Romania, with several having come from nations like Norway, Portugal, and the Netherlands.

01:17:48Romania has also committed $10 billion to American weapons systems, including Patriot air defenses

01:17:53and a stockpile of 32 F-35s that are due to be delivered to the country.

01:17:58What we're seeing here is the strengthening of a front. A nation that will be at risk of Russian

01:18:02invasion, especially if Putin succeeds in Ukraine, is now taking its rightful place as one of the most

01:18:08important in the NATO alliance. Romania is a founding member of the Defense Security and Resilience Bank.

01:18:13It's launching several air defense initiatives, all designed to combat Russian aggression.

01:18:18Romania is also a key part of NATO's ballistic missile defense shield around the Black Sea,

01:18:23along with Turkey. The country is spending billions on the expansion of its air bases,

01:18:27and it's joined Turkey and Bulgaria in a Black Sea demining operation.

01:18:31All of this adds up to something very simple. Romania is more vital to NATO now than ever before.

01:18:37And that vitality is underscored by the trio of interceptions we've just seen,

01:18:41because those interceptions represent a doctrinal shift in the way that NATO deals with Russia's drones.

01:18:47For years, NATO's policy when it comes to Russia has been simple. Watch, escort, release statements,

01:18:53never escalate. Firing on a target believed to be Russian has been unthinkable for decades,

01:18:59even following Putin's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Attacking a target risks escalation. It could play

01:19:04into Putin's hands, especially if he seeks justification for launching an invasion of a NATO-aligned nation.

01:19:10And in some cases, that doctrine is still in place. If Russia were to send a fighter jet into

01:19:15Romanian territory, that fighter jet would be met with F-16s and Eurofighter Typhoons,

01:19:19which would flank the Russian jet and escort it away. Destroying that sort of target is dangerous.

01:19:25Putin loses a pilot, he has all of the ammo he needs to rally the Russian people against NATO.

01:19:30But drones are different. They're unmanned, and in Romania's case,

01:19:33Russia keeps claiming that they're not entering NATO airspace intentionally. Dealing with drones is

01:19:38where we see the doctrine changing. NATO is increasingly willing to fire upon these targets.

01:19:43That's evidenced by the Drone Edge initiative, which was launched in June,

01:19:47and will see NATO collectively pour $40 billion into a program created to detect, identify and,

01:19:53crucially, neutralize drone threats. That program will take five years to complete,

01:19:57but it's an indicator to Putin that NATO isn't playing around with drones anymore.

01:20:01When it sees them, it will destroy them. Romania has just pump-started this policy with its drone

01:20:07takedowns. Deterrence is no longer the procedure. Active response is.

01:20:12As we said, there is some wiggle room in this doctrinal shift. We're not going to see NATO nations

01:20:16blowing up Shadow Fleet vessels, spy ships, or fighter jets that encroach upon NATO territory.

01:20:21A balance has to be struck. And that balance seems to be that if there are Russian soldiers involved,

01:20:26then the target doesn't get hit. But drones are fair game. And though the downing of drones currently

01:20:31comes at the cost of expending missiles worth many times more than these drones, it will do it for

01:20:35now. More efficient defenses are coming. We may have just seen a watershed moment in Russia. It

01:20:40destroyed Russian drones and all it got in response was the same angry and impotent threats that Russia

01:20:45has been throwing around for years. Other nations that have been victims of Russia's aerial incursions,

01:20:50such as Poland, the Baltic states, and Denmark, will see that and feel their confidence renewed.

01:20:54If Romania can do it, they can too. Putin just proved that he isn't going to escalate over drones.

01:21:00That brings us to the second part of the wider aspect of Romania's actions. Putin has been putting

01:21:06NATO to the test for much of the Ukraine war. He hasn't invaded a NATO nation, not yet. But aerial

01:21:12incursions like those in Romania are happening all over NATO territory. And they are happening alongside

01:21:17a host of other hybrid warfare strategies, which include sabotage, cyber attacks, and disinformation

01:21:22campaigns. Russia unleashes these types of attacks to probe NATO thresholds. It wants to both test

01:21:28responses and create division. Putin's ideal scenario is that so many arguments break out

01:21:33about how to handle what Russia is doing between NATO leaders that nothing at all ends up getting done.

01:21:39Division creates weakness for Russia to exploit. Each attack that has been met with no direct response

01:21:44has been a signal to Putin that he can continue escalating. It's all deliberate. Even the drones that

01:21:50accidentally fly into Romania. Putin's big problem after July 24th to 26th is that he just ran into a

01:21:56brick wall with his escalation strategy. NATO's leaders are on to him. Poland's under-secretary of

01:22:02state in the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology, Michal Baranovski, made that much

01:22:06clear when talking about the May incident that left two Romanian civilians injured. These are not mistakes.

01:22:12These are provocations. It's extremely serious. It's difficult to overstate the scale of this escalation,

01:22:17he told Euronews. Romania knows that as well as Poland does. And with its fighter jet response,

01:22:23it's just told Putin that he won't be allowed to escalate anymore. Responses will come. Russia's

01:22:28drones no longer have free reign to wreak havoc. As NATO delivers answers to Russia's tests that Putin

01:22:33never wanted to hear, the final piece of the puzzle lies with Ukraine. One of the main reasons why Putin

01:22:39wants to divide NATO is to limit the amount of support that reaches Ukraine. Divisions create conflict,

01:22:44and conflict leads to arguments about what weapons to send, and whether to send any at all. In one

01:22:50fell swoop, Romania just showed Putin that it won't be intimidated into withdrawing its support for

01:22:55Ukraine. If anything, that support will grow stronger, as Romania is now willing to actively

01:23:00attack Russian assets that enter its territory. Does this mean we'll see Romania enter Ukraine and

01:23:05conduct cross-border operations? No. But it likely means that Romania is going to double down on its

01:23:11support for Ukraine. That's huge because Romania was already a massive cog in Ukraine's own war machine.

01:23:16The Kyiv Post called Romania Ukraine's friendliest hub in a January piece, pointing to its status as

01:23:22NATO's second major delivery through-line for weapons donated to Ukraine by NATO's members.

01:23:28Romania is also likely to be a key partner in Ukraine's eventual reconstruction,

01:23:32owing to its position in the Danube corridor and the rail and road modernization projects happening in

01:23:37the country right now. All of this makes Romania a key logistical hub for Ukraine already, and it's

01:23:42only going to keep developing and getting stronger as time goes by. In March, Romania and Ukraine signed

01:23:47a new strategic agreement, putting to bed past complications that have arisen from territorial

01:23:51disputes and establishing the two nations as stalwart allies in the face of Russian aggression.

01:23:57Also in March, Romania's president, Nikosho Dan, announced that his nation supports Ukraine's

01:24:02accession to the European Union, which is another tie to the collective West that Putin doesn't want to

01:24:07see happen. When Russia sent drones into Romania over the weekend beginning July 24th,

01:24:11it thought this would be a test like any other. Another push against the boundaries, another chance

01:24:16to intimidate a much smaller nation. But the test blew up in Putin's face. Romania responded to Russia's

01:24:22drones with destruction. And in doing so, Romania set out its stall, not just as an ally of Ukraine,

01:24:28but as one of the key nations in an emerging frontline being created between NATO and Russia.

01:24:33Russia. The doctrine has changed. Observation has evolved into obliteration.

01:24:38Now, Putin knows that he's playing with fire with every test that he tries to run against Romania in

01:24:43the future. It's not been a great month for Russia as it tries to advance Putin's obsessive desire to

01:24:48take Ukraine and damage NATO. In Ukraine, Russia's generals were so desperate to please their leader

01:24:53that they told Putin Russia had taken Konstantinivka. The generals were lying.

01:24:58The reality is that Ukraine's brilliant forces lured Russia's soldiers into a destructive trap.

01:25:03Find out more about that trap and its wider ramifications in our video. And if you enjoyed

01:25:08this video, remember to subscribe to The Military Show and ring the notification bell

01:25:12to keep track of our coverage of the latest military developments in Ukraine,

01:25:15Europe, and the rest of the world. And thank you, as always, for watching.

CIA + France + Ukraine UNITE… NOW Russia Burns ALL Day and Night | Other War Stories

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