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UKRAINE WAR DRONE ATTACKS The Military Show: Mushroom Cloud ERUPTS Inside Russia… Ukraine STRIKES Saratov Refinery! PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEO Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECP_G68Twec
Mushroom Cloud ERUPTS Inside Russia… Ukraine STRIKES Saratov Refinery! The Military Show 1.81M subscribers Aug 11, 2025 #militarystrategy #militarydevelopments #militaryanalysis Ukraine’s latest deep-strike campaign has crippled a major Russian oil refinery nearly 900 miles from Kyiv, dealing a significant blow to the country’s fuel supply chain. This precision drone operation is part of a sustained effort to disrupt Russia’s war infrastructure, slash its refining capacity, and tighten economic pressure. The attack signals that even targets deep inside Russia are no longer safe. Support us directly as we bring you independent, up-to-date reporting on military news and global conflicts by clicking here: / @themilitaryshow #militarystrategy #militarydevelopments #militaryanalysis #themilitaryshow SOURCES: https://pastebin.com/EkPNqRVV How this content was made Auto-dubbed Audio tracks for some languages were automatically generated. Learn more Peter Burgess COMMENTARY Peter Burgess Transcript 0:00 Around 900 miles away from Kyiv, a Russian oil refinery churns away in Saratov (suh‑RAH‑tuhv). It’s making the products that fuel Russia’s war machine. Gasoline, diesel, and a range of oil products, totaling millions of tons per year, pass through the Saratov facility. That makes it a target. And Ukraine just scored a bullseye. A mushroom cloud has erupted inside Russia as Ukraine strikes the Saratov refinery. Day by day, Ukraine is obliterating Russia’s future by grinding down its oil refining. Euromaidan Press provides the basic details in its August 0:33 10 report, noting that the Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff has already confirmed the success 0:38 of the Saratov strike. Those officials say that Ukraine sent a swarm of drones to the region’s 0:43 refinery, scoring direct hits that caused massive explosions, leaving the facility in flames. 0:48 Posting to Facebook, the General Staff proclaimed, “Tonight, the Forces of unmanned systems of 0:52 the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in interaction with other components of the Defense Forces, 0:57 struck the Saratov Oil Refinery Plant (Saratov region, Russia). Explosions and fire were recorded 1:02 on the territory of the company as a result of the collision.” Ukraine just hit Saratov hard. And 1:07 details of just how hard come from NewsSky, which digs into the damage that Ukraine managed to cause 1:12 with its drones. It says that on “a night when the sky is bursting with brilliance,” Ukraine’s drones 1:17 caused anywhere between eight and 15 explosions at the Saratov oil refinery and the surrounding 1:22 areas. Those explosions began at about 2 am, with NewsSky claiming that Russian military Telegram 1:27 channels were reporting dozens of Ukrainian drones in the night sky during the strike. A state of 1:32 emergency was declared, NewsSky says, with Russia also claiming to have shot down eight drones over 1:36 Saratov in an attack that saw Ukraine send 120 drones into the Russian Federation overnight. Some 1:42 of those drones were indeed shot out of the skies, with one landing in a courtyard to cause panic 1:47 among civilians. But most of those that reached Saratov targeted the oil refinery that has been 1:52 such a key part of fueling Vladimir Putin’s war machine. That refinery is now massively damaged. 1:57 “Eyewitnesses filmed thick black smoke rising over the industrial area immediately after the 2:01 explosions,” NewsSky reports. “According to local authorities, there is serious damage to production 2:06 equipment, and the fire was extinguished for more than two hours.” Ukraine’s drone strike 2:11 also managed to achieve the handy little side benefit of forcing restrictions on all flights 2:15 in and out of Saratov between 2 am and 5 am. These restrictions weren’t the main goal of the attack, 2:20 though they go a little way toward ensuring that Ukraine sends yet another reminder to the Russian 2:24 people that the war their leader started can come home to roost on them at any time. 2:29 NewsSky also reports on a Saratov resident as claiming, “It feels like it’s not just one strike, 2:34 but a whole shelling — the echoes of the explosions can be heard even outside the city, 2:38 all the windows were shaking, after 6 am the city was unable to return to its usual rhythm.” That won’t be a surprise when you see the footage. Posted to X by United24 Media, the 14-second video is the perfect showcase of what Ukraine managed to achieve during the early hours of August 10. Deep black smoke is seen billowing into the sky from a massive blaze that was filmed in the direction of the Saratov refinery. Though the person filming the footage is some distance away 3:02 from the fire, the background noise is deafening – another sign that Ukraine hit its target. Then, there’s the sheer size of the fire itself. A drone or two exploding into the side of a regular building would cause a blaze, but not one that fills the entire horizon with smoke. Ukraine clearly hit something big. Something like an oil refinery that just so happens to be home to a product that can cause a massive fire with the right spark. Russia, of course, is trying to pretend the whole affair isn’t happening. Al Jazeera reported on August 10 that Saratov’s local governor is claiming that Ukraine’s drones killed one person and damaged several residential apartment buildings. There’s also a vague mention of an industrial facility being damaged, though the governor apparently didn’t mention the Saratov oil refining facility as the target. NewsSky reports that the Russian Defense Ministry is making the same claim that it always makes. “All UAVs have been destroyed, there are no significant damages,” the ministry says. That’s clearly not true. A blaze the size of that seen in the United24 footage is very significant damage. The ministry at least stopped short of claiming that any fires that were reported were caused 4:00 by drone debris. That’s a common Russian claim, and it’s one that never manages to hold water. Note that the ministry also didn’t say that all of Ukraine’s UAVs, or unmanned aerial vehicles, were shot down. It says they were “destroyed.” Perhaps that’s a subtle acknowledgment of the fact that some of Ukraine’s drones purposefully destroyed themselves by scoring direct hits on the Saratov oil facility. We’ll never know. But we are left with the question of why Ukraine decided to attack an oil refinery nearly 900 miles away from Kyiv. The deeper answer to that question relates to the vital role that oil plays in Russia’s war against Ukraine, and we’ll dig into that answer in a moment. As for why Saratov, in particular, the answer is obvious: Saratov makes a lot of refined oil products. The Ukrainian Army’s General Staff points that out in its Facebook post. “Saratov oil refinery is one of the key facilities of the Russian Federation's fuel infrastructure involved in providing oil products to the occupation troops. Its annual processing capacity is up to 7 million tons of oil,” it says. 7 million tons of oil. Bear in mind that this is all crude oil that’s being turned into refined oil products. In other words, Saratov is a vital cog in the Russian 5:02 war machine because it takes oil that is in its raw form and transforms it into gasoline, diesel, 5:07 and the other types of fuels that Russia needs to run its tanks, armored vehicles, and practically 5:12 all of its mechanized equipment on the Ukrainian battlefield. That’s without mentioning how much of 5:16 these 7 million tons of refined oil ends up being sold to Russian consumers to fuel their vehicles 5:21 or sold overseas so Russia can drive revenue that helps to fund Putin’s brutal war. United24 offers 5:27 a few more details about the Saratov facility. It points out that 2024 saw it operating at 5:32 fairly close to its maximum annual capacity, as it managed to process about 5.8 million tons of crude 5:38 oil during the course of the year. Beyond the gasoline and diesel that we’ve already mentioned, 5:42 United24 says, the plant is also capable of producing fuel oil, vacuum gas oil, technical 5:47 sulfur, and bitumen. So, it’s a versatile facility along with one capable of dealing with a massive 5:52 amount of Russia’s oil. All told, United24 says, the Saratov plant is responsible for about 2.2% 5:58 of Russia’s total refining volume. That may not seem like much at first glance. But remember what 6:03 we said in the introduction to this video – day by day, Ukraine is obliterating Russia’s future. What 6:08 we mean is that the strike on Saratov isn’t an isolated assault on an oil refinery that Ukraine 6:13 conducted out of random chance. It’s part of a series of strikes. A concerted effort to chip 6:18 away at Russia’s refining capabilities to the point where the country can no longer 6:22 produce enough of the refined oil products that it needs to keep its troops on the 6:26 ground supplied. Ukraine’s General Staff of the Armed Forces says as much in its Facebook post, 6:30 adding, “The Defense Forces of Ukraine continue to systematically take measures aimed at reducing 6:35 the military and economic potential of the enemy in order to force it to stop the armed aggression 6:40 against our state. Every affected object on the territory of the Russian Federation involved in 6:45 securing its criminal war against Ukraine brings us closer to just peace.” It capped the post with 6:50 a grim warning: “To be continued…” Anybody reading that might have assumed that Ukraine was telling 6:55 the world that it was planning another strike on a Russian oil refinery sometime in the next few 6:59 days. They would be wrong. Mere hours after news broke of the Saratov oil refining plant being hit, 7:04 reports started circulating that Ukraine’s drones had struck another oil refinery. Per The Kyiv Independent on August 10, this follow-up strike targeted a refinery in the Komi (KOH-mee) Republic of Russia, which is 1,242 miles away from the border Ukraine shares with Russia. That makes it an even deeper strike than the already impressive Saratov attack. The news of this second strike is still breaking as we create this video, but we do know that a source inside Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, or HUR, has confirmed the strike to The Kyiv Independent. According to the source, this is the first time that Ukraine has targeted the refinery in the Komi Republic, and it specifically hit the Lukoil-Ukhta (LOO-koyl OOKH-tah) refinery. Like the Saratov facility, the Komi Republic plant provides Russia’s military with fuel, along with the lubricants it needs to maintain its mechanized units. We even have some details about this second strike. The HUR source claims that Ukraine managed to hit a petroleum tank, causing it to spill. No blaze was reported. However, petroleum pouring out onto concrete isn’t exactly usable anymore, so the effect in terms 8:02 of forcing Russia to lose a valuable resource is the same. According to the HUR source, Ukraine’s drones also managed to take out a processing plant that produces gasoline and propane-butane. Russian authorities evacuated the plant as the strike was ongoing, but that did nothing to stop Ukraine from scoring yet more direct hits. August 10 was a big night for Ukraine. But we mentioned earlier that the Saratov strike was part of a series. The Komi Republic attack was a follow-up, but there have been plenty more Ukrainian strikes against Russian oil refining over the last few days. On August 8, two days before the Saratov strike, The Moscow Times provided a brief round-up. It says that Ukraine managed to hit two of Russia’s largest oil refineries in the week leading up to August 10, forcing both of them to go offline for repairs. Both the Ryazan (ree-ah-ZAHN) and Novokuybyshevsk (noh-vo-koo-EE-bish-yehvsk) refineries were hit, with a source familiar with the plants reportedly telling Reuters that it will take about a month to bring them both back online. That’s a pretty major problem for Russia because both of these plants have an even higher capacity than the Saratov facility. The Ryazan plant processes 13.7 million tons of crude oil annually, 9:03 with the Novokuybyshevsk hitting 8.3 million tons. We also know that Saratov processes 7 million tons per year, so let’s assume that Ukraine’s latest strike has taken that plant offline for a month, also. From here, we can do some basic math. A month-long shutdown at all three of these plants is very costly to Russia. The Ryazan plant loses out on processing about 1.14 million tons. Being closed for a month means the Novokuybyshevsk can’t process about 666,666 tons it would otherwise process, with the Saratov plant shutdown costing a little over 583,000 tons. Put it all together, and you get almost 2.39 million tons worth of oil refining that Ukraine just snatched out of Russia’s hands. And that’s without even counting the Komi Republic plant that Ukraine hit just hours after Saratov. In the past couple of weeks alone, The Moscow Times says, Ukraine has reduced Russia’s oil refining capacity by almost 10%. It may now be higher than 10% given the two new strikes that have happened since The Moscow Times published its article. All of this 10:00 brings us back to why Ukraine is hitting Russia’s oil refineries so hard. There are several reasons, some of which impact the Ukraine war in a more immediate sense, while others more closely relate to how Ukraine is dragging Russia kicking and screaming toward the obliteration of its future. In the immediate sense, Ukraine’s strikes against Russian oil refining make sense because of something we mentioned earlier – less refined oil means less fuel heading toward Putin’s troops on the front lines in Ukraine. The Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff touched on this, as does NewsSky, which says that Ukraine has made it a point that all of its strikes are specifically targeting Russian military infrastructure. Oil refineries are accounted for in that broad definition of “infrastructure” because the fuel that flows from them makes its way into occupied territories of Ukraine via Russia’s vast network of railways. Take out the source, and Russia’s tanks run out of fuel. This isn’t a new tactic from Ukraine. As far back as April 2024, Politico reported on Russia’s then-looming fuel problems as Ukraine had begun its campaign of strikes on oil refineries. At the time, Ukraine had only recently started manufacturing long-range drones to the 11:02 extent that it could carry out these strikes semi-regularly, and it was having an impact. Diesel prices had risen by nearly 10% the week prior to April 29, 2024, alone, with petrol having reached a six-month-high price on the back of a 20% increase between the start of 2024 and the end of April. Those price increases were a hint that the pressure Ukraine was placing on Russia’s oil refining facilities was starting to pay dividends. It’s been hitting those refineries harder and harder ever since. By February of this year, The Atlantic Council was reporting that a succession of long-range attacks had knocked out 10% of Russia’s oil refining capacity. That mirrors the figure The Moscow Times shared in August. Is the latter figure 10% off of Russia’s already reduced capacity? Or, does it mean that Russia managed to restore its refining only to see 10% knocked out again months later? We don’t know for sure. Either way, this isn’t a situation that Russia wants to be dealing with. What we do know is that every strike against an oil refinery forces Russia to slow production, even if only for a few weeks. Bringing things back to the battlefield, 12:01 those slowdowns have a clear effect. As the Center for Strategic and International Studies, or CSIS, pointed out in June, mechanized units play a huge role in Russia’s strategy for defeating Ukraine. “Russia has used dismounted infantry (including human wave attacks) and mechanized forces to wear down and attrit Ukrainian lines by killing and wounding Ukrainian soldiers, destroying equipment, undermining morale, and otherwise targeting Ukraine’s capacity to fight,” CSIS said. What better way to slow that grinding attack down than by taking out the facilities that fuel it? That’s Ukraine’s logic, and it’s appearing to pay dividends. A combination of equipment shortfalls, manpower losses and a lack of fuel means that Russia has shifted its tactics so it’s now attacking Ukraine with much smaller groups of soldiers. Where once, Ukraine built fortifications to tackle entire mechanized battalions with tanks and 500 troops, it’s now having to change its strategy to handle units that can be as small as 20 soldiers, often without tanks, Politico said in July. That’s not a change that Russia wanted to make. It’s one that’s being forced on it both by the attrition of mechanized units on the battlefield and Ukraine’s strikes 13:00 against refined oil facilities that prevent fuel from reaching the tanks and armored vehicles that are still running. So, we can see that Ukraine’s refinery strikes are weakening Russia’s troops on the field. But “obliteration?” How is that going to happen? It all comes down to the economic impact that Ukraine’s refinery attacks are having on Russia. We see a microcosm of these types of economic problems on the local level in Saratov. According to NewsSky, Saratov’s oil refining sector is the backbone of the region’s entire economy. For the people who work at the plant, Ukraine’s drone strike may have put them out of work for weeks, or perhaps even months, as repairs are made. If nothing else, that brings the war Putin started right back to Russia’s people in a way that doesn’t see Ukraine striking civilians directly. But it’s also a hint at the wider problems that are plaguing Russia’s oil sector right now. In July, the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air noted that the second quarter of 2025 saw Russia’s revenue from fossil fuels drop by 18% compared to the same period in 2024. That happened despite Russia selling 8% more of these fuels in 2025. That’s a pretty big issue for Russia. It’s already making 14:03 less money from its refined oil products despite selling more of them than it did last year. With the most recent spate of refinery strikes taking out around 10% of Russia’s refining capacity, that ability to sell in higher volumes to make up for lower prices is disappearing. That means even less money pouring into Putin’s war effort. And the situation won’t be made any better by reports from later July that suggest Russia is going to be banning the export of gasoline products to all but a select number of countries in August and September. That’s according to Reuters, and the move means that Russia is trying to keep as much of its gasoline in the domestic market as possible to ensure supply meets demand. After all, a loss of supply means Russian people are spending more for oil products at a time when they’re already dealing with the pressure of a monthly inflation rate that still stood at 9.4% in June, despite three consecutive months of decreases. It's all about pressure. Pressure on the Russian people. Pressure on the Russian economy. Pressure on the Russian military. And it’s being caused by Ukraine’s drones breaking through Russia’s air 15:00 defenses to hit refineries like those in Saratov. Finally, there’s a point we touched on earlier to consider. Ukraine’s strikes against the Saratov plant and other oil refining facilities are a great way to bring the Ukraine war back to the Russian people. Remember that Saratov is around 900 miles away from Kyiv. The Komi Republic facility that suffered from Ukraine’s follow-up drone strike is even further away. These are both locations that no Russian thought Ukraine would be able to hit in their wildest dreams when Putin launched his invasion. They were supposed to be safe. Now, their refineries are on fire as Ukraine continues to prove that the deep rear of the past is now not anywhere as distant as it once felt. Long-range drone strikes have now become the reality of the Ukraine war, for both countries. Even as U.S. President Donald Trump is gearing up to meet with Vladimir Putin in Alaska to discuss how to end the Ukraine war, these deep strikes are going to continue. They have to. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has already said that Ukraine won’t be ceding or swapping territory with Russia, no matter the result of that conversation. Attacking Russia in the deep rear reinforces that message, showing Russia 16:01 that Ukraine is a long way from being out of the fight. Uncertain times may be coming for Ukraine. We won’t know how uncertain until the aftermath of the upcoming meeting between Trump and Putin. But what is certain is that the Saratov facility is burning. It’s one of the latest in many, and it certainly won’t be the last oil refinery that Ukraine takes out before the war is through. Those future strikes will only feed into the oil crisis that has erupted in Russia, as Ukraine is striking the country where it hurts the most. Find out more in our video, and remember to subscribe to The Military Show for more videos covering the latest deep strikes Ukraine carries out against Russia.

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