Putin Just Did Something MONUMENTALLY GIGANTICALLY STUPID

For months, Russian officials told the story of a  weapon with the power to end the war with Ukraine   in a single night.

A next-generation system.

A hyped-up hypersonic nightmare.

Something   so powerful, so advanced, and so devastating,  its eventual deployment would send shockwaves   not just across Ukraine, but far beyond, striking  fear into the hearts of NATO leaders and once more   re-establishing Russia as one of the world’s most  fearsome military powers.

Its name was Oreshnik.

And, according to Moscow, it wasn’t just another  missile.

It wasn’t even just another weapon.

It   was something that would change the face of modern  warfare forever.

The Kremlin did such an effective   job of marketing the Oreshnik that the wider world  began to buy into the hype.

Stories were written,   and debates were had about what this weapon might  be able to do when it was finally unleashed.

Experts analyzed every piece of intelligence they  could find about it, poring over blueprints and   alleged technical specifications, imagining its  awesome power.

Even in Ukraine, there were many   who feared that when Oreshnik entered the arena,  Kyiv’s chances of survival would take a serious   hit.

For a while, Moscow was winning.

It had  managed to terrorize the world without even   needing to launch a single Oreshnik.

It had built  an aura of fear around a weapon that hadn’t even   been officially live tested.

Then, in May 2026,  it made a mistake.

A monumentally stupid mistake.

It launched the Oreshnik and, in doing so, showed  the world just how weak this so-called wonder   weapon actually was.

Before we look at how the  launch unfolded and the embarrassing aftermath   that Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, now  has to contend with, it’s important to take   a step back and see why the Kremlin felt that  now was the time to bring the Oreshnik into the   battlefield.

There are arguably two main reasons  why a country might decide to effectively bring   out the big guns and launch a huge, new, and  highly powerful weapon several years into a war.

It might do so because it’s winning.

It’s feeling  confident, it’s making gains on the ground,   and it wants to deliver that final crushing blow,  shattering whatever’s left of its opponent’s   morale, before marching onwards to victory.

On the  other hand, a country might also resort to using a   weapon like this if it’s feeling desperate.

With  its forces weakened and months going by without   major objectives being achieved, it might decide  that the only option left is a sudden burst of   ‘shock and awe,’ with the hope of surprising  and overwhelming its opponent into submission.

In May 2026, Russia most certainly fell into  the latter category.

It’s not winning this war.

Far from it.

The early gains and momentum of 2022  have all but evaporated.

Almost zero major towns   or cities have been captured since the first year  of the campaign.

The country’s economy is slipping   into a serious crisis, its war machine is running  on fumes, and it has suffered the worst casualties   and overall losses of any major power since  the Second World War.

It has been embarrassed,   isolated, and shunned, and its former  status as one of the world’s mightiest   and most intimidating military superpowers has  crumbled as it continues to struggle against a   far smaller and theoretically weaker opponent.

And the best visual representation of Russia’s
collapse came on May 9 – Victory Day, one of the  most important dates on the Russian calendar – the   commemoration of the victory of the Soviet  Union over Nazi Germany in 1945.

For decades,   every year on May 9, a grand military parade has  taken place in the Red Square of Moscow.

Broadcast   across Russia and beyond, it’s historically been  one of the most watched events of the year – the   perfect opportunity for Putin to flaunt his  military muscle.

Past iterations of the parade   have seen hundreds of main battle tanks shaking  the very ground of the iconic Red Square while   fighter jets scream overhead and the latest air  defenses and cutting-edge missile launchers are   rolled out for all to see.

For the Kremlin, the  event was as much about honoring the past as it   was about showing off Russia’s bright and glorious  future.

But as the war has progressed, this once   grand spectacle has devolved into a shadow of its  former self.

And on May 9, 2026, the event almost   didn’t even go ahead.

In the weeks building up to  the parade, Moscow was awash with rumors about a   possible Ukrainian attack during the event,  or even an attempt on Putin’s life, with the   president reportedly resorting to hiding out in  underground bunkers, fearful that his days were   numbered.

It was only after US President Donald  Trump intervened and arranged a temporary truce   between Russia and Ukraine that Putin actually  decided to go ahead with the parade and show his   face in the Red Square.

To rub salt in his wounds,  his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy,   issued a mock decree, “permitting” Russia to hold  its Victory Day celebrations and promising that no   Ukrainian drones or missiles would disrupt them.

The very fact that Zelenskyy was in a position   to make such a jibe shows how the momentum of the  war has shifted.

It would have seemed laughable,   only a few short years ago, to suggest that the  Kremlin was frightened of hosting an event in the   heart of Moscow in case Ukraine interfered.

Now,  it’s simply par for the course.

It’s a testament   to how the tables have turned, with Ukraine  becoming an increasingly formidable threat to   Russia to contend with, right at the same time as  Russia’s own military machine reaches its weakest   ever point.

And even though the May 9 parade went  ahead, it might have been better for Putin if he’d   canceled it instead.

No tanks were present.

In fact, there was no mobile military column   whatsoever for the first time since 2008.

Russia  couldn’t even drag some old Cold War or World War   II-era tank out to at least save face.

It had  nothing to show apart from a few hundred troops   and a handful of fighter jets.

While Putin stood  in front of a small crowd to give his speech,   speaking of Russian “heroes” on the front lines  facing off against Ukraine and NATO combined,   the world’s media mocked the display, which  only served to show just how far the Kremlin   had fallen.

Clearly, they struck a nerve.

Putin’s  whole persona is built on power projection.

Ever
since he first came to power, he’s been desperate  to present himself as some sort of ‘strongman’   figure – the modern-day Peter the Great – the  only one with the heart and grit needed to lead a   country of such a size.

But on May 9, the evidence  was clear to see: the Emperor had no clothes,   and even inside Russia, Putin’s popularity  was slipping by the day.

Not only that, but   even though Ukraine had abided by the truce and  avoided targeting Moscow, it was still carrying   out numerous successive strikes on other important  targets, like oil refineries, ammo depots, and   military facilities, both in the occupied regions  and within Russia itself.

Pressure was rising on   Putin, and his future was looking increasingly  grim.

And when authoritarian dictators start to   lose their grip on power, they tend to behave like  wild animals, backed into corners.

They lash out.

True to form, that’s exactly what Putin did.

He knew he needed to change the narrative.

The   world was laughing at him, his grand parade was an  abject embarrassment, and time was running out to   turn the situation around.

But he had one final  card to play, one last ace up his sleeve.

The   Oreshnik.

The one weapon that could, perhaps, turn  the tide.

A weapon that would deal such damage   that the world would instantly forget about the  Victory Day humiliation.

This would silence the   critics.

It would stun the doubters into silence.

It would prove to the public that Putin was still   the right man for the job and make the wider world  frightened of Russia all over again.

And so, the   president gave the order.

He didn’t wait for his  commanders to find an ideal target.

He didn’t form   a sensible strategy or bide his time until the  perfect moment came.

He wanted to act immediately,   delivering a big and bombastic blow to his enemy.

He wanted fires and explosions and bloodshed,   no matter the cost.

And so, plans were put into  place.

Over the weekend of May 23 to May 24,   Russia would launch one of its biggest-ever  missile and drone attacks against Ukraine.

It   would target multiple regions all in one  fell swoop, sending 90 missiles and 600   drones over the border.

The total cost of the  attack would later be estimated at up to or   perhaps even over the $400 million mark.

And the  crowning jewel of it all would be the Oreshnik,   which would arrive towards the end of the strike,  delivering a finale that Ukraine – and the rest   of the world – would not soon forget.

Putin  was confident, and it’s not hard to see why.

Like so many others, he, too, bought into the  hype of this missile.

Surrounded by sycophants   and ‘yes men,’ he was led to believe it was  a truly game-changing innovation.

But was it,   really? To find out, we need to take a closer look  at this weapon’s development and true capacities.

Despite being marketed as a brand new creation,  the Oreshnik – which translates to ‘Hazel Shrub’   in English – is actually believed to be based  on a pre-existing system: the RS-26 Rubezh,   an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM)  that was developed in the 2000s and underwent   several successful test launches in the 2010s, but  never officially entered service.

Many analysts   and experts believe that the Oreshnik is simply  a variant of the RS-26 with slightly less range,   but capable of extraordinary speeds.

Hypersonic  speeds, to be precise.

In military terms,   hypersonic weapons are those that can exceed Mach  5 – or five times the speed of sound, in excess of   3,800 miles per hour.

The very word ‘hypersonic’  is enough to invoke a certain level of fear and   intimidation.

Weapons that move this fast have  long been regarded as almost unstoppable, able   to speed past conventional defenses before they  even register on their radar screens.

That’s why   the world’s leading military powers, including the  United States and China, have poured huge amounts   of money and resources into developing these sorts  of systems, which could bring about a whole new   era of warfare.

And the Oreshnik wasn’t just at  the lower limit of ‘hypersonic’ – according to the
Ukrainian military, it was reportedly capable of  exceeding not merely Mach 5, but Mach 10, giving   it a peak speed in excess of 7,600 miles per hour  (12,300 kilometers per hour).

That places it among   the fastest missiles in existence today.

But speed  isn’t everything.

Plenty of ballistic missiles   exist that can travel at hypersonic speeds during  certain portions of their flight paths.

The real   challenge isn’t just moving quickly – it’s staying  on target and evading air defenses while traveling   at those same extreme velocities.

But that,  too, apparently wasn’t a problem for Oreshnik.

Kremlin officials described how this missile  boasted advanced maneuverability, allowing it   to adjust its direction of travel mid-flight.

They  also explained that it was fitted with not one but   up to six separate and independently targetable  warheads.

That, alone, changed everything.

Suddenly, this wasn’t just a single threat, but  a whole cluster of them.

Each missile had the   potential to cause not one but several devastating  explosions, all at once, in different locations.

On paper, it was a terrifying prospect – the  Oreshnik wasn’t just rapid and agile, seemingly   able to evade the latest and greatest air defense  systems, but it was dramatically more destructive   than anyone had originally imagined.

In short,  it seemed that this system truly lived up to the
‘wonder weapon’ label.

Finally, the Kremlin may  have created something that was worthy of the   hype and propaganda attached to it – a weapon that  traveled ten times faster than the speed of sound,   followed complex flight paths to evade detection,  gave defenders almost zero time to prepare or   protect themselves, and packed enough firepower  to level entire cities.

On top of all this, the   Oreshnik also had the capacity to carry nuclear  warheads.

This didn’t seem like just another   addition to the Russian arsenal, but a new tool  of psychological warfare – something that would   make the Kremlin’s enemies fearful and obedient  for generations to come.

And in November 2024,   Russia gave the world just a glimpse of what this  weapon could do.

It carried out its first Oreshnik   attack against Ukraine, not with a fully-powered  missile, but one that had been fitted with ‘dummy’   warheads, effectively as a way of proving that the  system was operational without revealing its full   capacities.

It was on November 21 that the missile  was fired from the Kapustin Yar training ground,   striking a Pivdenmash plant in Dnipro.

Putin  called it a ‘live fire test’ of the new system,   while proudly proclaiming: “Modern air defense  systems that exist in the world and anti-missile   defenses created by the Americans in Europe  can’t intercept such missiles.

” In the aftermath,   analysts around the world assessed the  implications of this new weapon, fearful   for what it might mean for the future of Ukraine  and even for the integrity of the NATO alliance.

Maxim Starchak, an expert on Russian nuclear  policy and strategic weapons, wrote that the test   was “designed to show that Russia had bigger and  more powerful missiles” than everyone else: “Using   such an experimental weapon was not supposed to  undermine Ukraine’s military potential per se,   but to frighten Europeans into pressuring their  governments to cut a deal with the Kremlin.

” For   a time, it looked like Putin’s plan might prove  successful, as the wider world was quite shaken   by Oreshnik’s alleged capabilities.

But there  were still question marks and debates about how   effective it would actually be with real warheads.

Was it the game-changer the Kremlin claimed,   or was it, in fact, just another extremely  expensive but not all that effective missile? May   2026 provided the answer.

Before we look closer at  that, if this is the kind of insight you want more   of, make sure you’re subscribed to The Military  Show.

We break it down like this every week.

May   23 and 24 were tragic days for Ukraine.

Overnight  on Saturday and into the early hours of Sunday   morning, Russia’s massive missile and drone  strike rained down on the country’s capital,   Kyiv.

All of the capital’s districts were hit by  a mixture of Kh-101 cruise missiles, Iskander-Ms,   Kh-47M2 Kinzhals, and 3M22 Zircons.

Drones also  flooded Kyiv’s skies, including newer and faster   models that were more difficult for Ukraine’s  defenses to stop.

Even with the capital’s   complex and layered system, made up of interceptor  drones, electronic warfare systems, helicopters,   surface-to-air missiles, and mobile fire teams  armed with machine guns, the attack was simply   too large to cope with.

While Ukraine managed  to shoot down around 44 of the 54 Kh-101s and   a portion of the other missiles, too, along with  many of the drones, some still made it through,   colliding with residential homes and civilian  infrastructure, like the National Chornobyl   Museum.

At least four people were killed, with  around 100 more injured (initial nationwide   figures; the later confirmed Kyiv toll was  put at two killed and around 90 injured),   as buildings were reduced to rubble and vast fires  broke out across the capital region.

It was clear:   Russia was making a statement, snapping back at  the prevailing narrative that it was starting   to lose the war, with Keir Giles of Chatham  House saying: “Russia will have been dismayed   at the shift in global perception of the war over  recent weeks.

The inching back of the front line,   together with Ukraine’s deep strikes into  Russia, has shown many people the deep cracks   in Russia’s previous narrative that its victory  was inevitable.

” In the aftermath of the attack,   however, analysts noticed something very unusual.

Russia had indeed fired an Oreshnik missile the   night of May 23.

But it didn’t strike in the  heart of Kyiv.

It didn’t wipe out a major military   installation or site of strategic importance.

Instead, the Oreshnik targeted the much smaller   city of Bila Tserkva, an estimated 50 miles south  of Kyiv.

The obvious question then emerged: why?   Why would the Kremlin plan this massive attack on  the Ukrainian capital and decide to use its wonder   weapon, but not actually send the Oreshnik into  Kyiv itself, but towards some smaller city that   seems to be of no major importance whatsoever?  There are two obvious answers to that question.

The first is that perhaps there was some  sort of hugely important tactical target   in Bila Tserkva that Russia wanted to make sure it  destroyed, so it sent its lesser missiles to Kyiv   and saved the Oreshnik for this other location.

But that theory doesn’t hold water.

Because the
missile didn’t actually hit anything of note.

In  fact, according to open source intelligence that   analysts have assessed, all it really did was blow  up a few garages.

The other explanation, then, is   that Russia selected Bila Tserkva because it was  frightened of attacking Kyiv.

Why? Because Kyiv is   one of the most heavily defended cities in all of  Europe.

Many of Ukraine’s best air defense systems   are deployed there.

That includes everything from  AI-powered turrets to the legendary Lima EW system   that can disrupt drone and missile signals to  send them spiraling off course.

There are also   surface-to-air missile batteries here, along with  other defenses designed to limit the effectiveness   of Russia’s relentless attacks on the capital.

Russia knows all of this.

It knows that over 80%   of the drones and missiles it fires at Kyiv  are usually intercepted, one way or another,   and therefore go to waste.

And it’s likely that  the Kremlin didn’t want to run the risk of the   same thing happening to the Oreshnik.

It’s not  difficult to imagine how poor the optics would be   if the Russians decided to unleash this weapon,  which has so much hype and fear attached to it,   only to see it taken out in mid-air by a Ukrainian  or NATO interceptor.

That would completely shatter   the myth of the Oreshnik.

It would destroy  the massive fear factor that Russian officials   have built around this system.

So, the obvious  alternative solution is to pick a target that has   far fewer defenses, with a much smaller chance  of being able to intercept the wonder weapon.

A target like Bila Tserkva.

And so, once again,  we come to the real reason behind the missile’s   launch.

It was yet another piece of psychological  theater.

Russia wasn’t actually trying to take out   important targets.

It wanted the world to see  its missile in action; it wanted viral videos   to spread online, showing the multiple warheads  separating from the missile system and raining   down on this city.

In reality, however, the  Kremlin’s play has massively backfired.

Putin   wanted the world to see the full force of Russia’s  next-generation hypersonic missile system.

Instead, all they can see is a few burned-out  garages.

And all of a sudden, the Oreshnik looks   far less frightening than it did before.

Because  this attack underlines what many military experts   have been saying for years: that even though  this missile may be fast and look impressive at a   glance, it has one serious flaw – it’s inaccurate.

We don’t know what Russia was actually trying to   hit in Bila Tserkva.

The city does have a small  air base, used by the Ukrainian Air Force.

There’s   a larger Soviet-era airfield nearby, as well.

Some  experts believe that the missile was supposed to   strike an aviation repair facility.

Either way,  it missed.

These missiles are said to cost around   $50 million each.

$50 million is quite a high  price to pay to blow up a few Soviet-style garages   made of sheet metal and concrete blocks.

But  that’s what Russia did.

They wasted one of their   rarest and most valuable assets and got precisely  nothing in return except more embarrassment.

Even   if they’d taken out the repair plant, the strike  would still have made zero economic sense, and if   the Oreshnik is as inaccurate and unreliable as  it seems, it will almost never make any sense to   use this missile at all.

Because it will more than  likely miss whatever it’s aimed at and have almost
no notable effect on the war, whatsoever.

And the  story doesn’t end there.

It actually gets much   worse, at least from Russia’s perspective.

Because  here’s the part the Kremlin desperately doesn’t   want people to know: according to the Institute  for the Study of War and Ukrainian open-source   analysts, it may not have fired just one Oreshnik  on the night of May 23 to 24.

It may have fired   two.

(Important caveat for the team: Ukraine’s  Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat publicly stated   only one Oreshnik was launched and struck Bila  Tserkva.

The second-missile account rests on OSINT   video and is labeled “likely” / “if confirmed” by  ISW — it is not officially confirmed.

) Before the   strike in Bila Tserkva had even occurred,  Ukrainian monitoring channels reported   something unusual.

It seemed that a high-speed,  high-altitude ballistic missile had been launched   from inside Russian territory.

All the signs  were there: this was an Oreshnik missile,   and it was headed straight for Central Ukraine.

Analysts feared the worst, bracing for one of   the most devastating impacts of the war so  far.

But then, nothing happened.

The blip on   the radar disappeared.

It didn’t speed towards  Kyiv or the surrounding towns and cities.

It was   simply gone.

There were no videos, no images, no  reports from Ukrainian civilians online talking   about terrible waves of explosive warheads firing  from above.

A few hours later, the truth came out.

The first Oreshnik had crash landed somewhere in  the occupied Donetsk region – around the Avdiivka   or Yasynuvata (Yass-ee-noo-vah-tah) area, to be  precise.

Russian troops are actually stationed in   that area, and it’s possible that the missile may  have caused casualties among them.

We don’t know   exactly how the situation unfolded.

But there’s no  way that this was intentional.

Even though Russian   commanders tend to treat their troops like cannon  fodder, they wouldn’t go as far as launching a   hypersonic missile at their own men.

What seems to  have happened, instead, is that the first Oreshnik   suffered some sort of malfunction mid-flight.

Perhaps its guidance system wasn’t properly   calibrated, or one of its booster stages failed.

Either way, rather than speeding into Kyiv Oblast,   the weapon fell at the first hurdle, and we can  only imagine the level of panic and frustration   that must have spread among Kremlin officials in  the immediate aftermath.

Even Putin himself most   likely heard the news about this spectacular  failure.

It may even be that a second Oreshnik   launch wasn’t originally planned, but that the  order was quickly given as a desperate attempt   to cover up the mess of the first one.

This  could also explain why the second missile struck   a seemingly random town rather than anything of  any great importance – because the whole attack   had to be rushed, rather than planned out with  care and precision.

The long-term implications   of this failure are enormous and were discussed  in a recent report from the Institute for the   Study of War, which wrote: “Ukrainian open-source  intelligence (OSINT) sources reported May 25 that   footage from May 24 indicates that Russian forces  launched a second Oreshnik and that the missile   malfunctioned and struck a location in occupied  Donetsk Oblast… If confirmed, these reports would   indicate that one of every four Oreshniks that  Russian forces have used thus far in the war have   malfunctioned.

” Indeed, it’s worth noting that  along with the two missiles launched in late May,
plus the one from 2024, another Oreshnik was fired  in January of this year.

It reportedly struck the   Lviv State Aviation Repair Plant.

That makes a  grand total of four Oreshniks fired at Ukraine   so far, one of which didn’t even make it to the  target area, giving the missile an embarrassing   25% failure rate.

When we consider that the  Bila Tserkva missile only hit a few garages,   then that one can arguably be classed as a  failure, as well.

Now, if this were just some   cheap kamikaze drone or a relatively basic cruise  missile, a one in four chance of failure wouldn’t   necessarily be that serious.

Top military  forces wouldn’t exactly be happy about it,   but they might accept it as simply the ‘cost of  doing business.

’ But the Oreshnik isn’t a cheap   drone or basic missile.

It’s supposed to be a  generational weapon: an IRBM designed to carry   nuclear warheads – the ultimate deterrent, warding  off any military actions from NATO and Russia’s   other enemies.

How can you rely on a nuclear  missile if it’s got a decent chance of blowing up   in your face or landing a thousand miles away from  where you wanted it to? Short answer: you can’t.

If Vladimir Putin ever ordered a strategic nuclear  strike using the Oreshnik as it is today, he’d be   putting tens of millions of Russian lives at risk.

He’d have a 25% shot of nuking his own territory,   vaporizing his own infrastructure, and wiping  Russian cities off the map.

Because of this,   the Oreshnik cannot be classed as a deterrent.

It  can’t even be classed as a functional ballistic   missile.

It’s a little more than a liability.

A  hugely expensive and ridiculously hyped liability   that is fundamentally broken and may require  years of additional development to ever be   fixed.

Even then, if we judge based on the dozens  of other Russian military programs that started   off strong but ultimately fizzled out into  nothing, it’s likely that the Oreshnik will   never be able to do what Moscow wants it to do.

In one single night, Putin ruined the one thing   this weapon had going for it: its mystique.

The  world didn’t know exactly how good or bad it was,   but they knew that Russia had put a lot of work  into it, and that it had the potential to be   a game-changer.

That should have been enough for  Moscow.

It was so valuable for the Kremlin to have   the wider world fearful of a weapon that it hadn’t  even seen in action.

But in actually using it,   Russia basically let the world know that  there’s nothing to fear, after all.

And   even the country’s own nationalists, Putin  supporters, and military bloggers realized   this and have rightfully called the Kremlin out  for making such a stupid error.

Soon after images,   videos, and reports of the launch emerged, some  of Moscow’s best-known Z-bloggers shared their   thoughts online.

“Just expensive metal into the  ground!” raged one.

“Pathetic show-off nonsense,”   said another.

The weekend attack on Kyiv was  supposed to be a victorious moment for Russia.

It was supposed to be the country turning the  tide, flipping the script, and upending all   the ideas about it being on the ropes.

Instead,  much of the discussion online among the country’s   military experts focused on the Oreshnik and what  a ridiculous waste of money it seemed to be.

As   previously stated, Russia spent an estimated $400  million on the drones and missiles used in that   attack – $100 million of that was the cost of the  two Oreshniks.

One went nowhere and the other blew   up a few garages.

It’s no wonder the Z-bloggers  are enraged.

Their country’s economy is spiraling,   and their military leaders think it makes sense to  throw tens of millions of dollars literally away   for nothing.

On the broader stage, too, Putin may  have hoped that his use of the Oreshnik would send   a shiver down the spines of NATO and European  leaders.

That didn’t happen, either.

Instead,   European leaders like French President Emmanuel  Macron condemned the Kremlin’s decision.

Kaja Kallas, meanwhile, the EU High Representative  for Foreign Affairs (and a Vice-President of the   European Commission), saw right through the  attack, calling it “a political scare-tactic   and reckless nuclear brinkmanship” and noting  that Russia had turned to such strikes after   reaching a dead end on the battlefield.

Kallas  went on to say the Kremlin was only concerned   with killing as many civilians as possible, and  announced that EU foreign ministers would meet   to discuss increasing international pressure on  Russia in response.

And, rather than backing down,   the Commission VP went on to note that European  leaders will soon discuss ways to increase   international pressure on Russia in response.

Antonio Costa, President of the European Council,   also condemned the attack, calling it a “merciless  display of brutality directed against civilians   and civilian infrastructure,” and “a stark  reminder that Russia is not interested in   meaningful peace negotiations.

” Like Kallas,  Costa affirmed that Europe remained “firm and   unwavering” in its support of Ukraine and would  not play along with Putin’s games.

Because the   days of Russia terrorizing the world are over.

After more than four years of failure in Ukraine,   after countless lies, broken promises, and empty  threats, nobody believes a word that comes out   of the Kremlin anymore, nor are they afraid of it.

Partly, this is because of Ukraine and its amazing   displays of resilience and bravery in defying the  odds and defending its territory.

But it’s also   partly the consequence of Putin’s own hubris and  foolishness.

After spending decades building his   own strongman reputation and establishing  his country as some sort of all-powerful,   all-conquering force, the Russian president  has subsequently set his own Empire ablaze,   making one monumental mistake after another that  have all served not to intimidate his enemies,   but to highlight his own insecurities.

Ukraine,  meanwhile, is quietly getting on with business and
making some major breakthroughs in the areas that  matter most, undoing Russia’s advances and clawing   back lost land.

In Crimea, for example, Ukrainian  forces are successfully isolating the region,   severing the supply lines that Russia has  relied on for years and paving the way for   potential liberation, which you can learn  more about in this video.

Alternatively,   you might like to watch this video to see  how Ukraine orchestrated another devastating   drone strike on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, dealing  massive damage to one of Putin’s finest warships.