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⏱️ CHAPTERS:
00:00 Russia's SUMMER of HELL
17:31 Russian Generals Created a Fake War to Keep Putin Happy
34:11 Bizarre 600-Year-Old Weapon Russia Just Dispatched to the Front Lines
50:55 Ukraine Now OWNS the Sky... Russia’s AIRSPACE Just Became a NO-FLY ZONE
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#militarystrategy #militarydevelopments #militaryanalysis
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⏱️ CHAPTERS:
00:00 Russia's SUMMER of HELL
17:31 Russian Generals Created a Fake War to Keep Putin Happy
34:11 Bizarre 600-Year-Old Weapon Russia Just Dispatched to the Front Lines
50:55 Ukraine Now OWNS the Sky... Russia’s AIRSPACE Just Became a NO-FLY ZONE
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
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NewsTranscript
00:00:01The summer is supposed to be the time of sun, sea, sand and joy.
00:00:05But for Russia's soldiers, summer is about trying, and often failing,
00:00:10to endure the hellscape of the front lines in the Ukraine war.
00:00:13Look up and you may see blue skies and sun,
00:00:16but you will also see drones flying overhead constantly, looking for you and ready to strike.
00:00:22Putin thought the summer would be when Russia finally took the Donbas
00:00:25and exerted its superiority over Ukraine.
00:00:28Instead, 2026 delivered the summer from hell.
00:00:32Something horrible happened to Russia's forces in August,
00:00:35and it was the kappa to a summer that was anything but a success for Putin.
00:00:40The numbers are the best place to start.
00:00:42In a September 2nd report, Euromiden Press revealed that Russia has lost a staggering 42,020 soldiers in August.
00:00:50This breaks down to an average of around 1,355 per day,
00:00:54showing us that Russia has long surpassed what was once thought to be a high watermark of 1,000 casualties
00:01:00per day.
00:01:01We're seeing the average edge all too close to 1,500,
00:01:05and Ukraine wouldn't need much more than that to make the manpower demands of Putin's war so severe
00:01:10that Russia can't keep up without taking drastic measures.
00:01:14Before we move on, don't forget to subscribe and tell us what you think in the comments below.
00:01:18And if you want even more from the channel, consider becoming a member for access to exclusive content.
00:01:23All of this is part of Ukraine's ongoing strategy to attrit the Russian army to the point where the invasion
00:01:29is no longer feasible.
00:01:30And it wasn't only the meat fed into the grinder that stung Russia in August.
00:01:34Along with over 42,000 casualties, thousands of units of equipment were destroyed during the month.
00:01:40Ukraine continued its logistics lockdown campaign by taking aim at Russia's supply vehicles and fuel tankers.
00:01:4613,825 of them went down over 31 days, for an average of almost 446 per day.
00:01:54The more of these logistical assets fall, the less of what they carry reaches the front lines.
00:01:59One problem feeds into another.
00:02:01Russia wouldn't be seeing so many casualties if Ukraine's drones weren't leaving gaping holes in its vehicles.
00:02:07On top of this, Ukraine also took out plenty of equipment that more directly serves the Russian war effort.
00:02:1289 tanks went down, as did 197 armoured combat vehicles.
00:02:17Ukraine also destroyed or disabled 1,827 artillery systems.
00:02:23Minimizing the amount of damage Russia can do to fortifications as it sends teams of infantry into non-stop and
00:02:28suicidal assaults.
00:02:30It's an August that will go down in infamy when the Ukraine war is over.
00:02:34But we told you this was a summer from hell, not a month from hell.
00:02:37August 2026 comes on the back of a July that was just as bad for Russia, as well as a
00:02:42June that set the stage for this lethal crescendo.
00:02:45August is the second month in a row that Russia's monthly casualties have exceeded 40,000.
00:02:50We saw the same in July.
00:02:52Scratch that, we actually saw a little worse.
00:02:54Russia lost 42,860 of its soldiers in July, which is still the highest total seen since the beginning of
00:03:012026.
00:03:02June was a little better for Russia.
00:03:04It only lost 39,290 soldiers in the first month of summer.
00:03:09So, well done, we guess.
00:03:11Russia at least managed one month where it didn't hit 40,000 or more.
00:03:15Combine the three summer months and you get 124,170 Russian soldiers killed, injured or captured during the summer.
00:03:23That's less than 20,000 soldiers shy of the entire active military of the United Kingdom.
00:03:29You're looking for context.
00:03:30Russia has burned through an entire army's worth of soldiers in three months, all because of Ukraine's tactical brilliance.
00:03:37We say brilliance. Russia helps a lot with its own casualty rate.
00:03:41Rather than pulling back, regrouping or attempting anything other than sending soldier after soldier to their deaths, the Kremlin stays
00:03:48the course it started with.
00:03:49Sure, the methods have changed.
00:03:51What were once large mechanized assaults have become small units of infiltrators sneaking into Ukrainian territory and then desperately holding
00:03:58on for support that rarely comes.
00:04:00But the approach is the same.
00:04:01Send the soldiers into kill zones and hope that some of them make progress.
00:04:05As for Ukraine, it's edging ever closer to the monthly tally that former Defense Minister Mikhailo Fedorov set back in
00:04:11January.
00:04:12He said that the goal for Ukraine was to reach 50,000 monthly Russian casualties.
00:04:17That, Fedorov claimed, would put Russia in a position where it isn't able to recruit anywhere near enough soldiers to
00:04:22make up for its monthly shortfall,
00:04:24which would then put pressure on Putin to pull back, if not end the war entirely.
00:04:28That recruiting problem has already reared its head, as you'll soon discover, but right now we're seeing Russia's casualties slowly
00:04:35climb closer to Fedorov's target.
00:04:37Russia lost 31,700 soldiers in January, the New Voice of Ukraine reports.
00:04:42Eight months later, over 10,000 soldiers have been added to the monthly casualty rate.
00:04:47Ukraine only needs to bump the numbers up by another 8,000 per month to make what seemed like an
00:04:51unrealistic target at the beginning of 2026 a reality that ruins Russia.
00:04:55However, there's something we haven't covered yet. Territory.
00:04:59For Putin, sacrificing tens of thousands of soldiers is all worth it, as long as those soldiers are occupying territory.
00:05:05It's been his philosophy for the entire war, and it's the reason why Russia is literally days away from reaching
00:05:111.5 million casualties since the invasion began.
00:05:15As long as the blood of Russia's soldiers is being used to buy Ukrainian territory, then none of these casualty
00:05:20numbers will mean a thing in the Kremlin.
00:05:22But about that, the real hell that Russia's troops have experienced over the summer hasn't delivered anything like the territory
00:05:29that the Kremlin would have expected.
00:05:31That leaves Putin in a very different kind of hell.
00:05:34One where he has to figure out how to get the deaths to come down or the territory gains to
00:05:38go up, otherwise all he's doing is bogging Russia down in a quagmire.
00:05:43According to the Institute for the Study of Wars or ISW's September 1st campaign assessment, Russia's summer amounted to no
00:05:50operational gains, no worthwhile maneuvers, and no collapse of the Ukrainian lines.
00:05:56That will be bad enough on its own, but it gets worse. Russia's gains have been slow and limited throughout
00:06:01the summer.
00:06:02August is the perfect example. The ISW says that Russia managed to seize and consolidate its positions on about 90
00:06:09.35 square kilometers of Ukraine's territory, which breaks down to an average of 2.91 square kilometers per day.
00:06:16The main goal, which is the seizure of the fortress belt city of Konstantinivka, hasn't been achieved. Not even close.
00:06:23And what this means is that Russia spent August losing 465 soldiers for every square kilometer that it managed to
00:06:30snatch away from Ukraine.
00:06:31Russia has a territory conundrum. It's not getting enough back for what it's paying in the blood of its own
00:06:36soldiers.
00:06:37What makes all of this especially painful for Putin is that August was the best of Russia's summer months.
00:06:43Both June and July delivered far smaller territorial gains. In June, Russia occupied 30.02 square kilometers per the ISW's
00:06:51figures.
00:06:52That's 1,308 soldiers lost per square kilometer gain, which is close to three times worse than the ratio seen
00:06:59in August.
00:07:00July wasn't any better, just 37.85 square kilometers occupied at a cost of 42,860 soldiers.
00:07:08That's 1,132 casualties per square kilometer taken.
00:07:12If there's one thing we can say for Russia, it's that the mind-boggling August figure is at least an
00:07:17improvement from more than 1,000 soldiers lost for every square kilometer.
00:07:21Totting all the figures up, we get a total of 124,170 casualties for a paltry 158.22 square kilometers
00:07:30occupied for the summer,
00:07:31breaking down into an average of almost 785 soldiers dead, wounded or captured a square kilometer.
00:07:38There is no way that anybody in the Kremlin could look at these figures and think they are in any
00:07:42way sustainable.
00:07:43But then these numbers wouldn't ever make their way to Putin.
00:07:46In fact, the New York Times says that CIA director John Ratcliffe's mysterious visit to Russia toward the end of
00:07:52August
00:07:52was made so he could warn Putin that his generals aren't telling him the truth about what's happening in Ukraine.
00:07:58And don't forget, all of this failure on the battlefield has been punctuated by a summer where everyday Russian people
00:08:03have had a warm season to forget.
00:08:05A fuel crisis has racked Russia and occupied Crimea, as Ukraine has taken aim at Russian refineries with its drones,
00:08:12as well as at Shadow Fleet tankers supplying Crimea.
00:08:14The war has also come home to Russia in other ways, such as the drone strikes against wild berries and
00:08:19ozon,
00:08:20which have been crippling Russia's domestic logistics, as well as ruining its small business economy.
00:08:25This isn't what winning is supposed to look like, Putin.
00:08:28And all of this is happening as state Duma elections draw closer,
00:08:31leaving Putin to lament a horrible August that has come on the back of two other summer months that were
00:08:36just as bitter to swallow.
00:08:37But as we said, Putin wouldn't normally care about the casualties.
00:08:41He hasn't for four and a half years at this point.
00:08:44He's going to care now, though.
00:08:45You see, it's not just Russia losing more than 40,000 soldiers in a month for the second time in
00:08:502026 is the problem.
00:08:52It's what all of this means for Russia's ability to get more soldiers onto the front.
00:08:56But before we dig deeper, this is a reminder that you're watching The Military Show.
00:09:00There's a lot more where this comes from, so make sure you're subscribed and have notifications enabled if you're getting
00:09:05value from our channel.
00:09:07The crippling companion piece to Russia's summer story is that it isn't coming closer to replacing the soldiers it's losing.
00:09:14Russia's force generation system, which boils down to waving massive sums of cash in front of people to get them
00:09:20to volunteer for the fight,
00:09:21is breaking down amidst its military's massive casualties.
00:09:24We saw hints of this at the beginning of the year.
00:09:27In April, Militanyi reported that recruitment rates for Russia's armed forces had declined by 20% during the first quarter
00:09:34of 2026,
00:09:35when compared to the same period in 2025.
00:09:37Russia wasn't at panic stations just yet, but it was only recruiting about 800 soldiers per day,
00:09:43when daily casualties were around 1,000.
00:09:45At its very best, Russia was recruiting enough to sustain its efforts,
00:09:49but nowhere close enough for the sort of wider expansion needed to make real progress in Ukraine.
00:09:55As we move deeper into the summer, the casualty rate kept rising, and Russia's recruitment didn't rise to meet it.
00:10:00On August 28th, UNM reported that Russia's monthly recruitment had stagnated at around 30,000 soldiers per month.
00:10:07At the same time, Russia was losing at least 6,000 soldiers more per month in Ukraine than it was
00:10:13managing to hire.
00:10:14And this seems to be an optimistic figure.
00:10:16We can see from the summer figures shared earlier that Russia has fallen behind by between 9,000 and 12
00:10:22,000 per month,
00:10:23after Ukraine's summer shattering of the Russian offensive.
00:10:26We mentioned Fedorov's target and how it was meant to make the war unsustainable for Russia.
00:10:31This is what losing sustainability looks like.
00:10:34With each month that goes by, the size of Russia's active force in Ukraine shrinks.
00:10:38The knock-on effect is that fewer assaults can be launched,
00:10:41or that the same tempo is kept with only fewer and more poorly equipped soldiers.
00:10:45This also goes a long way toward explaining Russia's crawling rate of advance in the summer.
00:10:49It's hard to move forward when your army is being actively whittled down in size, month after month after month.
00:10:56We're not going to make some grand claim that Russia has collapsed in Ukraine.
00:10:59It hasn't.
00:11:00But the country's army is weaker, and that's pushing Putin toward considering desperate measures up to and including mobilization.
00:11:06Oh, that's a word that Putin doesn't want to hear coming out of anybody's mouth right now.
00:11:11Not because he doesn't want to do it.
00:11:12Russia's leader just doesn't want other people to think that he's going to mobilize,
00:11:16even though he is blatantly leaning in that direction.
00:11:18As the big M-word circulates throughout Russia,
00:11:21to the point where searches related to mobilization were recorded 1.2 million times by Russian search engine Yandex in
00:11:28July,
00:11:29Putin is trying to dismiss all claims that he's going to force more Russians into Ukraine.
00:11:33It's all complete nonsense, Putin raged to reporters on September 1st,
00:11:38adding that any claims otherwise amount to an information attack on Russia.
00:11:42Well, that's the end of that then.
00:11:44We all know that if Putin says it, then we can trust it.
00:11:47Sarcasm aside, Putin's ire has been raised because his plans for mobilization are rumbled.
00:11:52Ukraine's intelligence services claim that Putin is preparing to mobilize around 600,000 soldiers between the end of 2026 and
00:11:5827.
00:11:59As Russia's losses continue to grow and volunteer recruitment can't fill the gaps.
00:12:04These mobilized soldiers will receive between 15 and 60 days of training, Pravda reports,
00:12:09and it's most likely that the first wave will be announced following the State Duma elections,
00:12:13which will be held between September 18th and 20th.
00:12:17The Kremlin can claim that it isn't true as much as it wants,
00:12:19but it can't deny it's been putting everything in place to make mobilization possible.
00:12:24The Moscow Times reports that the last few months have seen Russia move to a digital draft registry system
00:12:29that includes the ability to place an automatic travel ban on anybody entered into the system.
00:12:35Russia has also moved to year-round draft processing,
00:12:38and laws have been passed that allow reservists to be deployed to guard critical infrastructure
00:12:43without having to be formally called up to serve.
00:12:46It's all very vague, and it smacks of laying the groundwork for stealth mobilization
00:12:50by removing the official call-ups.
00:12:52After all, critical infrastructure could be anywhere,
00:12:55including in the occupied territories of Ukraine.
00:12:58The Kiev Post adds that the Kremlin is planning to expand the powers of regional governments
00:13:02and law enforcement agencies to make grabbing people off the street a whole lot easier.
00:13:06And the coercive measures that start with the electronic mobilization notices we mentioned
00:13:11are going to be joined by frameworks that allow authorities to ban people from taking out loans,
00:13:16conducting real estate transactions, accessing their own money stored in bank accounts, and even driving.
00:13:22Basically, you take away every route to freedom that somebody might have,
00:13:25and you leave them with no choice but to fight in the military.
00:13:28Plenty of Russians can already see the writing on the wall,
00:13:31and they're running for the hills, or more accurately, for Georgia.
00:13:34In the week leading up to August 28th, 113,000 Russians crossed the border into Georgia,
00:13:41enduring hours-long queues in the process.
00:13:43That exodus is no coincidence.
00:13:46Russians are getting out while they still can.
00:13:48All of this is the result of Russia's summer from hell.
00:13:51We feel like a broken record for saying this,
00:13:53but the summer was yet another period when Russia seemed to expect victory,
00:13:57only to have those expectations ruined.
00:14:00But the summer is over now.
00:14:01We are officially in the fall, and that leads to the obvious question of what comes next.
00:14:06But Russia is the same old promises, though that doesn't mean they should be taken any less seriously.
00:14:10The Kyiv Independent reports that Russia is preparing what it believes will be the final push for fall and winter,
00:14:16and the expectation in Ukraine is that a difficult winter awaits.
00:14:19Not on the battlefield, in the cities.
00:14:22Russia will once again target Ukraine's energy infrastructure with drones and missiles,
00:14:27because Putin is happy to go all out on his war crimes.
00:14:29The prospect of Russian mobilization looms on the ground,
00:14:32though there are questions about how Russia will pull off the logistical aspect of rounding up,
00:14:37training and deploying tens, if not hundreds of thousands of soldiers into Ukraine on short notice.
00:14:42Even Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has warned that a major escalation is coming,
00:14:47and the next few months are key for Ukraine.
00:14:50The aerial assault will be Ukraine's biggest problem,
00:14:53and Ukraine believes that now is the time for its allies to step up and help more.
00:14:57Not necessarily with weapons and interceptor missiles, though all will be appreciated.
00:15:01On September 3rd, United24 media broke the news that Ukraine has formally proposed a special anti-ballistic missile sanctions package
00:15:09that it hopes its European partners will accept.
00:15:11The idea is to make it almost impossible for Russia to obtain the components needed to make its ballistic missiles,
00:15:18thus reducing the number that are manufactured significantly.
00:15:21Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andriy Sabir made the proposal during an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Ireland,
00:15:27and he hopes it will be accepted and can eat into Russia's missile stockpiles.
00:15:31Right now, Russia is believed to have up to 630 ballistic missiles in its stockpiles,
00:15:36and a production capacity of up to 1,300 missiles per year.
00:15:40Nothing can be done about the missiles already built,
00:15:42but Ukraine wants them to be the last missiles that Russia can make,
00:15:45and it's calling on Europe to help make that happen.
00:15:48Russia's ballistic missiles are the last major advantage the country holds over Ukraine,
00:15:52Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said back in July.
00:15:55The one bright spot for Russia in the summer, if we can call it that, has been these missiles.
00:16:00Russia fired 126 of them at Ukraine in July, Russia Matters reports.
00:16:04That's the highest monthly total since the start of the invasion,
00:16:07though we don't have the full figures for August yet.
00:16:10We do know that Russia relied heavily on missiles in August,
00:16:12and it continues to do so in September.
00:16:14On September 1st, Russia unleashed another massive missile and drone strike
00:16:18that killed at least 12 Ukrainians and wounded 21 others.
00:16:21And according to the commander of Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces, Robert Brovdy,
00:16:26Russia is working to get to the point where it can unleash 200 ballistic missiles in a single strike.
00:16:31Right now, Brovdy says Russia's military can manage 77 in one attack.
00:16:36Ukraine clearly believes that it will be the success or failure of Russia's fall and winter missile campaign
00:16:41that will have the biggest influence on what happens in 2027.
00:16:44Steps are being taken by Ukraine.
00:16:46Part of the isolation strategy targeting occupied Crimea is to make that peninsula unviable as a launch pad for missiles,
00:16:53United 24 Media reports.
00:16:55Zelensky has also said that Ukraine is starting to target ballistic missile launch sites
00:16:59to take out the archers before they can fire their arrows.
00:17:02But now Ukraine is looking to its allies for help this fall.
00:17:05If the proposed sanctions package is agreed and crucially enforced, it could make a big difference.
00:17:10Ukraine succeeded during the summer.
00:17:13Russia was put through hell.
00:17:14Now Ukraine says it's time for everybody to help to ensure Ukraine carries this momentum through to the end of
00:17:192026.
00:17:20It's not just ballistic missile launch sites that Ukraine is targeting either.
00:17:24Ukraine's SBS has also been carrying out strikes against the Russian bombers used to fire cruise missiles in Ukraine.
00:17:30Ukraine
00:17:31When CIA director John Ratcliffe made his unexpected trip to Russia, speculation ran rife.
00:17:37Why was he there?
00:17:38Could something major be in the offing?
00:17:41Was this a sign that the US is preparing to fight Russia more directly than ever before?
00:17:46There are still questions left to be answered about that trip.
00:17:49But now we know one thing for sure.
00:17:51Ratcliffe headed to Moscow to drop a bomb on Putin.
00:17:54A figurative bomb, of course.
00:17:57Putin hasn't been vaporized.
00:17:58But what he has received is a message from the main man in US intelligence.
00:18:02And that message is something that Putin's own generals would never deliver to their leader.
00:18:07This massive bombshell isn't what many speculated about when the news first broke of Ratcliffe's mysterious Moscow visit.
00:18:13The general consensus just a few days ago seemed to be that the CIA director was delivering a warning to
00:18:19Putin that he would face severe consequences if he made the dumb decision to invade NATO territory.
00:18:24CNN carried this part of the story, adding that Ratcliffe also tried to encourage the Kremlin to cut off Iran
00:18:30so that the US could deliver the final blow to the country's regime.
00:18:34The Wall Street Journal also ran with the NATO warning angle, stating that unnamed sources familiar with the visit had
00:18:40told the outlet that Ratcliffe was telling Putin to turn back from his intended course of action before it was
00:18:45too late.
00:18:46There may still be some credibility to these interpretations of the visit.
00:18:50Ratcliffe is the spookiest of the spooks that the CIA has to offer and everything he does is shrouded in
00:18:56mystery.
00:18:57However, it has since emerged that it wasn't just a NATO warning that Ratcliffe delivered.
00:19:01There was also a very different type of warning, and it's about something that could do even more damage to
00:19:06Putin than the response to a Russian invasion of NATO.
00:19:09But before we explain more, if you're enjoying the video, consider subscribing and let us know your thoughts below.
00:19:15You can also become a channel member for access to exclusive content that we don't publish publicly.
00:19:20Ratcliffe has a very special message in mind for Putin. It has nothing to do with NATO.
00:19:24Rather, Ratcliffe delivered the warning to Russia's leader that his own generals are likely delivering an inaccurate picture of the
00:19:31war in Ukraine to him,
00:19:32and that this false narrative was leading Putin to make rash and unwise decisions based on faulty information.
00:19:39Ratcliffe told those he met with that Russia's situation was deteriorating, and not just inside Ukraine itself.
00:19:45If Putin keeps following the false information that he's receiving, Ratcliffe warned,
00:19:50then Russia's economic position and thus the future of the entire country would become as compromised as its military and
00:19:57its geopolitical standing.
00:19:59This information comes from an exclusive report in the New York Times,
00:20:03which says that Ratcliffe delivered the bleak assessment of Russia's future and his warning to Putin during a meeting with
00:20:08the head of the Russian FSB, Alexander Bortnikov.
00:20:12It's unclear if Putin himself was around to receive the message directly.
00:20:16But if he wasn't, Bortnikov would have been the right man to receive it.
00:20:20Essentially, Ratcliffe's equivalent in Russian intelligence,
00:20:23Bortnikov oversees an organization that is gaining a lot of power inside Russia under Putin,
00:20:27especially since the launch of the Ukraine invasion.
00:20:30The FSB is the successor to the KGB, through the ranks of which Putin himself rose to seize power over
00:20:37Russia.
00:20:37Putin now entrusts the FSB to handle internet shutdowns, propaganda, and the prosecution of state enemies.
00:20:44And its power extends across Russia.
00:20:46If Putin is to have any chance of receiving Ratcliffe's message,
00:20:50Bortnikov is one of the few who are in position to deliver it,
00:20:53given that Putin has isolated himself from most of Russia.
00:20:57Whether Bortnikov actually tells Putin what Ratcliffe had to say is another question.
00:21:02After all, it serves Bortnikov and the FSB to keep Putin in his little bubble while the organization expands its
00:21:08own power.
00:21:09Contradicting the Wall Street Journal and its reports of threats related to NATO,
00:21:12the New York Times says that no mention of NATO was made, at least during the meeting with Bortnikov.
00:21:18Instead, Ratcliffe told his Russian equivalent that time is running out for Putin to cut a peace deal.
00:21:23If Putin doesn't act fast, the CIA director says, then he is essentially setting himself up for a fall that
00:21:30is only going to happen because he is relying on bad information.
00:21:33What we may have seen is the latest attempt by the US to revive the stalled negotiations between Russia and
00:21:39Ukraine,
00:21:39which have come to a standstill, likely due to Putin believing that Russia is winning the war in Ukraine.
00:21:44The CIA, which maintains channels of communication with the FSB and other Russian intelligence agencies,
00:21:51is perhaps hoping that Ratcliffe's visit will make an impression on Putin.
00:21:55After all, Putin is a former KGB man.
00:21:57There is one type of person that Russia's leader respects is the type of person who works in the shadows,
00:22:02manipulating events from behind the scenes.
00:22:05If such a grave message comes from that type of person, there is a chance that Putin might actually listen
00:22:11to what is being said.
00:22:12A chance, not a certainty.
00:22:14Another interesting element of this visit is that Ratcliffe hasn't been shy about discussing Russia's fortunes and failures inside Ukraine.
00:22:22He has spoken openly about Ukraine's mastery of drone technology, highlighting it as one of the main reasons why Russia's
00:22:29forces have made such paltry gains in Ukraine, especially in 2026.
00:22:33As the Kyiv Post points out, just a month before heading to Moscow on his secret visit, Ratcliffe talked about
00:22:39how the average life expectancy of a Russian soldier on the front was less than 35 minutes,
00:22:45as he pointed out that Russia has managed to snatch a grand total of 1% of Ukrainian territory during
00:22:51the last 18 months.
00:22:53That's a crawling rate of progress, and Russia still has 80% or so to go.
00:22:57At this rate, it would take Russia well over a century to capture all of Ukraine.
00:23:02So when Ratcliffe heads to Russia to warn Putin that he isn't getting accurate information, this isn't a play by
00:23:07the US.
00:23:08It's not an attempt to manipulate Putin using disinformation from the West.
00:23:12Ratcliffe believes what he's saying, which adds yet more value to the message, and there's a good reason why he
00:23:18believes it.
00:23:18Evidence has emerged long before the CIA director made his Moscow visit that Putin has been fed bad information, likely
00:23:26since the very beginning of his invasion.
00:23:28But before we explore that issue more, this is a reminder that you're watching the military show.
00:23:32We bring you the full picture, not just the headlines.
00:23:35Hit subscribe and enable notifications so you don't miss what we have coming next.
00:23:39There is plenty of evidence to suggest that Putin has no actual idea about what's happening in Ukraine, and that
00:23:46starts with a move made way back in 2011.
00:23:48Putin gets fed special versions of Russian news that are manipulated to only show him what he wants to see
00:23:55and hear.
00:23:55That's according to the former editor-in-chief of Vesti, Dmitry Skorobutov, which is a program on Russia's Rosiya One
00:24:03TV channel.
00:24:03During an interview with Anne Graham came out, Skorobutov made the amazing claim that Putin has been receiving separate news
00:24:11bulletins from those that are aired on Russian television as part of a project that is codenamed The Main Viewer.
00:24:17Here's how it all works, according to Skorobutov.
00:24:19It was like this. Let's say a regular Vesti bulletin aired at 8pm, after which the production crew stayed.
00:24:26We had instructions, accordingly, on what news to leave in this bulletin, what to add, where to embellish, where to
00:24:32remove, so that Putin would then be shown an ideal picture of the beautiful Russia of today.
00:24:37This is an insane revelation.
00:24:39Russian TV is already filled with disinformation and is designed by the state to paint as rosy a picture as
00:24:44possible of Russia.
00:24:45The Center for Eastern Studies makes that point, calling Russian TV a weapon of mass deception, especially during wartime.
00:24:52In short, these are TV shows that have already been massaged and manipulated so that they are approved by the
00:24:58Kremlin for public consumption.
00:24:59But the versions of these shows that Putin is watching are manipulated even further, meaning that Russia's leader doesn't even
00:25:06have a clearer view of what's really going on as his own people.
00:25:09An already distorted lens is being smeared with crap before it's shoved in Putin's face.
00:25:13This program began in 2011, amidst mass protests in Moscow calling for fair elections, Skoributov explains, stating,
00:25:21Putin's entourage were all shaken by Bolotnaya Square and they tried to isolate him from real events, from the information
00:25:27environment, not to mention any contact with the outside world.
00:25:31That's how it works.
00:25:32Putin is being isolated by his own people.
00:25:35Whether that's due to those people wanting control or their fear of what Putin will do to them if he
00:25:40doesn't hear what he wants to hear isn't clear.
00:25:42However, this television fakery is just the tip of an iceberg, so massive that it could end up sinking Russia.
00:25:48After Putin has watched his faked news shows, he will speak to his generals about the progress being made in
00:25:53Ukraine.
00:25:54It's during these conversations that the lies grow even larger.
00:25:58That's what Ratcliffe was warning about and again there is evidence to support his claims.
00:26:01Multiple outlets suggest that Putin is receiving falsified information from the front, starting with the Institute for the Study of
00:26:08War .
00:26:09In a December 23rd ex-post, the ISW said that analysis of information from open source outlets suggests that there
00:26:17is an increasing willingness among Russia's military to tell Putin lies about what's happening in Ukraine.
00:26:22The same group followed up these reports months later, noting in August that Russian claims of battlefield advances rarely tally
00:26:29with what's seen on the battlefield.
00:26:31The ISW offers examples.
00:26:33In Bily Kolodyaz, which is in Ukraine's Kharkiv Oblast, footage has been circulating online of the Russian flag flying on
00:26:40the settlement's outskirts.
00:26:42That footage is likely either AI generated or altered using AI, as the settlement isn't under Russian control, the ISW
00:26:49says.
00:26:49This is just one of many settlements that Russia claims to control, but really doesn't.
00:26:54In other cases, Russia sneaks infiltrators into villages to raise their flag for a photo op before they run away
00:27:01to hidey holes.
00:27:02On the surface, this seems like propaganda that the Kremlin wants to use to convince the rest of the world
00:27:07that Ukraine is losing.
00:27:08But these pictures seem to be used to pacify Putin too.
00:27:11So removed is Russia's leader from reality that all he needs to see is a flag waving in the breeze
00:27:16and he'll believe anything that his generals tell him.
00:27:19Questions have to be asked about how much Putin really understands of the situation on the front, which is Ratcliffe's
00:27:25entire point.
00:27:26Even official maps being published by the Russian Defense Ministry spread the disinformation being fed to Putin.
00:27:31We saw that back in May, when the ISW again reported that leaked Defense Ministry maps shared on X, which
00:27:38the ISW says are believed to be authentic,
00:27:40showed Russia holding or entering several settlements including Richner, Zapazna and Veselyanka.
00:27:46But at the time, there was no reported Russian presence in any of these settlements.
00:27:51Yet more lies from the Russian generals.
00:27:53Putin relies on this information and it feeds his perception and his public claims that Ukraine is on the edge
00:27:59of disaster.
00:28:00It isn't. But Putin doesn't seem to know it.
00:28:03The distorted picture that Putin relays to the outside world isn't distorted to Putin.
00:28:07It's the reality that he has been presented and Ratcliffe's bombshell visit was all about dispelling that reality.
00:28:14But Putin's problem is that he may be too far gone to listen even to somebody who runs in the
00:28:19intelligence circles that Russia's leader actually respects.
00:28:22After all, we told you that this iceberg runs deep.
00:28:24Putin hasn't just been receiving faked reports during the last few months.
00:28:28As the momentum shifts and Russia's fortunes fail, this lying has been happening from the very beginning.
00:28:33And at least initially, Putin seems to have been aware of it.
00:28:37When Russia invaded Ukraine, the so-called special military operation was only supposed to last a couple of days.
00:28:44And it would lead to the fall of Kyiv and total Russian control.
00:28:47None of that happened.
00:28:49In the aftermath, Putin started asking why.
00:28:52By March 30th, 2022, declassified intelligence showed that Putin felt that his military leaders had misled him about the situation
00:29:00in Ukraine from the start.
00:29:01That's according to a CNBC report from the time, which claimed that Putin believed that the failed invasion was a
00:29:07result of the failure of military leaders to tell the truth about Russia's prospects.
00:29:12And that this failure had resulted in persistent tension between Putin and his military leadership.
00:29:17Senior advisors were too scared to tell Putin the truth.
00:29:20Former White House communications director Kate Bedingfield told reporters back in 2022, not a lot has changed in that respect,
00:29:28if Ratcliffe's visit is anything to go by.
00:29:29But what does seem to have changed is Putin's awareness.
00:29:32The catastrophic failure of the initial invasion was too big to hide, even from Putin.
00:29:37He was inevitably going to find out that his generals had lied when Russia didn't win in just a few
00:29:41days.
00:29:42And if he didn't get the message after a week or two, he'd have certainly gotten it once the operation
00:29:47became a full-blown war.
00:29:49Rather than learning the error of their ways, Russia's generals have leaned harder into their campaign of misdirecting their president.
00:29:56Only now, whatever awareness Putin might have had early on has disappeared.
00:30:00As the war has progressed, Putin has increasingly isolated himself from anybody who might be willing to tell him even
00:30:06a semblance of the truth of what's happening in Ukraine.
00:30:08As the spectator put it, Putin is a man who has lost touch with reality.
00:30:13Rather than simply ignoring the terrible state Russia is in right now, the outlet says, Putin has lost touch so
00:30:19badly that he now lives in a parallel reality where all of the decisions he makes are informed by data
00:30:24that confirms his own choices.
00:30:26No dissenting voices are allowed, no doses of reality that could lead to him making smarter choices such as engaging
00:30:33in the peace talks Ratcliffe tried to tell Russia's leader that he needs.
00:30:36Putin believes he knows all because those around him ensure he knows nothing.
00:30:41Everything from the Kremlin to Russia's defense ministry has become an echo chamber where telling Putin what he wants to
00:30:47hear is incentivized and being the bearer of bad news can lead to a one-way trip out of an
00:30:52open window.
00:30:53It's almost sad in a way.
00:30:55Putin, the man who sees himself as a master manipulator who is able to use lies and deception to get
00:31:01his own way, is being deceived more than anybody else.
00:31:05Trapped, isolated in a bubble that is only getting smaller, believing his own lies because he doesn't even know that
00:31:10they're lies anymore.
00:31:11For Ratcliffe, the visit to Russia was about popping that bubble, not because he wants Putin to be better informed
00:31:16so Russia can do more in Ukraine.
00:31:17When that bubble pops, Ratcliffe believes, Putin will finally see the reality that has been hidden from him for so
00:31:23long and he'll realize that Russia has to engage in peace talks.
00:31:27The entire country will collapse if Putin doesn't.
00:31:30The big question now is what happens in the wake of the bomb that Ratcliffe dropped.
00:31:34We're already starting to get some answers.
00:31:36The Kremlin is trying to downplay the visit as much as it can.
00:31:39It claims that Ratcliffe didn't meet Putin at all, which may well be true.
00:31:43The FSB wouldn't want Putin meeting anybody who could give him a dose of the reality that so many work
00:31:48so hard to hide.
00:31:49Russia's foreign intelligence chief, Sergei Naryshkin, reportedly also met with Ratcliffe and he described the encounter as little more than
00:31:56a working level meeting, the Kyiv Post reports.
00:31:59Putin's favorite mouthpiece, Dmitry Peskov, has also confirmed the meeting, claiming that it happened on the intelligence agencies level and
00:32:07that Putin was immediately informed of everything afterward.
00:32:10How true that is, given the message that Ratcliffe came to deliver, is up for debate.
00:32:15Even US President Donald Trump is downplaying Ratcliffe's trip, though this could be attributed to gamesmanship as much as anything
00:32:21else.
00:32:22Claiming that he hated to disappoint people, Trump said that the trip was semi-routine.
00:32:27It wasn't and Trump knows it.
00:32:29This visit was the first trip Ratcliffe himself has taken to Russia, and also the first that any CIA director
00:32:35has taken since 2021, when William Burns warned Putin not to invade Ukraine.
00:32:40There was nothing routine about it.
00:32:42But perhaps the most telling aspect of Russia's response to Ratcliffe's visit came a few days later.
00:32:47After Ratcliffe delivered his bomb, Russia chose to showcase something explosive of its own.
00:32:52The country's strategic missile forces carried out a training launch of an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, or ICBM.
00:32:59That missile hasn't been named, the Kyiv Post says in its report.
00:33:03However, we know that the missile used solid fuel, and the only ICBMs confirmed to be in Russia's arsenal that
00:33:09use this type of fuel are the Topol and Yars systems, both of which have ranges of 10,500 kilometers,
00:33:16and collectively form 56% of Russia's land-based nuclear arsenal.
00:33:21The test, which took place on August 28th in the Arkhangelsk region of Russia, was reportedly successful, with the warheads
00:33:28striking targets on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula.
00:33:31It's hard to believe that the timing is coincidental.
00:33:35Rather, it feels like a message is being sent to the US.
00:33:38The CIA had the temerity to send its director on an unannounced visit, and that director delivered a warning to
00:33:44members of Putin's inner circle.
00:33:46We don't know which version of that warning Putin received.
00:33:49Was it the one from Ratcliffe, or a faked version from those who Ratcliffe knows are misleading the Russian leader?
00:33:55Either way, Russia testing a missile that has the range to reach the US tells us that the message hasn't
00:34:01been received.
00:34:02Putin remains in his bubble.
00:34:04And that means he isn't going to do anything to prevent the collapse of Russia, caused by the lethal combination
00:34:09of his own hubris and ignorance.
00:34:12Russia has unleashed its latest weapon.
00:34:15The one big thing that Putin and his Kremlin cronies believe can turn the tide in Ukraine, and finally put
00:34:21momentum back in Russia's favor.
00:34:23It's something that Ukraine never expected, something that nobody has ever seen before.
00:34:28To the Kremlin, this weapon is a war-ender.
00:34:31It is a bag of bones.
00:34:34Wait, what?
00:34:35It's true, Russia has grown so desperate in Ukraine that it's turning to anything it can think of to turn
00:34:41the tide.
00:34:42Witchcraft is the latest trick, as Putin continues his metamorphosis into Adolf Hitler by looking to cult magic to come
00:34:50to Russia's salvation.
00:34:51But there's something more insidious at play here.
00:34:54We'll tell you what later, but for now, let's cover those bones.
00:34:57Putin, ever obsessed with his own twisted versions of history, is going to turn toward Russia's medieval past and send
00:35:04the remains of Grand Prince Dmitry Donskoy to the front lines.
00:35:08The move comes as Putin faces mounting pressure, both externally and domestically, to end his insane invasion of Ukraine after
00:35:16four and a half years of fighting.
00:35:18Russia's leader seems to believe that the musty old bones of a prince long gone are somehow going to serve
00:35:24as a pick-me-up for soldiers on the front who are becoming casualties at a rate of well over
00:35:291,000 and often closer to 1,500 per day.
00:35:33But before we go on with the insanity, this channel is built by real people who care about getting the
00:35:38story right.
00:35:39Subscribe, join the conversation below and consider becoming a member to support human-made military reporting and unlock exclusive content.
00:35:48Let's call this out for what it is.
00:35:50Putin's next big plan for the Ukraine war is to mobilize an old bag of bones and send it charging
00:35:56into battle.
00:35:57Those bones are supposed to provide a spiritual boost directly from the Russian president responsible for sending soldiers who needs
00:36:04that boost directly to hell.
00:36:06Putin's decision comes on the back of a performative visit to Moscow's Arkangel Cathedral on August 20th, which came just
00:36:13two days after Donskoy was unearthed at the very building.
00:36:16Russia's leader made a big song and dance about his supposed spiritual affiliation with the church as he solemnly held
00:36:23a candle and formed the symbol of the cross on himself as he took part in a prayer service dedicated
00:36:28to Russia's victorious army.
00:36:31We're supposed to believe that Putin believes in God and follows a path other than the one that he sets
00:36:35for himself.
00:36:36Putin is more than happy to support this myth as he's often told stories of being secretly baptized as a
00:36:42child, which is a convenient way to explain why there are no records of his baptism.
00:36:46And he even said back in 2025 that I believe in God and God is with us when asked if
00:36:52the Ukraine war was coming to an end.
00:36:54That's an odd response to a question about the war and the insidiousness of all this that we've mentioned is
00:36:59the reason Putin gave for it.
00:37:00During his visit, Putin held a meeting with Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and all Russ regarding the discovery of Donskoy's
00:37:07relics and what they could mean for the future of the war.
00:37:09It seems to be this conversation that has sparked the grand plan to send the moldy old bones of the
00:37:14Russian prince to the front.
00:37:15As he emerged from his performative prayers, Putin told onlookers, I spoke with his holiness yesterday and you know about
00:37:23his plans.
00:37:24Please convey my best wishes to him.
00:37:26We're going to guess that his plans were actually Putin's plans.
00:37:30Portions of the relics are going to be sent to various churches that are part of the Russian Orthodox Church.
00:37:35The rest, according to the times, are heading straight to the front.
00:37:39It's clear that the discovery of Donskoy's remains means something to plenty of Russians.
00:37:44Russian media mogul and Kremlin lackey Konstantin Malifayev perfectly conveyed the narrative that Putin wants to create around these bones
00:37:51in a telegram post following their discovery, stating,
00:37:54A real miracle took place in the Arkangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin.
00:37:58In the course of anti-emergency works, the relics of the Holy Prince Dmitry Donskoy were found.
00:38:03Research has already confirmed the authenticity of the remains of the great Russian warrior and ruler.
00:38:08There is no doubt that this event is a direct blessing of God to Russia and the Russian army.
00:38:12A direct blessing to the Russian army.
00:38:15Somehow, we doubt that.
00:38:17But to understand why Donskoy is being sold that way to the public and why Putin wants to send him
00:38:22to Ukraine,
00:38:22we need to know a little more about the man himself.
00:38:25The supposed miracle that has been unearthed is the bones of a man who is venerated within Russian military ranks.
00:38:32Dmitry Donskoy lived between October 1350 and May 1389,
00:38:36and he served as the Prince of Moscow for 30 years, as well as the Grand Prince of Vladimir for
00:38:4227 years.
00:38:43He is revered in Russia for being among the first of the Russian princes to stand up to the invading
00:38:48Mongol hordes,
00:38:49having won a victory over the Golden Horde during the 1380 Battle of Kulikovo.
00:38:54Putin and his ilk love that part of the myth.
00:38:57They also tend to ignore the fact that Donskoy didn't stand up to the Mongols for too long,
00:39:01and the handful of victories he achieved were overshadowed by the Mongol leader Toktamysh,
00:39:06who overthrew both Mamai and Moscow between 1381 and 1382,
00:39:10restoring Mongol rule to Russian land and essentially reversing everything that Donskoy achieved.
00:39:15Still, Donskoy is revered in some parts of Russia for standing up to the Mongols in the first place,
00:39:20which is why the discovery of his remains is being treated as such a big deal.
00:39:24Everybody in Putin's circle is selling it that way at least.
00:39:27Even ahead of Putin's visit to view the relics, his aide, Vladimir Medinsky said,
00:39:32and the discovery of his relics today was unexpected, almost magical, it's also symbolic.
00:39:37A narrative was being formed before archaeologists even had a proper chance to study the bones.
00:39:42Now, Donskoy goes to war once more, centuries after he could have been useful.
00:39:47He serves as the latest prop that Putin will use to try to justify his invasion.
00:39:52He seems a fitting choice.
00:39:53A man who won a handful of victories before losing it all soon after
00:39:57seems like the perfect reflection of Putin's campaign against Ukraine.
00:40:00Still, the question has to be asked,
00:40:03why the hell does Putin believe that sending bones to Ukraine will make a difference?
00:40:07There's some real black magic hoodoo going on here.
00:40:10Putin is hoping that the arrival of Donskoy will serve as some kind of mystical morale booster for the Russian
00:40:15soldiers
00:40:16who are dying in droves inside Ukraine every day.
00:40:19Putin seems to believe that one look at these bones will be enough to revitalize the spirits of those who
00:40:24see them,
00:40:25causing them to somehow fight harder.
00:40:27Or at least to make more than the pitiful amount of progress they've made in 2026,
00:40:30which is a year that has seen Russia actively lose territory in several months.
00:40:35This is witchcraft used as a weapon of war.
00:40:38But the one thing that we can say for certain is that Russians do need the morale boost that Putin
00:40:43seeks.
00:40:44They need it badly.
00:40:45Donskoy is going to be heading to the front at a time when the mood in Russia itself is sour,
00:40:50and the soldiers on the front are faring worse than they have at any other point during the invasion.
00:40:54As rumors of a mass mobilization pick up steam in Russia, Donskoy is apparently the first to get the call.
00:41:00There are thousands of Russians who don't want to follow in his dusty footsteps.
00:41:05According to an August 28th Politico report, over 113,000 Russians left their country during the week leading up to
00:41:12the report.
00:41:13All passed through the Upper Lars checkpoint into Georgia to escape ever more aggressive Kremlin recruitment efforts.
00:41:19Those people, many of them military-aged men, have likely heard of the various laws the Kremlin has been passing
00:41:25to make mobilization easier,
00:41:27such as the March law that makes electronic military summons mandatory for conscription.
00:41:33They may also know that Russia's National Guard has been training its personnel in preparation for a mobilization.
00:41:38People are getting out while they still can.
00:41:41And those who remain seem to have no hope for the future.
00:41:44In an August 20th report, TVP World adds that morale in Russia has sunk to a post-Soviet low as
00:41:51the economic toll of Putin's war starts to weigh heavily on his people.
00:41:55A poll by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center found that 66% of Russians believe that difficult times are
00:42:02ahead for their country.
00:42:03The last time that percentage was recorded was in a 1991 poll, where a similar number of people had the
00:42:09same thing to say as they tried to survive a period of hyperinflation caused by the collapse of the Soviet
00:42:15Union.
00:42:15What this means is that domestically, Putin is ruining the collective spirit of his own people.
00:42:20Those who stay have no hope for the future, and those who run are trying to get away from whatever
00:42:24Putin decides to deliver next.
00:42:25Of course, it's no better on the front.
00:42:28The Ukrainian partisan group Artesh reports that alcohol abuse and violence now run rampant through the Russian army, throughout the
00:42:35Russian army, as soldiers face the stark realization that most of them are only in Ukraine to go on suicidal
00:42:41charges into Ukrainian territory, often with no armor and limited equipment.
00:42:45So Russia definitely has a sweeping morale problem. So sweeping that even Putin recognizes it, and his big solution is
00:42:53to send the bones of a prince long gone.
00:42:55To somehow inspire people who are dealing with economic catastrophe at home, or lethal drones that Donskoy couldn't have imagined
00:43:01in his wildest dreams inside Ukraine.
00:43:04We think that Ukraine's foreign minister Andriy Sabir sums it up best with a post on X that is absolutely
00:43:09dripping in sarcasm.
00:43:11Unlikely to help end the war, but if Putin took his place, that just might, Sabir said after hearing the
00:43:17news that Donskoy's remains are heading to Ukraine.
00:43:20We couldn't have said it better ourselves.
00:43:22However, the black magic morale boost isn't the only reason that Russia's long dead prince is heading to Ukraine.
00:43:28There's the little matter of that more insidious reason we mentioned a couple of times to consider.
00:43:32You see, what this move really represents is the weaponization of religion to Putin's own ends as he falls deeper
00:43:39into his dictatorial ambitions.
00:43:41But before we explore what that means, this is a reminder that you're watching the military show.
00:43:45If you haven't subscribed yet, now is the perfect time to hit that button and enable notifications.
00:43:50Putin isn't exactly helping himself with his latest move, especially given the comparisons to Hitler he has already been receiving.
00:43:57Russia's leader has often claimed that the reason Russia invaded Ukraine has something to do with eliminating Nazism in the
00:44:02country.
00:44:03Yet it is Putin who now spends most of his days hiding out in bunkers, according to a report in
00:44:08The Independent.
00:44:09That was Hitler's favorite pastime in the weeks before he put a bullet into his own brain, as the allies
00:44:14were taking Berlin at the end of World War II.
00:44:16Now, Putin seems to be looking toward the same magical forces that Hitler thought would win him the war.
00:44:22Putin hasn't gone quite as far as Hitler and his cronies yet.
00:44:25The Nazis actually codified their own witchcraft to the point where they launched a top-secret project in 1935
00:44:31that involved undercover operatives who went to 260 locations across Germany to research witchcraft,
00:44:38in a move that seems to have been influenced as much by Heinrich Himmler as it was by Hitler.
00:44:42Still, relying on the occult to support war was nothing new to the Nazis.
00:44:47It was crazy then.
00:44:48And now, Putin seems to be walking down that same dark path to crazy town.
00:44:53But though we mock, there is something even darker than black magic going on with the decision to send Donskoi's
00:44:58remains to Ukraine.
00:44:59If you know anything about Putin, you may be able to guess what that might be.
00:45:03For Russia's leader, this is all about controlling the narrative.
00:45:06To do that, Putin has spent a lot of time turning Russia's Orthodox Church into a weapon of political warfare
00:45:13that he can wield to serve his own will.
00:45:15That's the more insidious aspect of this crazy move.
00:45:18And that insidiousness runs deep.
00:45:21One of Putin's dirtiest tactics in his war against Ukraine has been to ingratiate himself with Russia's Orthodox Church.
00:45:27Not because he's a Christian.
00:45:29No man who can cause the deaths of so many could ever claim himself to be such.
00:45:33No, Putin sees that church as yet another tool he can wield to get his way.
00:45:37We've seen this on the front lines long before the news of Donskoi being sent in battle broke.
00:45:42As the Times points out, military priests serve alongside Russian troops in Ukraine.
00:45:47Of course, that's nothing new.
00:45:49But for Putin, those priests aren't there to bring peace to troops during their most difficult times.
00:45:53They are heavily involved in the propaganda arm of the war effort.
00:45:56As their blessings are used by Putin to provide some sort of holy justification for his invasion.
00:46:02Priests bless tanks and weapons.
00:46:04They operate field chapels and they collect funds during services that are spent on equipment sent to soldiers.
00:46:10The Times points out that the unveiling of Donskoi's relics is especially important to Russian Orthodox Christians.
00:46:16As venerating relics like bone fragments is a key part of that particular branch of Christianity.
00:46:21To the point where displays of these relics regularly attract tens of thousands of people inside Russia.
00:46:27For Putin, this veneration is not something that he shares.
00:46:30He is incapable of worshipping anybody other than himself.
00:46:33However, Putin sees opportunity in the Russian Orthodox Church.
00:46:37A means through which he can control narratives and entire groups of people.
00:46:41So for much of his reign as Russia's president, he has invested a tremendous amount of effort to get in
00:46:46good with the church.
00:46:47So that he can use it to his own ends.
00:46:50The Foreign Policy Research Institute points that out in an October 2025 piece.
00:46:54Where it says that Russia's Orthodox Church has become a central pillar of the Kremlin's political and informational warfare strategy.
00:47:02Which shapes narratives by fusing spirituality with nationalism.
00:47:06The infusion of Putinism in the church runs so deep that higher-ups in the Russian church work directly alongside
00:47:12state-owned broadcasters.
00:47:14To pump messages of war on television and via social media into the eyes and ears of the Russian population.
00:47:21What Putin has done is cloak his disinformation in a shroud of religious authority.
00:47:26The Institute points out that Putin set the stage for all of this back in 2009.
00:47:31That's when Kirill became the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church.
00:47:35And it's also when that church recast its ideology around the idea of the Russian world.
00:47:40Which fuses religion with the ideas of empire and patriotism.
00:47:45Both values that resonate with Putin.
00:47:47At no point during the invasion have the Russian Orthodox Church's views contradicted those of Putin.
00:47:52There have been no calls for peace.
00:47:54And no words said against Putin and the sacrifices that he has forced Russia to endure for his ambition.
00:48:00Quite the opposite in fact.
00:48:02The Russian Orthodox Church now speaks of spiritual resistance to globalism.
00:48:06And it served as a vehicle through which Putin can spread his influence.
00:48:10Not just in Russia, but in parts of Ukraine and even as far as Africa.
00:48:14In fact, as the East African points out, Russia's church has been working to expand its footprint throughout Africa.
00:48:20And despite the church's denials, it's likely serving as a funnel that sends African people to Russia as soldiers.
00:48:27When cast under this light, Putin's decision to send fragments of Donskoy makes more sense.
00:48:32In a way, the magic that Putin hopes this old prince's remains will create is somewhat real.
00:48:37For those in the Russian military who have been raised as Orthodox Christians, there may well be some value, at
00:48:42least spiritually, in the move.
00:48:44Likely not enough to make those soldiers feel better about their inevitable deaths or to make them more competent in
00:48:50the fight against Ukraine.
00:48:51But Putin at least gets to serve up a distraction before the buzzing of drones snaps those soldiers right back
00:48:57to reality.
00:48:58But what we're ultimately seeing is the Kremlin using religion as a weapon in its invasion.
00:49:02A twisting of the Gospels to serve Putin rather than God.
00:49:06That's why Putin goes through the motions whenever religious holidays occur.
00:49:10It's a performance that serves the power play.
00:49:12A man who sees himself as God pretending to worship another so that he can manipulate more people into dying
00:49:18for his cause.
00:49:19And when you combine this with Putin's crackdowns and the Kremlin's purposeful limiting of access to objective media and information,
00:49:26you get a potent combination that goes part of the way to explaining why Russians aren't rising up against Putin
00:49:31for the pain that he's causing.
00:49:33For Ukraine, the arrival of an old Russian prince's remains means little.
00:49:37A bag of bones isn't going to stop the drones.
00:49:39However, Ukraine does have to be wary about Putin's use of the Russian Orthodox Church to serve his narrative.
00:49:44We mentioned that church in Ukraine.
00:49:46As the Telegraph reports, when Putin has called for ceasefires to mark Orthodox Christian holidays,
00:49:52as he did back in January for Christmas, that isn't being done out of any true desire for peace.
00:49:57It's another move that serves Putin's story that Russians and Ukrainians are the same people.
00:50:02After all, Ukrainians, or at least many of them, observe the same holidays.
00:50:06And there are priests within the Ukrainian Orthodox Church who have remained loyal to the Russian patriarch
00:50:10and have actively done things like support turncoats operating inside Ukraine
00:50:15and provide occupying soldiers with lists of people who are likely to resist.
00:50:19Putin has turned Russia's Orthodox Church into a malignant force that exists to serve a narrative rather than to serve
00:50:25God.
00:50:26The news about Donskoi's remains being sent to Ukraine is part of the spiritual spell that Putin has been trying
00:50:32to weave.
00:50:32It's a desperate move, but it's also deliberate.
00:50:35It's a move that perfectly aligns with how Russia's leader uses his country's main church.
00:50:40The bastardization of the divine into the occult as Putin tries to rely on a magic bag of bones to
00:50:46get what he wants.
00:50:47But it won't work.
00:50:48And the collapse of the Russian offensive in Ukraine is all the proof that Putin needs that Russia's old prince
00:50:53isn't going to make a difference.
00:50:56Ukraine just ramped up its war with Russia, with the country's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy issuing a seismic statement that has
00:51:03sent shockwaves all the way to the Kremlin itself.
00:51:06The safe days in Russia's skies are over.
00:51:09There was no room for confusion or misinterpretation in Zelenskyy's words.
00:51:14His message was as clear as day.
00:51:17Russian airspace is about to become a no-fly zone, courtesy of Ukrainian Unmanned Aerial Vehicles ,
00:51:24which are becoming an increasingly frequent and familiar sight in the skies above Moscow, St. Petersburg and numerous other Russian
00:51:31cities.
00:51:32The conflict is entering a whole new phase, one with massive ramifications not just for the Kremlin's war machine,
00:51:39but also for the public and the future of President Vladimir Putin's regime.
00:51:44Zelenskyy made his remarks on September 1st, 2026 and shared his statement on numerous social media platforms,
00:51:51warning airlines, insurers and all other aviation stakeholders that Russian airspace is only going to become more dangerous from this
00:51:59moment forward.
00:52:00Today we want to warn every airline that uses Russian airspace, every insurer, everyone who still uses Russia's key airports.
00:52:07Russian airspace is becoming completely unsafe.
00:52:11This wasn't supposed to be a threat, it was simply a statement of fact, and there's plenty of evidence to
00:52:16back it up.
00:52:17But before we get into it, the military show offers exclusive reports and insider-only insights for our members.
00:52:23Consider joining the channel today to enjoy instant access.
00:52:26Recent months have seen Ukraine carry out an increasing number of long-range drone strikes far and wide across Russia's
00:52:33regions.
00:52:33There was once a time when Kyiv's drone army simply wasn't strong enough or advanced enough to reach these kinds
00:52:40of locations, but that time has passed.
00:52:43Now, with models like the Firepoint FP1 and other long-range UAVs, targets that once seemed entirely unattainable have slowly
00:52:51but surely come into view.
00:52:53And Ukraine has taken full advantage of its increasingly powerful technology to deal one blow after another to its enemy.
00:53:00We've seen Russian military bases, factories, substations, airfields, command posts, supply lines, naval ports, and of course, oil refineries all
00:53:09come under fire,
00:53:10with billions upon billions of dollars worth of infrastructure damaged and destroyed by drone strikes, which are also becoming far
00:53:17more frequent and intense, as Zelensky notes.
00:53:20Ukraine does not threaten civilian aviation as such, not a single civilian aircraft.
00:53:25There will simply be drones in Russia's skies on a scale that has to be taken into account.
00:53:30Again, this is little more than a factual declaration.
00:53:33One of the most obvious and unavoidable consequences of more drones in Russian airspace is that Russian aviation will suffer.
00:53:41Airports will have to suspend operations, at least temporarily, as and when drones appear, which means that flights will be
00:53:47cancelled, delayed, and disrupted in other ways,
00:53:50such as having to deviate to other airports or carry out emergency landings.
00:53:54This has already been happening.
00:53:55There have been numerous reports of Russian authorities reluctantly ordering temporary airport closures, including all of Moscow's four major airports,
00:54:04and thousands of flights have been affected across the many attacks that have taken place so far,
00:54:09with millions of Russians already having to deal with delays and disruptions to their travel plans.
00:54:14This is on top of the fact that soon after the war began, a large part of Russian air travel
00:54:19was instantly cut off.
00:54:21Moscow's flagship operator Aeroflot was banned from entering the airspace and airports of numerous nations,
00:54:27including the United Kingdom, Canada, and the countries of the European Union.
00:54:31In response, the Kremlin also issued bans on many of these countries' airlines entering Russia,
00:54:36which meant that anyone wishing to fly, for example, between London and Moscow,
00:54:40could no longer rely on the usual routes and companies that had served them for many years prior to that
00:54:45point.
00:54:46Instead, any Russians wanting to leave their country were forced to take roundabout routes to get to wherever they wanted
00:54:51to go,
00:54:52flying to a select few countries that were still willing to work with them before changing flights to get to
00:54:56their actual destinations.
00:54:58They often had to pay twice as much as they did before and spend twice as much time in the
00:55:02air as well, if not long.
00:55:04So the lives of travelers, commuters, and international business people were already made much more difficult in the early stages
00:55:11of the war,
00:55:11and have only gotten worse from there.
00:55:13Russia's government and aviation authorities have attempted to cover up the crisis,
00:55:17but they can no longer hide from the truth, as Zelensky goes on to say.
00:55:21Although the Russian authorities are not properly informing people about this, Russian airspace will effectively be closing.
00:55:27The war started by Russia is closing its skies.
00:55:30The Ukrainian president alleges that Russian officials simply aren't properly informing people about the risks they face when booking flights
00:55:37or arranging any sort of air travel.
00:55:39They prefer to pretend that everything is fine, resorting to the tried and true Kremlin playbook of covering up the
00:55:45truth and hoping that the public won't notice they're being lied to.
00:55:49This, Zelensky warns, is an incredibly dangerous approach.
00:55:53Because even if Ukraine never intentionally target a civilian aircraft, it's easy to imagine how an accident might happen.
00:55:59We're already seeing Russian air defenses misfire, for example, or hit their own infrastructure when they're supposed to be aiming
00:56:05at Ukrainian drones.
00:56:06It's perfectly plausible to imagine a scenario in which Russian airlines are in the air as a Ukrainian drone attack
00:56:12begins.
00:56:12Air defenses activate, one of them makes a seemingly minor miscalculation, fires a missile at a slightly wrong trajectory, and
00:56:20instead of colliding with the Ukrainian UAV, it ends up hitting a passenger plane instead, triggering a horrendous and entirely
00:56:26avoidable tragedy.
00:56:27Russia knows this.
00:56:28In fact, it was already involved in a situation back in 2014, when a Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was soaring
00:56:36over occupied eastern Ukraine when it was shot down by a Buck 9M38 surface-to-air missile fired by Russian
00:56:42-backed forces.
00:56:44All 298 people aboard were killed, and the incident will forever be remembered as one of the worst civil aviation
00:56:50incidents in modern history.
00:56:52Something like that could easily happen again.
00:56:54And if Russia had any sense of responsibility to its people, it would be warning them about the risks in
00:56:59cancelling flights until the situation calms down.
00:57:02Instead, it stubbornly persists with its business-as-normal approach, desperate to prove that the war isn't as bad as
00:57:08it seems, leaving Ukraine to step up and issue a warning in its place.
00:57:12In fact, Zelensky's statement should actually be viewed as an act of compassion.
00:57:17He's doing Putin's job for him, showing more genuine concern for the people of Russia than their own president.
00:57:23As he goes on to say,
00:57:24We in Ukraine do not want innocent lives to be lost.
00:57:27That's why we are warning our partners.
00:57:29The safe days in Russia's skies are over.
00:57:31He continues by explicitly urging ambassadors of other countries and diplomats in Moscow to own up to their responsibilities and
00:57:38spread the word to the people.
00:57:39It's important that this is heard by the ambassadors of countries represented here in Ukraine, as well as by ambassadors
00:57:46working in Moscow.
00:57:47Every one of them knows exactly what Russia's war means for our country and our people, and they must convey
00:57:52this information to their capitals.
00:57:54It's important that the airlines currently flying to airports primarily in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other key destinations in Russia
00:58:01hear this as well.
00:58:03Finally, Zelensky notes that while Moscow will likely continue to act irresponsibly, just as it has done throughout the war
00:58:09so far, Kyiv won't follow the same path.
00:58:11He affirmed that the Ukrainian government and armed forces will continue to share information about any threats in Russian airspace,
00:58:18with the intention of preventing tragedies and reducing the risk of unwanted incidents occurring.
00:58:23The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and our other institutions will provide international organizations with full information about the
00:58:30dangers in Russian airspace.
00:58:31Drone-infested skies are no place for civilian aviation.
00:58:35That last phrase is key.
00:58:38It's one that Ukraine realized very early on.
00:58:40In fact, almost as soon as the war began, Ukrainian officials made the difficult but rational call to close their
00:58:45airspace to all forms of civilian aviation.
00:58:48They knew that their skies simply weren't safe for passenger or cargo planes, as there was always a risk of
00:58:54stray missiles, air defense systems or enemy drones flying slightly off course and causing a terrible loss of life.
00:59:00Russia, meanwhile, made no such decision.
00:59:03Before we explain why, if this is the kind of insight you want more of, make sure you are subscribed
00:59:08to The Military Show.
00:59:09We break it down like this every week.
00:59:11Since the Kremlin's army was the aggressor in the war with Ukraine, Moscow didn't feel the need to shut down
00:59:16its airspace.
00:59:17It believed that its special military operation would be over in a matter of weeks, if not days.
00:59:21And it certainly didn't believe that Kyiv was in any position to threaten its own land or skies.
00:59:27Ukraine's military was a far smaller force after all.
00:59:30It didn't have the kinds of missiles and military advantages that Moscow could boast about.
00:59:34The horrors of war were supposed to be reserved exclusively for Ukrainian land and the territories that Russia intended to
00:59:41capture.
00:59:42They were never supposed to come home to places like Moscow.
00:59:45But days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months, and months turned into years.
00:59:50And the face of the war changed in ways that the Kremlin never could have anticipated.
00:59:54Now, years into the conflict, the war has well and truly come home.
00:59:59Drone attacks and explosions are increasingly common occurrences across Russia's towns and cities.
01:00:04And even the country's capital is no longer safe from these sorts of threats.
01:00:08The risk is obvious.
01:00:10The European Union Aviation Safety Agency has made it painfully clear, issuing a ringing red alert that Russian air defenses
01:00:18responding to Ukrainian drone and missile attacks could lead to a civil aviation crisis.
01:00:23The ongoing conflict following the Russian invasion of Ukraine poses the risk of civil aircraft being unintentionally targeted in the
01:00:30airspace of the Russian Federation due to possible civil-military coordination deficiencies and the potential for misidentification.
01:00:38The agency has also issued a clear recommendation of what could be done to address the threat, and its words
01:00:43leave no room for doubt.
01:00:45The EASA recommends not to operate within the affected airspace of the Russian Federation, located west of longitude 60 degrees
01:00:52east, at all altitudes and flight levels.
01:00:55Yet still Russia allows planes to fly.
01:00:58It has at least introduced some restrictions.
01:01:01Back in June, for example, Moscow officials issued new rules restricting flights by light private aircraft and drones in the
01:01:08capital and surrounding regions.
01:01:09It has imposed a minimum altitude requirement for these kinds of aircraft, forcing them to operate at heights of at
01:01:15least 17,000 feet , which is actually beyond the reach of most of these kinds of planes and drones,
01:01:22meaning that many of them are, in effect, grounded.
01:01:25But the rules don't apply to passenger planes or charter flights which are still operating as they always have, except
01:01:30in brief moments when airports are forced to suspend operations as drones are sighted in the surrounding skies.
01:01:36If Russia continues to operate like this, it is effectively gambling with people's lives.
01:01:41The Kremlin is letting the public know that it would rather save face than take action, even if that means
01:01:46regular Russian citizens end up hurt or dead.
01:01:49This should come as little surprise, however, as the Putin regime has repeatedly proven that it cares little for the
01:01:55sanctity of life or the well-being of its citizens.
01:01:58All it cares about is power, conquest, and continuing a war that it seemingly cannot win simply because it is
01:02:04too proud and arrogant to face facts and accept defeat.
01:02:08Indeed, Putin's response to President Zelensky's remarks proved as much.
01:02:12Rather than understanding what his Ukrainian counterpart was saying and acknowledging the real risks to Russia's people, Putin instead used
01:02:19the opportunity to perpetuate his propaganda about the Ukrainian government being some sort of evil terrorist organization.
01:02:25His reply came later the same day as Zelensky's statement.
01:02:29Putin was speaking at a press conference following the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Bishkek.
01:02:34Informed of the news by reporters, Putin issued an aggressive rebuttal.
01:02:38I haven't heard such statements, but if they have been said publicly, then this is simply tantamount to terrorism.
01:02:44And I would point out that they are asking us to resume negotiations and are asking for face-to-face
01:02:48meetings.
01:02:49You don't negotiate with terrorists.
01:02:51Putin went on to add that if any tragedies were to occur in Russian airspace, then Moscow would respond in
01:02:56an appropriate manner without going into details about what that might involve.
01:03:00The Russian president went on to note that the Russian armed forces have been instructed to carry out large-scale
01:03:06retaliatory strikes against Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
01:03:09When questioned on why he isn't ordering a direct attack against Ukraine's leadership, Putin answered,
01:03:14We need someone to negotiate with.
01:03:16But this doesn't mean that Russia is easing off on its attacks.
01:03:20In fact, it's becoming even more aggressive.
01:03:22For example, the Kremlin's drone strikes on Kyiv used to follow a similar pattern.
01:03:26Swarms of drones and massive missile salvos were launched at the capital overnight and the next morning Kyiv's residents and
01:03:32first responders were left to assess the damage and count the casualties,
01:03:36but at least had daytime to repair, build and brace themselves for the next attack.
01:03:41By late August 2026, however, that pattern had changed.
01:03:44Russia was no longer reserving its attacks purely for the night time.
01:03:48Instead, drones and missiles had started to hit Kyiv in broad daylight.
01:03:51In the span of a single day, the Ukrainian capital witnessed more than a dozen air raid alerts over a
01:03:5615-hour period, proving that Putin had amplified his aggression like never before.
01:04:01The shift occurred after news broke of CIA director John Ratcliffe visiting Moscow,
01:04:06where he was reportedly told that the Kremlin had zero intention of reducing its pressure on Ukraine and was instead
01:04:12intent on escalating the conflict.
01:04:15Experts have since surmised that Putin may believe his only chance of staying in power and of staving off a
01:04:20coup or rebellion that would end his regime is by continuing the war.
01:04:24In the days that followed, Kyiv experienced close to 60 air raid alerts, with approximately 10 each day,
01:04:29as Russia's Shahid drones, cruise missiles and ballistic munitions rained down on the capital and other cities.
01:04:35Every time one of these alerts occurs, entire parts of the city grind to a halt.
01:04:40Families flee their homes and head for the nearest shelters.
01:04:43Businesses are forced to suspend operations.
01:04:46Industries simply stop working, sometimes just for 10 minutes, other times for several hours.
01:04:52Huge pressure falls on emergency service workers as well, with rescue crews having to be dispatched to various locations around
01:04:58the city and suburbs,
01:04:59as reports of drone impacts and missile explosions are radioed through.
01:05:03They put their lives on the line to save others, and they know what each attack will bring.
01:05:08Some may only cause minor damage, but others can result in quite widespread devastation,
01:05:14sometimes at completely opposite ends of the city, which can make it difficult to know which place to prioritise and
01:05:20how best to respond to each individual emergency.
01:05:23It's an almost impossible challenge, and it's only likely to get harder as Russia continues with its new round-the
01:05:30-clock terror strategy.
01:05:31There's also an economic impact.
01:05:34Even with the financial aid it receives from allies across Europe and beyond, Ukraine still relies heavily on its own
01:05:39economy.
01:05:40Its businesses, from banks to movie theatres, all provide vital funds that help the country defend itself.
01:05:46But every time an alert occurs, the resulting disruption can mean that millions of dollars of potential revenue are lost.
01:05:52Ukraine can't stop Russia from carrying out these devastating attacks, nor does it have enough air defences to eliminate every
01:05:58drone or missile that enters its airspace.
01:06:00It must simply cope with the strikes as well as it can, while finding the time and opportunity to hit
01:06:05back in the most impactful ways,
01:06:07like long-range strikes against Russian infrastructure, from wild berries warehouses to oil refineries.
01:06:13This, in turn, means that the Kremlin's airspace will become increasingly dangerous, as Kyiv does everything in its power to
01:06:19give Moscow a taste of its own medicine and bring the conflict to an end as quickly as it can.
01:06:24As Zelensky himself notes,
01:06:26Safety will return to Russia's skies, but this will only happen when there is real movement toward peace.
01:06:32Until then, the only question left is will Russia respond appropriately and make the responsible call to close its airspace,
01:06:38or will it simply continue to hide from the harsh reality that lies ahead until it's too late and innocent
01:06:44people pay the price?
01:06:45You can learn more about Ukraine's long-range strike strategy in this video, which explains how the attacks on Wildberry's
01:06:51logistics facilities are having a huge impact on Russia's economy, society, and military prospects moving forward.
01:06:59Alternatively, check out this video for a fascinating look at Putin's desperation.
01:07:03The Russian president has reportedly resorted to religious symbolism and medieval relics in an embarrassing attempt to improve his troops'
01:07:10morale.
01:07:11And for more content just like this, make sure to subscribe to the channel and consider becoming a member in
01:07:17order to enjoy our most fascinating reports and exclusive insights on the Russia-Ukraine war, the war in Iran, and
01:07:23other important conflicts from all over the world.
01:07:25And thank you for watching.
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