Ukraine’s Rostov MASTERSTROKE + Two Top Russian Generals ASSASSINATED

The Military Show

Become a Member Today and Unlock EXCLUSIVE Videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKfak8fBm_Lhy4eX9UKxEpA/join  A coordinated Ukrainian strike package on Rostov Central Military Airfield has destroyed six Russian aircraft, while elite drone units eliminated two key Russian generals overseeing operations in Donetsk. With Lt. Gen. Sergei Milchakov and Maj. Gen. Anton Grunis dead alongside severe damage to the Southern Military District's logistics and the Yaroslavl oil refinery, Russian command and control in the Donbas faces severe paralysis. Discover how insider leaks, false battlefield reporting, and uncrewed strikes are dismantling Moscow's frontline leadership.  ⏱️ CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Double-Tap Strike on Rostov Central Military Airfield: 6 Aircraft Destroyed 04:10 - Rostov Southern Military District Hub & Follow-Up Drone Swarm 06:32 - Yaroslavl Refinery Strike & 300,000 BPD Capacity Hit 07:26 - Decapitation Strike: Lt. Gen. Sergei Milchakov Killed in Donetsk 10:59 - Insider Leaks & Military Moles Target Russian Command Posts 12:28 - Maj. Gen. Anton Grunis Elimination by "Birds of the SBS" 15:17 - Systemic Command Lying & False Capture Reports to the Kremlin 18:03 - Systemic Erosion of Russian Flag Officer Command Structure  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/2VCyPvYH

Transcript

00:01His 2026 spring and summer offensive fizzled out like a fart in the wind.

00:07Russia is losing record-breaking amounts of troops and equipment.

00:11Yet Ukraine keeps on finding ways to inflict more pain.

00:16And pain is exactly what Putin feels after what happened over the last few days.

00:22We have several stories here.

00:24A masterstroke in Rostov-on-Don has seen Ukraine hit a double tap to damage one of Russia's most important

00:31regions.

00:32Elsewhere, generals are dropping like flies in the occupied territories.

00:37One of those generals might have had a chance of surviving, if not for a little twist in his tale.

00:43And the other is a notorious faker who just got a sharp dose of reality.

00:49We have plenty to dig into, so we'll start with what happened in Rostov.

00:52On September 17th, the news broke that Ukraine had targeted a key airfield in Russia's Rostov region,

01:00pelting it with a swarm of drones.

01:02The Rostov Central Military Airfield went up in flames, and not for the first time.

01:07Ukraine has targeted this airfield before.

01:10On September 6th, Ukraine reported a strike against the facility that destroyed a podlet radar system

01:17and a pair of Pantsir S-1 air defense systems.

01:21There was reason to doubt the strike at the time.

01:24Ukraine provided no visual evidence of taking out what it claimed to have taken out.

01:29But here we are, 11 days later, and the outcome of this initial strike has been revealed.

01:36With its radars and air defenses down, Ukraine was able to get even more drones to the airfield,

01:41where they wreaked havoc.

01:43The final tally, six aircraft down.

01:46We're about to explain more, but before we do, we're real people producing researched and fact-checked military reporting.

01:54If you want to support that, then subscribe, share your thoughts below,

01:57and consider becoming a member for exclusive content we don't publish publicly.

02:02So the six aircraft, that's according to the Kyiv Post,

02:05which reports that Ukraine has confirmed strikes against a trio of Russian military helicopters,

02:11along with successful strikes against two AN-26 aircraft and an AN-12 plane.

02:18Defense Express also reported on the attack,

02:21noting that the initial wave of drones did most of the damage,

02:24but several secondary explosions at the airfield led to widespread fires on top of the aircraft annihilation.

02:32And Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky,

02:35soon hailed the efforts of Ukraine's drone teams with a telegram post,

02:39where he also confirmed the damage done.

02:41The security service also successfully struck a military airfield in Rostov.

02:46Damage to an AN-12 aircraft,

02:48two AN-26s and three helicopters has been confirmed,

02:53he said, as he celebrated a joint operation between Ukraine's SBU, SSO, HUR and SZR.

03:00We didn't really need Zelensky's confirmation.

03:03The footage emerging from the Rostov central military airfield is proof enough.

03:08Both Astra and Exelenova Plus have shared images and videos.

03:13As a result of the Ukrainian attack at Rostov-on-Don,

03:17the area of the military airfield where the aircraft are parked is probably on fire,

03:22Astra declared,

03:23along with sharing geolocated satellite photos and some images of smoke rising from the airfield.

03:30Exelenova Plus offered up some videos,

03:33showing explosions as they happen,

03:35with air defense fire audible in the background.

03:38Russia's defenses clearly failed,

03:40as Ukraine's earlier Rostov strike had done enough damage to allow its drones to get through.

03:45By September 18th,

03:48Russian emergency services would have been picking through the rubble

03:51and inspecting the charred remains of military aircraft.

03:55We don't know much about the helicopters outside of the fact that they have been taken out,

04:00but both the AN-12 and AN-26 are transport planes,

04:04with the former often being used for troops and cargo while the latter tends to fly support missions.

04:11That makes this as much of a strike against Russia's internal logistics as it is an attack against an airfield.

04:17But as those emergency services got to work, believing the worst was over,

04:21it happened again.

04:23The double tap.

04:24Just one night after it devastated Rostov,

04:27Ukraine sent even more drones into the region.

04:31A swarm of over 50 descended,

04:33with Russia claiming to have shot drones down over Rostov,

04:36as well as the cities of Batysk,

04:39Tagenrog,

04:39and,

04:40according to the Rostov regional governor,

04:42Yuri Slyazar,

04:43five other regions.

04:45The governor's statement after the strike featured the old reliable,

04:49the excuse that we've all come to know and love.

04:52Drone debris did the damage.

04:55According to operational information,

04:57no one was injured,

04:58but there were consequences on the ground as a result of the fall of UAV debris.

05:03Emergency services work at the scene of incidents,

05:06Slyazar reported on Telegram.

05:08In this case,

05:09he may have been right.

05:11At least if you listen to Russia's reporting,

05:14the drone debris hit several residential buildings,

05:17which aren't the types of targets that Ukraine tries to strike.

05:21UA.news seems to confirm this,

05:24sharing images of smoke rising from buildings.

05:27Who knew?

05:28Sometimes Russia is telling the truth about drone debris.

05:31The follow-up strike may not have been as successful as the one that came a day prior,

05:36but it still delivered a timely warning

05:38that nowhere in Russia can truly feel safe from Ukraine's drones.

05:43Just because you've been hit a couple of times already in a month,

05:46that's no guarantee that more aren't coming very soon,

05:50and it's clear why Ukraine wants to hit Rostov as many times as possible.

05:55The oblast is the headquarters of Russia's southern military district.

06:00From this district,

06:01UA.news says,

06:02all operational command for Russia's forces on the front lines in Ukraine is managed.

06:08Add the military airfields, which serve as logistical hubs,

06:12as well as launch sites for fighter jets and bombers that fling missiles and glide bombs into Ukraine,

06:18and you get a very obvious target.

06:20If Rostov goes down, Russia loses a hub that keeps ammo, fuel, and soldiers flowing into places like Zaporizhia, Donetsk,

06:30and Luhansk.

06:30The attacks against Russian supply aircraft make even more sense in this context.

06:36We just mentioned Donetsk, and there is big news coming out of that embattled region.

06:41But before we reveal what that is,

06:44there is a little bit of a bonus strike to add to Ukraine's Rostov ruination.

06:48Though Rostov captured all the headlines,

06:51Ukraine's drones also visited another location on September 17th.

06:55They arrived in Yaroslavl,

06:57where their target, once again, was a Russian oil refinery.

07:01One of the largest in the country, in fact.

07:04The Moscow Times reports that Ukraine's drones were successful,

07:09causing a fire at a refinery that has a crude oil processing capacity of 300,000 barrels per day.

07:16Another day, another dirty oil dollar goes up in smoke.

07:20And a Russian general has gone up in smoke too.

07:24A pair of them, in fact, with the first being taken out in a region we've already mentioned.

07:30Donetsk.

07:31Just three days before Russia was forced to deal with a Rostov catastrophe,

07:36the news broke that a Russian general,

07:38who has been a cornerstone of Putin's offensive in Donetsk,

07:43has been wiped off the map.

07:45Lieutenant General Sergei Milchakov,

07:48who was the commander of Russia's 51st Combined Arms Army

07:51and had been overseeing much of the attempted Russian push

07:54against the Donetsk Fortress Belt,

07:56has been killed in a strike in the Occupied Oblast.

07:59The news broke a few weeks after the strike actually happened.

08:03The first hints we got of something big emerging came on August 27th,

08:08when Ukraine's Ministry of Defence confirmed it had scored hits against command posts

08:13that Russia was trying to hide.

08:15Yesterday in Donetsk,

08:17precision strikes destroyed concealed command posts of Russian occupation forces,

08:22the ministry said.

08:22Adding that it was verifying reports that there had been heavy casualties

08:27among Russia's officers at these command posts.

08:30Less than a month later,

08:32we have confirmation that the reports have been verified.

08:35Russia has lost one of its most important generals.

08:39The loss has been confirmed by several sources,

08:41including a Russian journalist named Anastasia Kashavarova.

08:45Part of Putin's propaganda machine,

08:48she has quickly tried to frame Milchakhov's death as a tragedy,

08:52stating,

08:52the front has lost one of its heroes,

08:55before she added that she wouldn't be reporting anything more

08:58until she had more information.

09:00Other eulogies for this supposed hero are less glowing.

09:04Analyst Ilya Ponomerenko shared that Milchakhov was

09:08an extremely high-value target,

09:10and there are hopes that plenty of officers met their fates with him,

09:14given the supposedly top-secret location

09:16that Ukraine was able to locate and destroy in August.

09:20There's a good chance that Milchakhov's is just the start.

09:24Russia's brass would have felt comfortable

09:27gathering in relatively large numbers at their secret Donetsk base,

09:31and the presence of Milchakhov at that base

09:34suggests a meeting was going down as Ukraine attacked.

09:38Still, we have to wait for more confirmation there,

09:40and even if it's only Milchakhov who went down,

09:43that's still a big win for Ukraine.

09:45The general had been involved in offensive operations

09:48in the Pukrovsk and Dobropylia directions

09:50at the time of his death,

09:52meaning he was helping to lay more foundations

09:54for Russia's assault against the Donetsk fortress belt.

09:57Putin clearly held this general in great esteem.

10:01He was awarded the Hero of Russia title

10:04for his actions in Donetsk.

10:05A true Russian hero, Milchakhov has been investigated

10:08on charges of drug trafficking among military personnel,

10:12as well as corruption.

10:14Interesting choice of hero there, Putin.

10:16And it's here where we see the big twist.

10:19Perhaps some in Russia don't view a corrupt drug peddler

10:22as the big hero that Putin claims him to be.

10:25Others may have seen the horrors that Milchakhov has unleashed on Donetsk

10:29and decided that it was time to get rid of the general.

10:32Either way, it looks like Ukraine wasn't operating solely on information

10:36that its own operatives had gathered

10:37before they launched the Donetsk attack

10:40that took the general's life.

10:42But before we reveal more,

10:43this is a reminder that you're watching the military show.

10:46If you haven't subscribed yet,

10:48now's the time to hit that button and do it.

10:50And if you want to be informed as soon as our videos go live,

10:54remember to ring the notification bell.

10:57In more breaking news,

10:59it's starting to look like Milchakhov wasn't especially well-liked

11:02within his own ranks.

11:04After all, if he was,

11:05then he wouldn't have fallen victim to the one thing

11:07that could unravel the secrecy

11:09that surrounded his meeting points,

11:11a mole.

11:13Kesha Varova, who you'll remember as the journalist

11:15who called this corrupt general a true hero of Russia,

11:18has also revealed that the precision of Ukraine's strike

11:21suggests that information about Milchakhov's location

11:24was likely leaked by an insider.

11:28That changes everything.

11:30It shows us that there are still people

11:32inside the Russian military,

11:33as hard as it may be to believe,

11:35who want to help Ukraine get rid of the people

11:38who are attacking them.

11:39Or it could have been a career climber

11:41who sees a chance to rise up in the ranks now

11:44that a major general has just been killed.

11:46Either way, Milchakhov is dead.

11:49Or as Russia appears to have put it,

11:52he has been dismissed.

11:53That's how UA.news reports it in a September 14th piece

11:57where it says that Russia has announced

11:59the possible dismissal of Milchakhov.

12:02We all know what's going on here.

12:04Dismissal is code for

12:05our drug-dealing corrupt general

12:07was just blown to pieces in Donetsk.

12:10And we're desperately trying to hide the fact

12:12that there are moles in our army

12:14who are telling Ukraine everything.

12:16So a top general is dead

12:17and a major Russian airfield is on fire.

12:20Not a great mid-September for Putin.

12:23And to make matters even worse,

12:25just a couple of days after

12:26a so-called hero of Russia was reported dead,

12:30another Russian general is confirmed

12:32to have bitten the dust inside Ukraine.

12:35On September 16th,

12:36the news broke that Major General Anton Grunis,

12:39who was the commander of Russia's

12:40fourth separate motorized rifle brigade

12:43and yet another supposed hero of Russia,

12:46has died,

12:47likely somewhere in the Donetsk or Luhansk oblast.

12:50Grunis has a long history.

12:52According to Defense 24,

12:53his unit has taken part

12:55in some of the most important battles

12:56in eastern Ukraine,

12:57including the fights in Chaziv-Yar,

13:00Bakhmut,

13:00and the current fighting in Konstantinivka.

13:03Keep that city in mind, by the way.

13:05This particular general has a special connection

13:07to Konstantinivka

13:08that makes his death

13:09all the sweeter for Ukraine.

13:12There was initially a lot of speculation

13:13about how Grunis died.

13:15One possibility

13:16is that he was located in Luhansk

13:18at the time of a Ukrainian strike

13:19in the Alchevsk area,

13:21which took place a couple of days

13:23before the general's death was announced.

13:26Defense 24 also said

13:28that there are reports

13:29of a different attack

13:30that focused on killing Grunis,

13:32though these reports

13:33had not been independently verified.

13:35We had to leave it

13:36to the ever-bombastic commander

13:38of the Ukrainian Unmanned Systems Forces,

13:42Robert Brovdy,

13:43to reveal how it all went down.

13:44In a Facebook reel,

13:46Brovdy revealed

13:47that it was

13:48birds of the SBS

13:50who took Grunis out of commission

13:52in a September 12th strike

13:53in the Donetsk region.

13:55Grunis was the

13:56seventh confirmed commander

13:58of the level of brigade division army

14:00stung by the birds of the SBS,

14:03Brovdy added,

14:04suggesting that his drone units

14:05are getting better

14:06at locating and taking out

14:08some of Putin's

14:09most valuable operatives.

14:11And if Brovdy's declaration

14:12isn't enough evidence for you,

14:14Russian military bloggers

14:15are also reporting

14:16that Grunis has gone down

14:18somewhere in occupied Ukraine.

14:20That's according to

14:21the war-translated

14:23Exacamp,

14:24which shares an obituary

14:25published by Russian media sources

14:27that mourns the tragic loss

14:30of our brother

14:30when talking about Grunis.

14:33Russia's tragedy

14:34is Ukraine's gain,

14:35and the elimination of Grunis

14:37has another little twist to it.

14:39We mentioned Konstantinivka earlier.

14:41You may remember that Russia

14:42falsely claimed to have captured

14:44that fortress-belt city

14:45back in July.

14:46The lie was quickly revealed

14:48for what it was,

14:49with CNN even reporting

14:50that the claimed capture

14:51was really a sign

14:53of just how poorly

14:54Russia was doing

14:55on the ground.

14:56Commanders were being forced

14:57to lie to Putin

14:58to save their own skins,

15:00allowing the Russian leader

15:01to think that progress

15:02was being made,

15:04when the reality was

15:05that Russian forces

15:06were bogged down

15:07fighting for a city

15:08that hasn't even come close

15:10to falling yet.

15:11Now, would you like to guess

15:12which commander

15:13delivered the news

15:14of Konstantinivka's

15:16capture to Putin?

15:17It was none other

15:18than Grunis.

15:19On August 27th,

15:21Grunis had received

15:22his Hero of Russia medal

15:23for the supposed capture

15:25of this city,

15:26United24 media reports.

15:28About two weeks later,

15:30he was dead,

15:31having nothing

15:31but his own lies

15:33to come for him,

15:34as Ukraine's drones

15:35found and destroyed him.

15:37There's a nice little coda

15:39to Grunis' story.

15:40He was among many generals

15:42who are believed

15:42to be lying to Putin

15:44about Russia's plans,

15:45especially in the Donetsk region.

15:47According to Canal 13,

15:50Putin's generals

15:51have been lying to him

15:52for months

15:52about what was happening

15:53in Donetsk,

15:54and those lies

15:55have caught up to Russia.

15:57Since May,

15:58Ukraine has been running

15:59Operation Vivaldi,

16:01which is in the first

16:02of four stages

16:02and has been focused

16:03on reclaiming territory

16:05that Russia thought

16:06was safely occupied.

16:07That operation

16:08has had a massive effect

16:10in Liman,

16:11where Ukraine has managed

16:12to take back

16:12a huge amount of territory

16:15by inflicting

16:16a crushing defeat

16:16against a Russian salient

16:18that was developing

16:19in the area.

16:20All told,

16:21Ukraine has been able

16:22to liberate

16:23up to 250 square kilometers

16:26of territory so far,

16:27and we're only in the early stages

16:29of Operation Vivaldi.

16:31More will be coming.

16:33Grunis' lies,

16:34as well as those

16:35told by his fellow commanders,

16:37have come back

16:37to bite Putin hard.

16:39It's men like Grunis

16:41who have given the Kremlin

16:42a false impression

16:43of what's really happening

16:44in Ukraine,

16:44essentially laying the foundations

16:46for what Ukraine

16:47is doing now.

16:48After all,

16:49a properly informed Russian army

16:51could make decisions

16:52based on real information,

16:53but an army

16:54that is operating

16:55under the false impressions

16:57delivered to Putin

16:58by its generals

16:59can only make mistake

17:00after mistake.

17:01Well, Russia,

17:03you sure know

17:04how to pick your heroes.

17:06A corrupt drug peddler

17:08and a liar

17:08who inflated his victories

17:10to make himself look good.

17:12Both are now dead,

17:13and they add to

17:14an ever-growing tally

17:15of generals

17:16who have fallen in Ukraine

17:17and even inside Russia

17:19since Putin launched

17:20his invasion.

17:22Back in April,

17:23MediaZona reported

17:24that at least 15

17:25of Russia's highest-ranking generals

17:27had been confirmed dead

17:29by that point.

17:31Across the entire Russian army,

17:33the deaths of 6,948 officers

17:36have been confirmed

17:37as of March 27th,

17:38and many more

17:39will have fallen since.

17:40We would say

17:41that this is Russia

17:42losing some of its most

17:43experienced and talented

17:45military personnel,

17:47which is having a clear impact

17:48on the front.

17:50But given what we've learned

17:51about the pair of heroes

17:53who have died in Donetsk,

17:55talented may not be

17:57the right word for them.

17:58Still, these are people

17:59who understood Russia's military

18:01better than most,

18:02and they're all gone.

18:04Beyond the two

18:05we've covered here,

18:06Russia has lost

18:07the likes of

18:07Sergei Goryachev,

18:09who was the chief of staff

18:10of Russia's

18:1035th Combined Arms Army,

18:12which operates

18:13in Zaporizhia.

18:14Russia also lost

18:16its former deputy commander-in-chief

18:18of its navy,

18:19Mikhail Gudkov,

18:20to a Ukrainian strike

18:22against the headquarters

18:23of the 155th Naval Infantry Brigade,

18:26that also claimed the lives

18:28of at least

18:28five other officers.

18:31Alexander Tatarenko,

18:32who was the commander

18:33of the Belbek Air Base

18:34in Crimea,

18:35has bitten the dust,

18:36as has Dmitry Mikhailov,

18:39who was the commander

18:39of Russia's

18:41144th Motorized Rifle Division.

18:43This is just a sample.

18:45But what we're seeing here

18:46is the methodical dismantling

18:48of Russia's military command structure

18:50inside Ukraine.

18:52With each general

18:53who goes down,

18:54the Russian offensive

18:55becomes more disorganized,

18:57more chaotic.

18:59Opportunities open up

19:00for Ukraine

19:00where they may not

19:01have existed otherwise.

19:02Perhaps that's what

19:03we've seen in Liman,

19:04as the death

19:05of a lying general

19:06may have set the stage

19:07for Ukraine

19:08to take advantage

19:09of the Kremlin's

19:10false impression

19:11of the battlefield

19:12to stage a devastating

19:13counterattack.

19:15Mid-September

19:16has been a bad time

19:18to be Putin.

19:19Six aircraft hit,

19:20fires all over Rostov,

19:22a major oil refinery

19:24hit,

19:24and two of his generals,

19:25two of his top generals

19:26in Donetsk,

19:27confirmed dead.

19:29All within a matter of days.

19:31And then there's

19:31what's happening in Liman.

19:33We've touched on it,

19:33but we want you to learn more.

19:35We have a video

19:36explaining what has happened

19:37in Liman

19:37and how Ukraine

19:38was able to destroy

19:39a Russian salient

19:40that Putin's forces

19:42had spent months

19:43trying to develop.

19:44Watch that video next

19:46to discover more

19:47about what we now know

19:48as part of the first phase

19:49of Operation Vivaldi.

19:50But before you go,

19:52if you're enjoying

19:52our reporting,

19:53subscribe and share

19:54your thoughts below.

19:55And if you'd like to support

19:57the real people

19:57behind the channel,

19:59consider becoming a member

20:00for exclusive content.

20:01And thank you,

20:02as always,

20:03for watching.

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