00:00Ukraine pulled off an even bolder feat with the spectacular bombing of a distribution center
00:06crucial across Russia, deep within the territory of the Russian Federation.
00:10We are here not far from Moscow, witnessing an expansion of the war, both geographically and in name.
00:16Xavier Tittleman, you're the best equipped to explain just what a masterstroke the Ukrainians
00:21have pulled off by striking these wildberries centers one after another.
00:25By the way, we should start with that. Why wildberries?
00:29It's a company that's a bit like the Russian Amazon, selling military equipment.
00:34They have a special section for the special military operation.
00:37They sell components for drones, optical systems, and lots of individual combat gear.
00:43And their centers are also used for Russian military logistics.
00:47And by the way, it's a company that makes 75 billion euros in annual revenue.
00:51That represents 3% of the Russian GDP. 4 million Russians make a living from wildberries.
00:57So when this company collapses, because now it really has no way out, it's obviously going to cause a huge
01:03stir in Russian society.
01:05This company is going to go bankrupt. It is in debt to the tune of 15 billion dollars.
01:09So even the banks will have to be recapitalized. It's going to cost the Russian state a huge amount of
01:14money.
01:15And not just for this company. So targeting them is kind of the next logical step after the refineries, export
01:22capacity, and the Russian ships.
01:25Now it's wildberries. Tomorrow, there will certainly be other targets.
01:28You said 4 million employees.
01:304 million people who depend directly or indirectly on wildberries for a living.
01:34It sounds crazy. I mean, we try to mentally go back to the Soviet Union era.
01:37We're talking about a nuclear power, a nuclear superpower, but one that's so fragile that now it's taking incredible hits.
01:44And here we are in the heart of Moscow, in the area that's supposed to be the most, the best,
01:49protected.
01:50The Ukrainians launched hundreds and hundreds of drones at the same time.
01:53We're talking about 600 drones today, but not all of them targeted this site, since multiple warehouses were struck at
01:58the same time.
01:59And what's even crazier is that we're at least a three- or four-hour flight away.
02:04That means these drones, which can now operate almost freely in the south of Russia, fly for three hours without
02:10being detected, without being intercepted,
02:13because the Russians, their traditional means, are not effective enough.
02:17Their interception systems don't see the Ukrainian drones passing by, because there's now a certain level of stealth that has
02:23been achieved.
02:24Their fighter jets are not numerous enough to intercept hundreds of targets at the same time.
02:28And they haven't developed the interceptors that the Ukrainians have, which are the most effective means.
02:34Let's pause for a moment on the image.
02:36This gigantic plume of smoke rising for I don't know how many kilometers, hundreds of kilometers.
02:42How do you achieve that?
02:43Well, there's the mass of drones, you know, hundreds and hundreds of drones that arrived simultaneously.
02:49So first of all, that means these warehouses don't have a fire suppression system,
02:53because if there were systems in the roofs to put out fires,
02:57it's clear that the standards aren't necessarily what we should have at the international level.
03:01That's the first point.
03:03Or that a lot of drones have arrived.
03:05But even if there are a lot of drones, at some point it must be overwhelmed by the sheer number.
03:10So, indeed, the stocks inside are not properly protected.
03:14The Ukrainians are coming with kamikaze drones, which are the simplest drones.
03:18They're the FP1s, which are Firepoint drones that cost about $55,000.
03:23There are some versions now that can go up to 2,500 kilometers.
03:28Now, if they only go 800 kilometers, it's almost easy.
03:32But you need to understand how their bombing drones coordinate with others.
03:35There's a sense of vertigo when seeing these images.
03:38On these shows, I can often attest that French generals watch this and think,
03:42what would happen if this was in France?
03:44That is, if instead of those centers being far away, a thousand kilometers away in Moscow,
03:49it was around Paris or Marseille or Lyon, would we have the means to defend ourselves?
03:55We're worse than the Russians here.
03:57Let's be clear.
03:58We're improving, accelerating, and are starting to get effective interceptors.
04:02By the way, the French company Alta Ares, which has artificial intelligence,
04:07has been integrated into the largest Ukrainian drone manufacturer called General Sherry.
04:12So, we have some French gems.
04:14Now, we need to buy them in large quantities.
04:16That's not the case yet.
04:18For example, we very recently approved having laser-guided rockets on our Rafals,
04:23on our fighter jets, instead of having our R-missiles.
04:26So, for barely a fifth of the price of a traditional missile,
04:29we can fire 16 at the same time to intercept 16 targets.
04:33So, we've done what's necessary.
04:36Six months ago, I would have told you, we had nothing.
04:38Now, we're starting to have the technical solutions that we need to buy in quantity
04:42to be able to deal with this kind of thing.
04:44Explain to us exactly what the likely scenario is.
04:46So, these drones, how big are they?
04:48These aren't giant drones?
04:49Giant.
04:50Their wingspan is nearly three and a half meters, making them large drones.
04:54Smaller drones are used when you're close to the target.
04:56That's what the Ukrainians used to attack Russian airports, to destroy dozens of bombers.
05:00In that case, all of it was launched from Ukrainian territory.
05:04So, they covered 800 kilometers.
05:06They covered, yes, nearly 1,000 kilometers.
05:08Correct.
05:09It's nearly 1,000 kilometers because they actually cover that distance.
05:14Flying straight would mean going over defenses and cities, so they zigzag.
05:18But the bombing drones are accompanied by drones that handle electronic warfare.
05:22That means they jam the defenses in front of them.
05:24They work together.
05:26Well, they jam the radars in particular.
05:29They work together.
05:30So, here we have a list of…
05:32It's like fireworks here.
05:34But there are more, and this is just the beginning.
05:37Actually, what you need to understand is that the Ukrainians, their goal is to make the Russians
05:42realize that the longer they wait, the worse it will get.
05:45Every day, there's destruction that costs billions.
05:49Each day adds years of repairs to restore things.
05:53If it had stopped six months earlier, it would have been better for them.
05:56How do the radars not detect them?
05:59Because these territories are huge.
06:00You always have to repeat it, you know, to get the right sense of scale.
06:04Ukraine is about as big as France.
06:05It's actually a bit bigger than mainland France.
06:08So, that means it's a drone that crosses the equivalent of all of France, even a bit more,
06:13and then some.
06:14During all that time, not a single radar detects it.
06:17So, the advantage of what the Ukrainians have developed is that they now have systems that
06:21fly on what's called a low-altitude trajectory.
06:24That means they fly so low to the ground that they can fly almost under the treetops when
06:29necessary.
06:30They have optical navigation systems that allow them to see the route they've taken.
06:34To be able to fly so low that a radar, well, when it sees the drone appear above a hill,
06:40four seconds later, it's already gone.
06:42It doesn't have time to lock on.
06:44That's automatic.
06:45There's no drone pilot operating it.
06:47Over occupied Ukraine, they have video feed, thanks to Starlink.
06:51Over Russia, there, they have systems that are 100% autonomous.
06:55And then, the second important thing.
06:57Do you remember when the Ukrainians managed to destroy a large number of radar planes,
07:01the famous AA-50S?
07:03Russia only has three radar planes left for its entire territory and the whole Ukrainian front,
07:09which is totally insufficient.
07:11Even France, for its own territory, has more radar planes than Russia does for its vast territory.
07:16And so, simply to be able to detect these Ukrainian drones that fly very low, you need
07:21to have radar planes flying high.
07:23The higher you are, the lower you can detect.
07:26They don't have enough of them, so it's become a sieve.
07:28How do you explain that Putin isn't giving in more?
07:32I mean, why don't they think this is the time to negotiate?
07:35Trump offered him that, you know, on a silver platter.
07:38He's not taking it.
07:39But Putin can't, ideologically, say that his war is over when he hasn't managed to take
07:44even the minimum of what he demanded, which was simply the Donbass.
07:48So, as long as they haven't managed to show a strategic victory, like, I've finished conquering
07:53the new Novorossia, etc., he can't stop.
07:55And if he stops, his economy collapses.
07:58He can't invest as planned.
08:00So, his regime is in danger.
08:01How far can Putin go now?
08:04Look at what happened in the Rome region, at this KNDS factory, the Franco-Italian consortium
08:10that makes military equipment to fight Russia.
08:13And explicitly, Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, says, we will now intensify our actions
08:21against all those who provide military equipment to Ukraine.
08:26That sounds like a claim of responsibility.
08:29In that case, the United States should have bombed the USSR during the Vietnam War, since
08:35the USSR was supporting an allied country that was under attack.
08:39Supporting an attacked country doesn't make us co-belligerents, so Russia shouldn't be
08:43here.
08:44By the way, at that point, Russia should return the equipment in its planes, its helicopters,
08:50its tanks.
08:51And that's French equipment.
08:53When Thales, Safran, when we were providing equipment, we were co-belligerents with Russia
08:58against Ukraine, since our equipment kills Ukrainians every day.
09:02Eventually, we must admit, we're not in this war.
09:05We're just supporting one side, and they have no right to attack us.
09:09The issue is that by not responding to Russia's increasingly violent aggressions, they're the
09:14ones escalating and talking more about incursions and related matters.
09:19Here, we're talking about Italy.
09:21Three days earlier, it was in Bulgaria.
09:22In Bulgaria, there's something significant.
09:25The Gabrovo prosecutor's office has opened an investigation for arson, and the factory
09:30managers said there was no human error.
09:33So now, on the other hand, we're starting to attribute this to a deliberate intention
09:37to blow it up.
09:38In 2014, when in the Czech Republic, the Russians, the GRU, blew up a munitions depot, it was attributed
09:46to preventing the Czechs from supplying Ukraine.
09:49We now have countless examples, in Germany, in Poland, where it's officially attributed
09:54to Russia, and our response has been non-existent.
09:57Even though there are a number of responses that could be given without escalating things,
10:03what should be done is to say, if you carry out an attack in Germany against an Antonov in
10:08Leipzig, I will give 50 cruise missiles to Ukraine.
10:12These are the images from Bulgaria that we have in front of us.
10:15There you go, in Bulgaria.
10:16You blow up my depot, I give 100,000 shells to Ukraine.
10:20You fly drones over our territory, I give long-range missiles to Ukraine so they can
10:25shoot down your fighter jets.
10:27And then, they would stop escalating.
10:30General Ette.
10:31Xavier, look at these images.
10:33Belusov from Russian defense, who appeared in what seems to be a field setting.
10:40Even as reports are increasing both in Russia and Ukraine about the imminence of a general
10:46mobilization, or at least a partial one of great significance in Russia, according to
10:52Ukrainian sources and authorities, it would be between 300,000 and 500,000 men who, after
10:59September 21, could be enlisted.
11:01And earlier, on this set, General Abret said, yes, this will change the scale of the war.
11:06I've spoken with Ukraine recently, and they told me that last year, Russia had 417,000
11:13recruits.
11:14The previous year, it was 400,000.
11:16The problem for the Russians is that they can no longer recruit.
11:19There are fewer and fewer volunteers.
11:21They can't reach their quota anymore.
11:23And current recruitments are costing them almost $50,000 per person who joins the army.
11:28And mobilizing, 500,000 men in the end, is more or less on the same scale as in the past.
11:35Except that for the Russians, it will be free, and they won't have any problems or difficulties
11:40with recruitment.
11:42But if they go up to 800,000, as is also being considered, then that's a real buildup.
11:48And maybe also, it's to make up for losses on one hand, but also to reinforce the front
11:53and position themselves against Europe.
11:55800,000 would be the current numbers, plus 500,000.
11:59That's right, it's 500,000.
12:00The current number is 400,000 per year.
12:04So doubling would mean 800,000.
12:07500,000 isn't much different, since they've already lost a million since the start.
12:12But 800,000 would be 300,000 more than usual.
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