Russia Hid Something HUGE Deep in Donetsk… Ukraine Found It — Then THIS Happened

Name: Russia Hid Something HUGE Deep in Donetsk… Ukraine Found It — Then THIS Happened
Uploaded: 2026-07-15T20:08:50+00:00
Duration: 17 min 45 s
Channel: The Military Show

00:00Russia was hiding something huge in Donetsk, obscured from view in a building especially

00:06chosen to be as discreet as possible. What Russia attempted to conceal was vital to the

00:13country's war effort in what is now the most important region of the Ukraine war. Vital,

00:19irreplaceable, filled with the one thing that Russian soldiers need to carry out their assaults.

00:25But Ukraine found it and replaced it with a fireball. A fireball so hot that it would have

00:32felt like it was summoned from the darkest depths of hell. And wouldn't you just know it,

00:36that's exactly what Ukraine wanted Russia to think. Operation Hell has been launched and Russia

00:43is learning what the inferno feels like. Russia thought it was being clever. In the bowels of

00:49occupied Donetsk is the settlement of Novo Amvrozivka. That settlement, along with many

00:55others, had become part of a large network of fuel depots and logistics nodes that Russia has created

01:00in the Donetsk Oblast. And all of those targets were once believed to be out of range of Ukrainian

01:06strikes. Still, Russia had prepared for the very day when this would no longer be the case.

01:11In Novo Amvrozivka, a key fuel depot was hidden away from sight. Rather than being out in the open,

01:17it had been sequestered away inside the grounds of a massive cement plant.

01:21Fuel would be delivered to the plant via rail and stored in both underground reservoirs and

01:26above-ground tanks, all of which were concealed from sight. Russia maintained the subterfuge by

01:32transporting fuel back out of the facility using trucks disguised as civilian vehicles.

01:37Those trucks would then take the fuel to core supply depots, ensuring that Russian assault groups

01:42inside Donetsk had what they needed to conduct mechanized assaults and other operations involving

01:47vehicles. The concealment of this operation worked for months, until it didn't. On July 12th,

01:54Ukraine's first Azov corps revealed that it had not only located Russia's secret fuel base,

01:59but that it had struck it with drones that have left untold tons of vital Russian fuel burning.

02:05That strike was part of a wider attack against Novo Amvrozivka,

02:08that also damaged railway lines and sent a very clear message to Putin that a logistical hub he

02:15once believed to be out of reach was now a very clear target. The Azov corps dubbed the strike

02:20Operation Hell, and this is how it happened. A strike like this one isn't something that can

02:26be carried out on a whim. This wasn't a simple case of the Azov corps finding the hidden site and

02:31then sending drones to destroy it. As the corps reveals in the Telegram post that it used to announce

02:36what it had done, Operation Hell required months of planning and observation before Ukraine could

02:42be sure that it had the right location and that it would be able to maximize the impact of the

02:46drones

02:47that it was preparing to send. The Azov corps' members couldn't get into the plant. That would

02:51have required fighting through waves of Russian occupiers, which is a suicide mission. Instead,

02:57the corps' drone operators flew reconnaissance sorties over the hidden Russian fuel facility.

03:01Each flight provided a little more information than the last. The concrete plant's layout was mapped,

03:07ensuring that strike drone operators would be able to quickly identify the targets they needed to hit

03:11when they were called upon. The logistics network that fed in and out of the plant,

03:16including the railway lines we mentioned earlier, were also observed and mapped, as was much of the

03:21supporting infrastructure that kept the Russian fuel plant running. Over months, a plan was put into

03:26place. Ukraine even chose the perfect drone for the job, the AI-powered Hornet that has been wreaking

03:32havoc in the middle strike range by taking out Russian fuel and supply trucks all over the occupied

03:37territories for the last few months. This time, those drones would face a much more challenging task.

03:43They were the perfect choice, and we'll explain why in a few minutes, but for now we'll stick with

03:47Operation Hell. With its planning complete and its weapon of choice established, the Azov corps was ready

03:52to strike. But as we said before, this wasn't a case of simply sending drones to strike fuel tanks.

03:58It all started with a railway crane. The first target of a layered strike operation was far from

04:04any old crane. It was the specific crane that the Azov corps identified as being the one that Russia

04:10would try to use to clear damaged railway tracks feeding onto the hidden fuel depot that served as

04:15the main target. Taking out the crane meant slowing Russia down, and that line of thinking continued

04:21with the second target. As the Azov corps followed up by hitting a locomotive that was already on the

04:26tracks, a one-two punch of blocking rail access was delivered. The stricken locomotive could no longer

04:32move out of the way of the other trains trying to get in, and with the crane out of commission,

04:37it couldn't even be yanked off the tracks. You might think that the fuel storage facility was next up,

04:42but you'd be wrong. The Azov corps had another step in its plan. Its next target was an electrical

04:48substation that provided power to the cement plant concealing Russia's fuel. This was a genius move.

04:54We can only imagine the panic inside the plant as the lights went down. Russian soldiers who just

04:59moments before would have felt confident that Ukraine didn't even know what was hidden in the

05:03cement plant would have been struck with the realization that something was very, very wrong.

05:08And as they panicked, having no idea what to do next, that's when the Azov corps made headlines.

05:13The next wave of drones to arrive targeted the fuel tanks and railway lines that had been so

05:18carefully mapped out months before, Russia couldn't do a thing about it. A strike as unexpected as

05:24anything that Ukraine has launched before in the occupied territories was pulled off with such

05:28masterful precision that a key Donetsk fuel storage site stood no chance.

05:33Fuel products are the blood of war. To supply the occupation force, the Russians spent a long time

05:38building a network of logistics hubs they believed were protected from Ukrainian attacks.

05:43UAV operators of the 1st Azov corps changed the enemy's plans, the corps declared on Telegram.

05:50It also pointed out that this attack has another massive effect that will impact Putin's plans for

05:55Donetsk. Part of Russia's fuel supply network will now have to be moved from the occupied territories

06:01and into mainland Russia. For the soldiers on the front lines in Donetsk, that means large delays in

06:07getting fuel to them for their operations. Will that slow Russia's rate of attack?

06:12Unlikely, Putin is callous enough to tell those soldiers that they still have to attack or lug

06:16supplies around. They'll just have to do it without vehicles while trying to protect themselves in

06:21Ukraine's kill zones. Somehow we don't think that's going to work out particularly well.

06:26By taking out Russia's hidden fuel depot, Ukraine has also doomed more of Putin's patsies,

06:31just as Ukraine intended. And it's also not as though those soldiers weren't already feeling

06:37the pain of fuel shortages that have been racking the Russian army.

06:40Earlier in July, Ukraine's Defense Minister Mikhailo Fedorov revealed that Ukraine's logistical

06:46destruction campaign has already resulted in some Russian soldiers being forced to trudge up to 30

06:51kilometers on foot just to reach the frontline positions. That's 30 kilometers where Ukrainian

06:57reconnaissance drones are on a constant lookout as drone strike operators wait for the command

07:02to attack anything that moves. Therefore, we see problems with logistics for the Russians.

07:06We see problems with critical infrastructure, which in principle also affects the combat capability of

07:12the troops. We see that maneuverability has been disrupted in Russian forces. We see that logistics

07:18continues to suffer every day," Fedorov said. We're definitely seeing suffering.

07:23Now it won't just be Russian soldiers in the south making on-foot journeys of dozens of kilometers.

07:29In Donetsk, the troops that Putin needs to take the one piece of territory that he requires to claim

07:33anything that might even resemble a victory over Ukraine have just been deprived of their fuel.

07:39On and on they'll have to march, many toward their inevitable deaths. And beyond the planning that

07:44made this possible, there is the drone that Ukraine used for the series of strikes in Novo Ambrosevka.

07:49We told you earlier that the Hornet was the perfect choice for the job. This is why.

07:54The Hornet is capable of striking targets at a depth of up to 150 kilometers, which is why it has

07:59been

07:59so effective in Ukraine's logistics lockdown campaign. It can travel far beyond the front to score

08:05direct hits against moving targets such as fuel trucks. Frankly, those capabilities weren't even

08:11stretched in Novo Ambrosevka. The fuel depot Ukraine struck wasn't a moving target. It was also

08:17well within the Hornet's range. Pravda reports that the secret facility the Azov Corps hit

08:22was just 16 kilometers away from the Russian state border. Ukraine's Hornets could have done several

08:28laps and still had enough juice left to carry out their strikes. Granted, the Hornet isn't the most

08:33powerful drone in the world. It carries a 4.5-kilogram warhead, but that was enough for Russia's fuel

08:39tankers. They are relatively soft targets, and it only takes an explosion or two to send a whole

08:44lot of fuel up in flames. But what makes the Hornet really special is its use of AI,

08:50which has been implemented in the form of advanced guidance algorithms, allowing the drone to travel

08:55as far as needed without having to worry about jammers. That same algorithm also allows the Hornet

09:00to automate target detection and tracking, meaning all the Azov Corps needed to do was program the

09:05appropriate targets into the drone and then let the algorithm do the rest. This is automated warfare

09:10at its most devastating. The sting of the Hornet has just been felt by every Russian soldier

09:16who relied on the secret Donetsk fuel facility. And as the cement plant that Russia thought it

09:22had so cleverly used to conceal its fuel burned, Ukraine had other irons in the fire. Taking out

09:28the Donetsk plant meant no fuel in the occupied territories. Ukraine complemented that with another,

09:33over 800 kilometers away, that only makes Russia's fuel challenges worse.

09:38But before we dig into that, this is the military show. If you haven't subscribed to the channel yet,

09:43take a moment to hit the button and ring the notification bell so you see more of our daily videos.

09:50On the same day that the Azov Corps revealed that it had blown one of Russia's biggest secrets

09:54wide open with Hornet drones, another story broke. About 800 kilometers away from Ukraine, drones had scored

10:02multiple hits against the Cizran oil refinery in the Samara Oblast. That refinery has been a target before.

10:09As it should be, it's capable of refining about 8.9 million tons of crude oil into fuel and other

10:14oil-based products every year. But this time Ukraine did more than force a temporary shutdown of the

10:20refinery. Its drones were so precise that analysts believe that every primary refining unit has been hit,

10:27potentially taking the Cizran plant potential output right down to zero.

10:32Euromiden Press has the details. It reports that Ukraine's strike started at some point during the

10:37night of July 11 and that it continued into the early hours of July 12. By 0430, monitoring channels,

10:44including Supernova Plus and Excellanova Plus, were reporting on the strike sharing footage of the

10:49flames and the massive clouds of smoke rising out of Russia's largest refineries.

10:54It wasn't long after that the strike was mapped out. According to the open-source intelligence

10:59channel Cyberboroshno, Ukraine's Cizran strike appears to have been conducted using long-range

11:04FP1 drones. And those drones hit a trio of processing units that the plant needs to do what it does.

11:11Among the units struck was the AVT-5 primary processing unit, the channel says. That single unit

11:17accounts for 2.6 million of the 8.9 million tons of oil that Cizran processes annually, which is around

11:2430% of capacity. The AVT-6 unit, which handles the remaining 6.3 million tons, was also struck.

11:30And it also looks like Ukraine's drones hit the LCH-35-11-600 catalytic reformer at the plant,

11:37which is used to make components required in gasoline. If these reports are correct, then we see two

11:43things. One, Ukraine's drones are getting more accurate by the week, so much so that Russia can't

11:48plausibly use its usual drone debris excuse because it's clear that Ukraine has scored direct hits on

11:55exactly what it wanted to hit. And two, the entire Cizran refinery has just been taken offline.

12:01100% of its oil processing capacity has been destroyed, and it may be weeks or perhaps even

12:07months before Russia can get the plant even partially online again. After all, it's not exactly

12:13easy for Russia to get its hands on the many components needed to repair or rebuild these

12:17destroyed processing units when it's under the weight of Western sanctions designed to prevent

12:22Russia from purchasing these components. We used the term one-two punch to describe how the Azov

12:27Corps took out the railway infrastructure and then the fuel at the hidden Donetsk facility.

12:31We can use it again here. Ukraine delivered a stiff jab with its Donetsk attack,

12:36and it followed that up with an absolute haymaker that took out Russian fuel at one of its sources.

12:42That's what we're seeing here. Layered strikes that are hitting Russia's entire supply chain,

12:47from source to the very trucks being used to carry the fuel. This is all having a massive effect on

12:53Russia. The fuel crisis is well underway and there is no part of Russia that isn't suffering. A lot has

13:00been said about how Ukraine's middle range and deep strikes are causing fuel shortages that affect Russian

13:05consumers. And a lot should be said about that. These shortages are ramping up the pressure on

13:10Putin by making a lot of Russian people very angry with their supposed strongman protector.

13:16Queues at gas stations throughout Russia now extend for miles, and many people who wait for

13:21several hours in these queues end up discovering that the pumps have emptied and that they have to go

13:25somewhere else to queue all over again. Some opportunistic Russians are even securing places

13:31in line and then selling those places for as much as $460 to the desperate people who need fuel.

13:37The mood is souring inside Russia due to all of these shortages, the independence Alexander

13:43Titov reported on July 10th. I have traveled to Russia yearly since 2022 and there has been a clear

13:49change in the mood. In 2022 it was all about survival and adapting to the new reality of sanctions and

13:55war. Over the next couple of years there was stabilization and growing optimism about the

14:00economy's ability to adapt. However, by 2026 there was talk of an economic recession even before the

14:06current fuel shortages hit, Titov writes. That's all part of Ukraine's pressure plan for Putin.

14:12However, with the strike in Donetsk, we can see that Ukraine is leveling up its campaign to create a

14:17Russian fuel crisis. Now it's not just the average person queuing at the gas station who feels it.

14:23The soldiers on the front lines are having the lifeblood of their assaults snatched away from

14:28them. The idea is simple, cut the military off from fuel and you cripple the Russian war machine.

14:34Ukraine has escalated its fuel campaign. It's now striking fuel tankers in the Sea of Azov to stop

14:40gasoline and diesel from reaching Crimea and the occupied territories on the mainland. We've just seen

14:45Ukraine execute a well-planned strike against a hidden fuel storage facility in Donetsk.

14:50EU Observer reports that not even Russian soldiers can get fuel at the pumps in many regions.

14:55And if Ukraine keeps escalating as it is, it will soon be the case that those soldiers won't be able

15:00to get fuel on the front. Perhaps that is already happening. You don't get 30 km on-foot treks like

15:06those that Fedorov mentions if you have an abundance of fuel. It's not just the civilians who are being

15:11starved of fuel now. It's the entire Russian military. The numbers don't lie. Russian soldiers

15:17are being eliminated faster than at any other point in 2026 as a result of these fuel problems.

15:22In the 24 hours up to July 13th, Russia lost an estimated 1,600 soldiers, Pravda reports. We

15:30wonder how many of those soldiers were being forced to walk to the front rather than drive,

15:33only to run into a Ukrainian drone. In June, Russia lost almost 40,000 of its troops as its logistics

15:41broke down and its soldiers became more vulnerable than ever. We're seeing the knock-on effect of the

15:46fuel crisis that Ukraine has created here. Bit by bit, Putin's entire war machine is falling apart.

15:52And then, there's Donetsk. Putin wants Donetsk to fall as quickly as possible. He's been saying that

15:58for years, ever since Russia started its campaign of aggression against Ukraine back in 2014,

16:03Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says that Putin has set 15 deadlines for the fall of Donetsk

16:09and the wider Donbass region, the vast majority of which have already come and gone with no results.

16:14The latest of those deadlines to come out of the Kremlin is December 31st. That comes on the back of

16:20the previous 2026 deadlines of March 31st and September 1st, which Putin appears to have given up

16:27long before we even get there. The deadlines don't matter. Al Jazeera says that at Russia's current

16:32rate of advance, it will take another 5,150 days, or about 14 years, for it to take the rest

16:39of Donetsk.

16:40Odds are, Putin will be dead by then. Fuel on fire at a hidden storage facility less than 20

16:46kilometers from the front isn't going to help matters for Russia. It means another slowdown,

16:51it means more soldiers forced to move on foot through the kill zones, and most importantly,

16:56it means that Putin's Donetsk fantasy has been destroyed. Russia isn't going to take Donetsk,

17:01at least not anytime soon. And as Putin tries to figure out what happens next, the Azov Corps moves

17:07on. It likely has more reconnaissance drones in the sky already, scoping out the next target that

17:12Russia has tried to hide and Ukraine isn't supposed to be able to hit. Now, we mentioned the massive queues

17:17at the gas stations in Russia, but what we didn't tell you about were the fights, the guns, the knives,

17:22the police, and there's no nice way to say this, the shit. Chaos and violence reign in the gas station

17:28queues right now, and you can find out all about it if you watch our video. And if you enjoyed

17:33this

17:33video, subscribing to The Military Show is only a click away, and we'll deliver your daily dose

17:38of Russia's latest failures in its ill-fated invasion of Ukraine. Thank you, as always, for watching.

Russia Hid Something HUGE Deep in Donetsk… Ukraine Found It — Then THIS Happened

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