MAMMOTH Raid on Moscow… Russia UP in FLAMES!

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Become a Member Today and Unlock EXCLUSIVE Videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKfak8fBm_Lhy4eX9UKxEpA/join  In an unprecedented overnight assault, over 600 Ukrainian drones targeted Moscow and the surrounding region, setting fire to a key Wildberries distribution center in Bogorodsky and knocking out local power infrastructure. As detailed in The Kyiv Independent's War Reporting, Ukraine's sustained deep-strike campaign against Russia's largest e-commerce network has now crippled over 40% of its total warehouse capacity, severing vital dual-use military supply lines and dealing a multi-billion-dollar blow to the Russian economy. According to Kyiv Post's Defense Coverage, the strikes expose mounting capital air defense vulnerabilities as Vladimir Putin conducts trips to remote Far East regions well beyond drone range.  ⏱️ CHAPTERS: 00:00 - 637 Ukrainian Drones Attack Moscow Capital Region 01:25 - Russian Air Defenses Fail Against Mass Swarms 02:45 - Moscow Airports Shut Down as 620 UAVs Strike 04:10 - Wildberries E-Commerce Logistics Hub Hit in Bogorodsky 05:30 - Russian Soldiers Face Equipment Shortages From Warehouse Strikes 06:50 - Ukrainian Deep Strike Campaign Destroys $8 Billion Inventory 08:10 - Wave of Bankruptcies Hits Russian Economy After Strikes 09:30 - HUR Hackers Paralyze Wildberries Digital Payment Systems 10:50 - Ukrainian Drones Breach Fabled Defensive Rings Around Moscow 12:10 - Ukrainian Forces Destroy S-400 Protecting Valdai Palace 13:30 - Is Vladimir Putin Hiding in the Russian Far East?  Support us directly as we bring you independent, up-to-date reporting on military news and global conflicts by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/@TheMilitaryShow/join  #militarystrategy #militarydevelopments #militaryanalysis #themilitaryshow  SOURCES: https://pastebin.com/8aw103C3

Transcript

00:02Moscow just went up in flames. The Russian capital has suffered drone strikes before,

00:07but nothing comes close to this. In the early hours of August 18th,

00:11hundreds of Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles blotted out the skies above the city. And while

00:17some were eventually shot down, many more went on to strike their intended targets,

00:22dishing out millions if not billions of dollars worth of damage in the process.

00:25The war has well and truly come home for the Russians, and while Moscow residents watch

00:30their city burn, their so-called strongman leader Vladimir Putin is running for the hills.

00:36The massive raid began late on August 17th, with an estimated 637 Ukrainian drones taking off from

00:44strategic sites within Ukraine and beginning the relatively long journey over the occupied territories,

00:50across the international border and through enemy airspace to reach the Moscow region,

00:55Ukraine, which is situated some 450 kilometers from Ukraine.

00:59In the past, such a journey wouldn't have been possible. Russia's vast network of air defenses,

01:05including mobile fire teams, missile batteries and radar stations, would have been able to identify

01:10the incoming drones and eliminate most, if not all of them, well before they reach the capital region.

01:16Indeed, Moscow has, for years, been regarded as one of the best protected cities on the planet,

01:21with entire rings of defenses erected around the city to ensure that nothing got in – no missiles,

01:27no aircraft, no drones. It was vital for Russian President Vladimir Putin to keep his country's

01:32capital safe. It helped to preserve his reputation as a strong and capable leader,

01:38and it also ensured that the millions of people who called Moscow home, including many of the country's

01:43wealthiest residents, were free to go about their lives, enjoying the city's rich heritage and world-famous

01:49cultural landmarks, untouched by the horrors of war. And so during the first few years of the war,

01:55Ukraine poked and prodded in Moscow's direction, sending small handfuls of drones towards the

02:00capital from time to time, but never really making much of an impact, as most of its UAVs were

02:05inevitably shot down by the enemy's defenses, and even those that made it through simply lacked the

02:10necessary firepower to deal lasting damage. In 2026, however, the state of play has massively shifted.

02:18Not only are Russia's frontline forces stalling, but Ukraine's drone army has grown far bigger,

02:24better, and more capable than ever before, unlocking the ability for serious,

02:29full-scale strikes on the Russian capital.

02:31We saw it on June 18th, when Ukraine launched its largest ever drone offensive on Moscow.

02:37Several hundred drones entered the capital region's airspace that night,

02:41with Russian officials reporting that close to 200 were shot down.

02:44Some, however, hit their targets, which included the massive Moscow oil refinery,

02:49located only 15 kilometers from the Kremlin itself, and this led to large parts of the city

02:54effectively being shut down. All the major Moscow airports had flights cancelled, for example,

03:00and while some residents watched on in horror as flames and smoke filled the air,

03:04others opted to flee the area entirely, seeking refuge in rural regions out of fear that additional

03:10attacks would inevitably occur in the weeks and months that followed. They were right.

03:15The June 18th strike was just the start of a major Ukrainian offensive against the Russian capital,

03:21and the August 17th strike made the opening attack look like child's play. Covering several

03:26hundred kilometers of terrain, the swarm of over 600 Ukrainian drones easily evaded Russian radars

03:31and air defenses by flying close to the ground and following carefully calculated paths around

03:37the enemy's missile systems. A couple of hours after takeoff, they were already closing in on the

03:41capital region, with Moscow's air defenses finally beginning to activate. It's highly likely that decoy or

03:48dummy drones led the charge. This is a common tactic used by Ukraine's unmanned systems forces that

03:53allows them to overwhelm Russia's air defenses and force them to waste missiles and other munitions

03:58before the real strike drones begin to enter the area. Then, at around 2.30 a.m. Kyiv time, Moscow

04:04mayor

04:04Sergei Sobyanin began to report that drones were flying towards Moscow that were being shot down.

04:11Sobyanin has a proven track record of twisting the truth to suit his narrative and often frames his

04:16statements to make it seem that Russia is in control of every situation at all times. He rarely

04:21acknowledges successful Ukrainian strikes and often plays down the amount of damage that Kyiv's forces

04:26have done while exaggerating the efficiency of the capital's defenses. Perhaps this was another

04:31example of that. Or maybe he genuinely believed that the attack was being dealt with and that Moscow's

04:37protective rings would be sufficient to prevent any serious damage or losses. If so, he was dead wrong.

04:43Because this wasn't like past attacks and Sobyanin was about to learn that fact the hard way.

04:49As the night progressed, the Ukrainian drones simply kept coming. And with each passing hour,

04:54the mayor was forced back to his social media accounts to issue updates and let the public know

04:58what was going on. At 3.30 a.m. for example, he reported that 40 more drones had been shot

05:04down

05:04while heading towards Moscow. At 4 a.m. he reported 23 more downed drones. By this point, all of the

05:11city's

05:11four major airports, Sheremetyevo, Domodedevo, Zhukovsky and Venakovo had been shut down by the

05:18Russian Federal Air Transport Agency. Russian news agency TASS also reported that at least

05:23eight flights had been unable to land in the Moscow region due to safety restrictions.

05:29Residents were roused from their beds at the sound of air raid sirens, phone alerts and the

05:33increasingly familiar buzz of Ukrainian UAVs in the air above. Many rushed to their windows,

05:39snatching their phones in their hands to film the scene as air defenses fired into the air

05:43and drone debris came raining down from above. Various clips show the city streets plunging

05:49into a state of panic and chaos as Moscow was given just a small taste of the sort of horror

05:54that has

05:54been unleashed on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities and towns since 2022. And by the time the sun was

06:00rising the next morning, Sobyanin was forced to report that this had been one of the biggest drone

06:05attacks the capital had ever endured. Between yesterday evening and 5 a.m. today, 620 UAVs were

06:12flying towards Moscow Oblast, including 180 drones destroyed in Moscow Oblast, emergency services working

06:18at the sites where debris fell. Some of those sites included residential buildings and a shopping pavilion

06:24in Kolomna, as well as a civil registry office building and retail store. The local power grid

06:30also took a major hit, with an energy company reporting that many transformer substations had

06:34been knocked out over the course of the evening, leaving numerous customers without power in two

06:39of Moscow's urban districts. Ukraine didn't specifically target these locations. Unlike Russia,

06:44it doesn't use its drones to bombard people's homes, hospitals or similar sites. Instead, these sites were

06:50damaged when Russia's defenses shot the drones out of the air. Because once a drone has been disabled,

06:55there's nothing the Ukrainian operator can do to prevent it spiraling out of the sky and colliding

06:59with whatever happens to be in the way at the time. This didn't stop the likes of Sobyanin and Moscow's

07:05regional governor Andrei Vorobyov from attempting to paint the attack as an evil, merciless strike on the

07:10city's civilian population. In reality, Ukraine's drones had a very specific target in mind on the night of

07:16August 17th. And even though a chunk of the swarm was stopped en route, some drones managed to make

07:22it through to their destination, a Wild Berries warehouse, situated near the Atlant Park in the

07:27Bogorodsky district, located towards the eastern edge of the capital region. It was just the latest

07:33in a series of strikes against Wild Berries, the so-called Russian Amazon, which has caused devastating

07:38effects for the company and knock-on consequences for the Russian military and economy. Before we dig into

07:44the details of all of that, if this is the kind of insight you want more of, make sure you

07:47are

07:47subscribed to The Military Show. We break it down like this every single week.

07:53For context, Wild Berries is the biggest online retailer in Russia. Over half of all online sales

07:59take place on the platform, with millions of Russians relying on Wild Berries for all sorts of everyday

08:04essentials, electronic goods, fast fashion and much more. It was founded in 2004 and brings in billions

08:10of dollars in revenue each year. On the face of it, the company doesn't appear to be an obvious enemy

08:15for the Ukrainian military. But when we dig a little deeper, it's easy to understand why Wild Berries has

08:21become one of Kyiv's top targets. Because this platform isn't as innocent as it appears at first

08:26glance. It doesn't merely sell cheap gifts and accessories. It also sells military equipment and

08:31dual-use products that can have both civilian and military applications, like drones, camouflage

08:37uniforms and navigation equipment, to name but a few examples. Since Russia's soldiers are often given

08:42only the most basic of supplies, many personnel turn to Wild Berries to purchase additional items

08:48they need to survive on the battlefield and carry out attacks against Ukrainian positions. Realizing this,

08:54Ukraine didn't want to simply sit back and allow the retail giant to get away with reinforcing and

08:58resupplying the Russian army. And so on July 18th, the Ukrainian unmanned systems forces began what would

09:05turn out to be a series of strikes on Wild Berries' facilities. Two warehouses were targeted and

09:10destroyed that night, one in Electrostal and another in Katovsk. A subsequent raid on July 20th resulted

09:17in massive damage to Wild Berries' logistics center in Kolodino, and since then, many more strikes have

09:22taken place, with intense fires and powerful explosions ringing out at Wild Berries' warehouses far and wide

09:28across Russia's regions. The impact of these attacks has been enormous. Experts estimate that close to

09:342.4 million square meters of Wild Berries' warehouse space have been affected so far.

09:40That's around 43 percent of the company's total warehouse capacity of approximately 5.6 million

09:46square meters. The value of destroyed goods was also estimated on August 14th at around 445 to 507

09:54billion rubles, 5.24 to 5.96 billion dollars. With the latest attack on the Moscow warehouse,

10:01that tally is likely to be even higher. In fact, the Association of Suppliers of Goods for Trading

10:07on Electronic Platforms , an organization with extensive expertise in the kind of business

10:13Wild Berries' does, puts the estimate even higher as around 600 to 700 billion rubles, or 7.06 to 8

10:20.24

10:21billion dollars. The company itself is believed to have suffered up to 2.6 billion dollars in direct

10:26losses, while thousands of small business owners who rely on it have seen their stock and their

10:31companies go up in flames as a result of Ukraine's attacks. And while Wild Berries has hastily rewritten

10:37its company policy papers to reject any liability for these losses, many of these business owners

10:43are taking out their anger on the company and the Russian government and demanding immediate

10:48compensation. However, an anonymous Kremlin source who spoke to Reuters revealed that Russia simply

10:54doesn't have sufficient free funds to compensate all of the affected sellers, and with the Wild

10:58Berries strike campaign still ongoing, the chaos is only set to continue from here on out.

11:04There will be a wave of bankruptcies, said the source. No one has the kind of money to support

11:08sellers. They added that these attacks have dealt a serious blow to the economy, and that's exactly

11:14what Ukraine was banking on. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry recently confirmed that 7 out of

11:19Wild Berries' 10 major logistics centers have now been disabled, and the main intelligence

11:24director at HUR has also started a cyber warfare campaign against the retail brand as well.

11:29On August 10-11, the HUR's hackers targeted Wild Berries' digital infrastructure,

11:35disrupting payment systems and customer services. The recent Moscow strike resulted in a fire breaking

11:41out at the Bogorodsky Wild Berries warehouse, which, just like the others, typically houses many millions

11:46of dollars' worth of products, which can rain from the likes of TVs and tablets to military equipment,

11:51books, attire, and household items. Moscow officials were quick to claim that the damage

11:56to the facility was minimal, and Wild Berries itself issued a statement to say that the site was evacuated,

12:01nobody was hurt, and the fire was quickly dealt with. But the fact of the matter is these kinds of

12:07statements cannot be taken as gospel. Wild Berries is in major damage limitation mode right now,

12:13as the company struggles with a crisis it never anticipated, so it will obviously say whatever

12:18it needs to say to keep people from panicking even more than they already are. The same goes for Russian

12:23officials like Sobyanin and Vorobyov, who are always desperate to downplay the impact of Ukraine's

12:29strikes. In reality, with so many drones entering Moscow's airspace, it's more likely that serious

12:35damage was done to the warehouse, which could have resulted in huge amounts of losses to goods

12:39stored inside. Even if that's not the case, this strike continues to serve as evidence that Ukraine

12:44can and will strike wherever it wants, whenever it wants, and that none of Wild Berries facilities are

12:50safe. The very fact that over 600 drones managed to strike Moscow is also a damning indictment of how

12:56far Russia has fallen. The country that is supposed to have the second strongest military in the world

13:02can no longer defend its own capital from an opposing force that is supposed to be so much smaller and

13:07weaker. The worst part of all this is that the attack wasn't a one-off. It's becoming a trend.

13:13Recent weeks and months have seen numerous successful strikes on the capital itself and surrounding

13:17cities, towns, and suburban districts. It appears that Moscow's fabled defensive rings simply aren't

13:23enough anymore to keep the people safe, and it's easy to imagine even more destructive and devastating

13:28attacks on the home of the Russian government in the near future. Speaking of the Russian government,

13:33many Moscow residents might have logically asked the question of where was President Putin while the

13:38city was burning. Historically, Putin has spent the bulk of his time in Moscow, in the hallowed halls

13:44of the Kremlin, where he feels safest. Recently, however, that started to change as Putin's solid

13:49strongman persona begins to crack and crumble beneath the weight of panic and paranoia. Despite presenting

13:56himself to the world for decades as the sort of gritty, grizzled leader who isn't afraid of anything,

14:00Putin has, in recent times, appeared to be much more of a frightened figure, increasingly fearful

14:06that covert Ukrainian agents might carry out some sort of attempt on his life, or that the enemy's

14:11drones might eventually strike at the Kremlin itself. As a result, Putin has been spending more and more

14:16of his time further and further away from Moscow and from Ukraine. As Riddle Russia reports, the Russian

14:22president was spotted in the Omsk and Yakutsk regions in July, for example. In early August, he was

14:27traveling around Krasnoyarsk Krai. From there, he moved on to locations like Boratia, the Novosibirsk

14:34region, and the Sakhalin region, including the Kuril Islands, an extremely remote and sparsely

14:39populated archipelago in the Russian Far East, about as far from Ukraine as Putin can technically get,

14:45without leaving the confines of his own country. This isn't normal. Before the war began, it was very

14:50rare to see Putin head so far east. When he wasn't living the life of luxury in Moscow, he spent

14:55much of his

14:56remaining time in the western parts of Russia, visiting big cities like St. Petersburg, and

15:01enjoying the opulence of his presidential palace in Valdai. It's worth noting, however, that just

15:05days ago, Ukrainian forces managed to wipe out one of the air defense systems, an S-400, that had been

15:11installed to protect Putin's palace, sending a clear message to the Russian president that his home was

15:17no longer safe, and amplifying his paranoia without a doubt. And so he continues his Far East expedition,

15:23even while drones rain down on the capital, with upcoming stops expected in places like Altai and

15:29the Kamerovo region. What do all of these places have in common? They're out of range of Ukraine's drones.

15:35Putin would like the public to believe that this is just a coincidence. He'd argue that he's actually

15:40spending so much time in the eastern regions because he needs to whip up some support for his ruling

15:45United Russia party ahead of September's State Duma elections. In reality, that's simply a convenient

15:51cover story. As Riddle Russia notes, the choice of regions is unlikely to be accidental. Ukrainian

15:57drones and missiles do not reach Siberian cities, the sole exception being the strike on Omsk, and

16:03certainly do not reach the Far East. Putin can therefore travel there without serious concern for his own

16:08security. In short, the Russian president is running scared. Political leaders would head straight home

16:14if they learned of an attack on their country's capital. Putin, however, prefers to plug his ears

16:19and pretend that nothing has happened while hiding out in the safest places he can find. The mask has

16:24slipped, the strongman has been found out, and Putin's paranoia could eventually spell his end,

16:30as even his closest allies may grow tired of his cowardly tactics over time. You can learn more about

16:36the many problems mounting up on Putin's Kremlin desk in this video, which looks at how the Russian

16:41president has overseen one of the most costly military campaigns in modern history. Alternatively,

16:46check out this video for a look at how Ukraine has forced Russia into the worst crisis since the

16:51collapse of the Soviet Union. And don't forget to subscribe to The Military Show to avoid missing out

16:56on more breaking military news and in-depth reports in the weeks ahead.

17:00And thank you for watching.

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