Ukraine has struck again near Putin’s hometown of St. Petersburg, triggering a massive ammunition depot explosion that created a fireball visible from space. After drones penetrated Russian air defenses and hit the Baltic Fleet’s 15th Arsenal, thousands of tons of munitions detonated in a devastating cook-off. Was this just another deep strike, or the beginning of a new Ukrainian campaign targeting Russia’s Baltic power? Watch to see how one attack could reshape the war.
00:00 - Ukraine Drone Strike Destroys 5000 Tons of Ammunition
03:24 - Russian Defense Failures at 15th Arsenal Depot
07:45 - Ukraine Drone Attacks Disrupt Putin Economic Forum
09:55 - Ukraine Opens New Front Against Baltic Fleet
13:22 - Ukrainian Drones Target Russian Baltic Oil Ports
14:32 - Is NATO Fortifying the Baltic Against Russia?
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SOURCES: https://pastebin.com/TMKghby4
00:00 - Ukraine Drone Strike Destroys 5000 Tons of Ammunition
03:24 - Russian Defense Failures at 15th Arsenal Depot
07:45 - Ukraine Drone Attacks Disrupt Putin Economic Forum
09:55 - Ukraine Opens New Front Against Baltic Fleet
13:22 - Ukrainian Drones Target Russian Baltic Oil Ports
14:32 - Is NATO Fortifying the Baltic Against Russia?
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/TMKghby4
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NewsTranscript
00:00Putin's hometown of St. Petersburg hasn't been having much luck recently.
00:04At the beginning of June, Ukraine unleashed a drone storm that humiliated Russia's leader
00:08on the eve of Russia's largest economic conference.
00:12About a week later, the follow-up has arrived.
00:14And it was massive.
00:16People in St. Petersburg must have thought a nuclear bomb had gone off
00:19as Ukraine created a fireball so big that it could be seen from space.
00:24Ukraine has created the perfect recipe.
00:26Add one-part drones to 5,000 tons of munitions
00:30and you get a massive cook-off that has scarred St. Petersburg forever.
00:35On June 5th, Ukraine sent a horde of drones into Russia.
00:39St. Petersburg was the target.
00:41Specifically, Ukraine's drones were on a trajectory
00:44that took them into the heart of the Russian Navy's 15th arsenal.
00:48Those drones flew unimpeded as Russia's air defenses utterly failed to take them down.
00:54Eventually, after 1,000 kilometers of flying, the drones reached their target,
00:58Bolshaya-Izhura, in the Leningrad region.
01:01Then, the drones struck.
01:03And they destroyed one of the most important ammunition depots used by Russia's Baltic fleet.
01:08Though Ukraine has since confirmed the strike,
01:11it was the Russian telegram channel Dossia Shpiona
01:13that was among the first to break the news and reveal just how powerful Ukraine's attack was.
01:18During the attack, approximately 40 strike-type UAVs were used,
01:2232 of which were shot down by air defense systems.
01:25The strike targeted ground-based hangar storage facilities,
01:29which in turn led to the detonations of the contents, the channel said.
01:32Putin won't be happy about that report.
01:34He's been cracking down on Telegram in Russia precisely because
01:38he doesn't want the world or his people
01:40to know just how much success Ukraine has been having with its deep strike campaign.
01:44But there's no hiding this one, Putin.
01:47Eight of Ukraine's drones crashed down on 5,000 tons of ammunition
01:51that included artillery shells of various calibers along with engineering ammunition.
01:56Two Russian servicemen died in the strike, Dossia Shpiona reports.
01:59But it's the sheer size of the explosion that will have rattled Putin and the residents of St. Petersburg.
02:04This wasn't just eight drones exploding.
02:07Striking such a massive ammunition storage facility means that there were secondary explosions so big
02:12that they created an enormous fireball at the 15th arsenal.
02:15As the fire erupted, those watching would have thought that Ukraine had somehow managed to get its hands on a
02:20nuke.
02:21It hasn't.
02:22But Ukraine has caused a fire so large that it can be seen from space.
02:26The footage, both on the ground and shot by satellites,
02:29shows us the scale of Ukraine's latest strike.
02:32The OSINT Intuit X account shows us what the 15th arsenal looks like from the ground.
02:37On a night where Ukraine reportedly launched 376 drones at Russia,
02:41the debris that Russia so often likes to claim is a killer struck its target once more.
02:46In the footage, we see a massive fire that has erupted along with plumes of smoke so large
02:50they can be seen from several kilometers away.
02:53However, the true scale of the strike is revealed by satellite imagery.
02:56The photos coming through from space show an entire corner of the arsenal has been engulfed in a fire so
03:02large
03:02that it's impossible for anything to survive.
03:04This is an inferno pulled from the depths of hell and delivered by Ukrainian drones that were never supposed to
03:10exist.
03:10Flames are spreading.
03:12The 15th arsenal can't contain them.
03:14Even as the secondary explosions have died down,
03:16the fire they created is starting to spread into the countryside surrounding Russia's Baltic fleet ammunition depot.
03:22Russia didn't exactly help itself in St. Petersburg.
03:25The 15th arsenal was just begging to be hit,
03:28and as repeated failures in Russian defenses left the door open for Ukraine's drones.
03:33But before we dig deeper into that, there's what we know about the operation so far.
03:37We've covered a few of the basics.
03:39It appears that Ukraine launched 40 drones in the direction of Bolshaya-Izhura,
03:43and that eight of those drones managed to break through Russian air defenses.
03:47Militanyi adds that Ukraine's drones were able to strike ground-based hangar facilities used for storing ammunition,
03:53which is what caused the secondary explosions.
03:55As for the facility itself, 15th arsenal was established in the 1930s
04:00to serve as a storage base for naval ammunition that is used by Russia's Baltic fleet.
04:04It's supposed to be a fortified complex that includes underground infrastructure
04:08designed to stop something like Ukraine's attack from happening.
04:12The arsenal is also part of the Western Military District,
04:14which is so often used by Russia for its Baltic ships, support vessels, and submarines.
04:19This wasn't a random target.
04:21Ukraine struck Bolshaya-Izhura because it's trying to cripple Russia's Baltic presence.
04:26As the smoke continued to rise, the true scale of Ukraine's attack became clear.
04:31In its June 6th report, the BBC says that the governor of Leningrad oblast, Alexander Drozdenko,
04:37has claimed that over 140 Ukrainian drones were shut down over Leningrad.
04:41Residents have been urged to stay indoors both due to fear of follow-up strikes
04:45and because it's not exactly healthy to breathe in the smoke being generated by 5,000 tons of burning ammunition.
04:50Beyond that, all that Drozdenko would say is that the Ukrainian attack has caused insignificant damage to some buildings,
04:57along with a fire at an unspecified military facility.
05:00We don't need Drozdenko to tell us.
05:02The satellite photos show it all.
05:03It was a powerful attack against St. Petersburg that Russia is calling unprecedented,
05:07as it tries to paint Ukraine as the bad guy for taking out a military facility on Russian territory.
05:13Defense blog adds that the sheer size of the fire caused was large enough to force authorities in Bolshaya-Izhura
05:19to evacuate around 600 residents from their homes, as emergency services battled to bring the fire under control.
05:26But those services could do nothing to stop the cook-off.
05:29Russia's downfall was the secondary explosions.
05:32Drones alone can do damage, but we wouldn't have seen anything like this
05:35if the drones weren't targeting 5,000 tons of ammunition.
05:38The warheads on Ukraine's drones served as sparks.
05:41Russia's own munitions did the rest.
05:44Secondary detonations caused fires and sent fragments of metal flying
05:48and caused a blast overpressure that resulted in yet more explosions.
05:52The resulting blaze would have been impossible to tackle until the secondary explosions ended.
05:57All that Russia could do was watch, wait, and hope
06:01that its own ammunition would stop going boom sooner rather than later.
06:05So Russia created a rod for its own back by storing 5,000 tons of ammo in one location.
06:11But it gets worse than that.
06:13We told you earlier that Russia is as much to blame for allowing this attack to happen
06:16as Ukraine is for organizing and executing the strike.
06:19Here's what we meant.
06:21Russia completely failed to protect the ammunition that Ukraine just destroyed.
06:24Those underground facilities we mentioned were unused.
06:27A target that would have required bunker busters to strike if Russia were being smart about its
06:32storage was left out in the open, practically inviting Ukraine's drones to come and say hello.
06:37The satellite images also show that Russia didn't take the necessary steps to protect its 15th arsenal
06:42after it decided to store the munitions above ground.
06:45There were no protective earth berms around any of the buildings within the arsenal.
06:49These berms may have been able to stop Ukraine's drones.
06:52Even if they couldn't, their whole purpose is to serve as barriers between storage facilities.
06:56If earth berms were in place, the raging inferno that has engulfed the 15th arsenal
07:00and the surrounding countryside might not have spread so far and wide.
07:03Russian incompetence on its own territory perished the thought.
07:07What we see here is Russia operating on assumptions rather than reality.
07:10Back in 2022, when Putin launched his invasion, such basic protective measures wouldn't have been needed.
07:17The base Ukraine struck was 1,000 kilometers away.
07:21Ukraine didn't have any weapons that could travel that far.
07:23But a lot has changed during more than four years of war.
07:26Ukraine's long-range drones travel harder and hit deeper than ever before.
07:31And yet Russia still thought that its Soviet-era base with no basic protection was safe.
07:36Distance alone would make the 15th arsenal impossible for Ukraine to strike.
07:40Distance wasn't enough.
07:42Ukraine just proved it.
07:43And as is so often the case, Ukraine didn't only target one facility in Russia during its overnight raid.
07:48The 15th arsenal may be the headline grabber, but there were plenty of other targets that went up in flames
07:54on June 6th.
07:55The Petagovskaya oil depot in the Leningrad settlement of Lomonosov was one of them, RBC Ukraine reports.
08:01An explosion and fire were recorded at the facility as the 15th arsenal burned.
08:06Ukraine also scored direct hits against the Nesta oil terminal, which is in the same city, and it took out
08:12Russian drone centers in Zaporizhia and Donetsk, a logistics warehouse in Luhansk, and a command and observation post being used
08:19by Russian troops in Belgorod.
08:20This was shock and awe from Ukraine.
08:22And there is a certain amount of poetic justice to what Ukraine just delivered to Russia.
08:27Ukraine hasn't randomly chosen to strike St. Petersburg.
08:30It's doing so with purpose.
08:32On June 3rd, Ukraine sent a wave of drones into Putin's hometown on the eve of the St. Petersburg International
08:37Economic Forum.
08:39Often called the Russian Davos, this event provides Putin with an opportunity to welcome delegates and business leaders, allowing him
08:45to create the illusion that Russia isn't an absolute economic mess.
08:49Ukraine saw an opportunity.
08:51It marked the opening of the Russian Davos, with drone strikes that darkened the skies of St. Petersburg as energy
08:56and military sites went down, ensuring that all the visitors to the city would be able to talk about was
09:01Ukraine's drones doing their business.
09:03And on June 6th, Ukraine bookended Putin's economic conference with a second round of strikes, this time causing a fire
09:09so massive that it could be seen from space.
09:12Putin has used the time between these strikes to claim that there was no point in trying to negotiate peace
09:16with Ukraine.
09:17Russia's leader chose war, Ukraine duly delivered by cooking up an explosive egg that it threw right in Putin's face.
09:24But as valuable as Putin being humiliated on the international stage that he had built for himself in Russia will
09:29be,
09:30June 6th wasn't just about rocking St. Petersburg and Leningrad with strikes.
09:34What this drone strike really signifies is that Ukraine is opening up a new front in its war with Russia.
09:40It's a front that Putin never expected to be opened, and it will change everything about the war.
09:44But before we get into why, this is a quick reminder that you are watching the military show.
09:49If you're enjoying this video, hit subscribe so you can see what we have coming next.
09:54So Ukraine's June 6th strike wasn't just about St. Petersburg.
09:58It was about the Baltic region.
10:00And that's the new front that Ukraine is open.
10:02We touched on this earlier when we revealed that the 15th arsenal served Russia's Baltic fleet.
10:07Defense blog reveals how deep that support runs, noting that the arsenal contains more than artillery shells.
10:12It's also a facility that Russia uses to store, repair, maintain, and dispose of missile systems and torpedoes that are
10:19used by the Baltic fleet.
10:21So what we're seeing here is not a random strike.
10:24It's part of a concerted campaign by Ukraine to cripple Russia's Baltic presence.
10:29Think back to those June 3rd strikes we just mentioned.
10:31One of the targets Ukraine hit on that day was the Kronstadt naval base, and it scored a direct hit
10:37on a Project 20380 corvette named the Boiki that is part of Russia's Baltic fleet.
10:43Three days later, Ukraine followed up with a strike against an ammunition depot that serves the fleet.
10:48Humiliation is a happy side effect.
10:50What Ukraine is really doing here is starting a campaign that is designed to make Russia toothless in the Baltic
10:56region.
10:57A brand new front has opened up hundreds of kilometers away from Ukraine and in a region that Putin never
11:02thought he would have to defend.
11:03The ramifications of all of this are massive.
11:06Ukraine's drones have sent an explosive message to the Kremlin that nothing Russian is safe in the Baltics anymore.
11:13There is no more safe harbor.
11:15Instead, Ukraine is expanding a remarkable naval campaign that started in the Black Sea and is now stretching well beyond
11:21its borders.
11:22This is a campaign that doesn't involve warships.
11:25Ukraine doesn't have any, or at least none worth mentioning.
11:28Ukraine is using a lethal asymmetric strategy that involves aerial and maritime drones, along with the occasional missile, to make
11:35Russia's naval might a non-factor in the war that Putin started.
11:39How has Russia responded to all of this so far?
11:41It's thrown up a few anti-drone nets on some Baltic fleet warships and called it a day.
11:46That's a token effort at best, as these types of nets may be able to stop small FPV drones,
11:51but they can't do a thing to stop the heavier and harder-hitting deep-strike drones that Ukraine is now
11:56launching toward Russia's Baltic infrastructure.
11:58Now the Baltic fleet is in peril.
12:01Strikes against Russian ports and corvettes create a repair burden that Russia isn't in a position to handle.
12:06Ammunition stockpiles going up in flames leave Russia's warships with nothing that they can use to pose a threat in
12:12the Baltic Sea.
12:13If it's true that missiles and torpedoes burned alongside artillery at the 15th Arsenal,
12:18then Russia has just lost some complex weapons systems that are increasingly hard to replace,
12:22as supply chains and the weight of 26,655 sanctions bear down.
12:28The Baltic fleet is one of the most important naval assets that Russia has,
12:32not just because of the threat that it poses, but also because of the history behind it.
12:36Russia has maintained a naval presence in the Baltic via this fleet since 1703.
12:41The dozens of ships that are part of the fleet range from Soviet-era destroyers to more modern corvettes.
12:46This fleet is supposed to project power.
12:49It's meant to enable Russia to intimidate the Baltic states, Finland, Sweden and the entirety of NATO.
12:53But Ukraine is making a mockery of all that by opening up a Baltic front without NATO involvement.
12:59Russia's Baltic fleet can't do much to harm Ukraine outside of occasionally sending ships out to fire off missiles and
13:05drones.
13:05But doing that turns these warships into targets, as Russia learned the hard way in the Black Sea.
13:11Ukraine hasn't stated its goal, though it seems to be clear.
13:14It's looking to de-Russify the Baltic region.
13:16A fire so massive that it can be seen from space is a pretty strong statement of intent.
13:20However, Ukraine is smart enough to know that Russia's Baltic power doesn't just come from a fleet of warships.
13:27Russia also has ports in the Baltic Sea, and those ports are critical to ensuring that Russian oil exports can
13:32flow out to other countries,
13:34generating billions of dollars for Putin's war chest in the process.
13:37So Ukraine is taking aim at those ports too.
13:40Throughout March, Ukraine's drones and missiles smashed repeatedly into the Baltic ports of Primorsk and Ustluga.
13:46Both are major Russian terminals that combine to account for about 40% of Russia's oil exports each year.
13:53Oil storage tanks were destroyed, and both ports had to stop operations for days to repair the damage that Ukraine
13:58inflicted.
13:59In March, it seemed that Ukraine was attacking Russia's Baltic ports to prevent Putin from taking advantage
14:04of the massive increase in oil prices that resulted from Operation Epic Fury and the closure of the Strait of
14:10Hormuz in the Gulf region.
14:11But now these attacks are looking more like the starting point of a much wider campaign that is going to
14:16engulf all of Russia's Baltic assets.
14:19It's open season for Ukraine's drones in the Baltic region.
14:22The massive cook-off at the 15th arsenal is likely to be the latest in a long series of deep
14:26strikes
14:27that bring the war Putin started right back to his hometown.
14:30It's becoming increasingly clear to Putin, Russia can't handle Ukraine's long-range game anymore.
14:36Drones flying for 1,000 kilometers and actually striking their targets was never supposed to happen.
14:41But it is, and it's the result of Ukraine pouring time, energy, and money into developing the precise types of
14:47weapons
14:47that it needed to make sure that Russia would feel the pain of the war that Putin started.
14:52Ukraine's long-range strategy has evolved.
14:54What were once isolated strikes have become a sustained campaign that sees Ukraine batter entire cities repeatedly for months at
15:01a time.
15:02We're seeing that in St. Petersburg and the wider Leningrad region now.
15:06The last few months have seen Ukraine leave massive flaming pockmarks in oil refineries, ports, and ammunition depots.
15:12Ukraine's larger goal is to degrade Russia's economy while crippling Putin's war machine from the inside.
15:18It's working.
15:19Russia's spring offensive has failed, and it has cost Putin over 30,000 troops per month for very little territorial
15:26gain.
15:27That isn't a coincidence.
15:29It's a direct result of the types of strikes that we saw on June 6th.
15:33And there are two things that take this already bad situation and turn it into a nightmare for Putin.
15:38Russia can't stop what Ukraine is doing, and a lot more is coming.
15:42So long a source of Russian strength, the sheer size of the country has become its greatest weakness.
15:47A humongous landmass that has stopped so many ground armies in their tracks can't do anything to prevent Ukraine's drones
15:53and missiles from finding their targets.
15:56Instead, Russia is finding its air defenses increasingly stretched and incapable of stopping Ukraine.
16:02Again, we saw that on June 6th.
16:04Eight of 40 drones were more than enough to destroy Russia's 15th arsenal.
16:07Even when Russia's air defenses are scoring hits, it's not enough to stop the swarms of unmanned aerial vehicles that
16:13are entering its territory.
16:15Precision has replaced ground invasion.
16:17Russia has no answer.
16:19As for what's coming, we have a little hint from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
16:23In mid-May, Zelensky revealed that he had approved an entire plan for Ukraine's deep strikes against Russia in June.
16:29Nothing is random.
16:31Everything is thought out and prepared to an insane degree.
16:34That's why Ukraine's strikes work.
16:36And it's also why Putin will be terrified as he hunkers down in his bunker each night.
16:41Ukraine has shattered some of St. Petersburg's most vital naval assets in less than a week.
16:46There's an entire month of long-range attacks planned.
16:49And Russia can do nothing but guess at what Ukraine is going to strike next.
16:53Russia's entire Baltic posture is under threat.
16:56And as if things couldn't get any worse for Putin, it's not just Ukraine that he has to worry about.
17:00NATO is boosting its own Baltic presence to counter Russia.
17:03The eastern frontier is being transformed into a fortified death zone for any Russian ground force.
17:09And that's just the start.
17:11New command structures are being put in place as NATO takes its eastern flank more seriously than ever before.
17:16Find out more by watching our video.
17:18And if you enjoyed this video, hit subscribe so you don't miss the next upload from the military show.
17:23And thank you as always for watching.
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