While 690 Russian munitions launched on the night of May 24 targeted civilian infrastructure, Ukraine’s surgical retaliation CUT OFF Russia’s military and logistical lifelines. While the billion dollar Oreshnik missiles created a cheap drone effect, the Kremlin’s illusion of invincibility suffered a complete COLLAPSE. Russia burned its own cities, while Ukraine brought down the war machine from within.
The Oreshnik Illusion and Shattered Resistance
Putin took a huge gamble. On the night of May 23–24, Russia launched one of the war’s largest combined attacks, unleashing 90 missiles and 600 unmanned aerial vehicles onto Ukrainian cities. Iskander, Kinzhal, Zircon, and the Kremlin’s so-called “miracle weapon” the Oreshnik hypersonic missiles struck civilian settlements, schools, and water facilities. However, military analyses from the field and crater measurements by Defense Express revealed the grim reality behind this massive display. The total impact of the Oreshnik strikes was equivalent to just 36 Shahed drones.
Billions of dollars in technology produced an effect on the ground worth only a few hundred dollars. Russia’s failure to achieve any military gains despite expending 690 munitions proved the regime’s strategic bankruptcy. No front lines shifted on the Ukrainian front, and no logistical lifelines were severed. The Oreshnik myth was DESTROYED amidst the rubble of civilian apartment buildings.
Surgical Retaliation: Strangulation of Russian Logistics
As Russia set cities ablaze, the Ukrainian military began dismantling the Russian war machine with unprecedented surgical precision. The wave of retaliation reached critical targets in Kursk, Belgorod, and Bryansk within hours. Ukraine locked M142 HIMARS rockets onto the training ground of the Akhmat special battalion in Kursk. High-precision guided rockets “wiped out” (erased) the training grounds and elite units that Russia had deemed a “safe zone” in a matter of seconds.
That same night, drones affiliated with the Alpha Special Operations Center severed Moscow’s main artery. The strike on the Vtorovo linear production and distribution station in the Vladimir region severed the lifeline pumping diesel to Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo, and Vnukovo airports. This logistical chokepoint behind the front lines spread to the southwestern front following the destruction of the Belets fuel depot in Bryansk. The Russian military’s capacity to deliver ammunition and fuel to the front lines has been HALTED.
Technology Asymmetry and the Blinded Bear
Air defense networks are an army’s shield in the sky. However, Ukraine has systematically turned Russian air defenses into Swiss cheese through a targeted campaign. Over 40 Russian air defense systems were destroyed in the first months of 2026 alone. The targets were not random; the systems were rendered blind by targeting the S-400’s 92N6A tracking radar and the S-350’s 50N6E multifunctional radar. Missiles worth millions of dollars turned into piles of metal because they could not see their targets.
Meanwhile, an FPV drone assembly workshop set up in an old factory in the town of Tyotkino was DEVASTATED by an AASM Hammer bomb fired from a MiG-29MU1 fighter jet. Ukraine blew up the production line that Russia was trying to rebuild, along with the missiles, in a single strike.
The Belgorod Blackout and Chaos on the Home Front
The psychological threshold of the war was crossed in Belgorod, located just 30 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. This region, which serves as the main logistical backbone for the Kupyansk and Lyman fronts, was plunged into total darkness by strikes on its energy infrastructure. Power and water outages did not merely paralyze the civilian population of 384,000; they also SHUT DOWN the radars and communication networks of military bases. Russian forces found themselves unable to defend the very territories they were using to attack Ukraine.
This wave of collapse reached Moscow directly. The Kremlin, which had declared it would capture Kyiv, decided in July to close its own capital’s airspace to civilian flights up to 5,100 meters. All of this reflects a state of PANIC.
Conclusion: Structural Collapse of the System
The brutal mathematics of war exposed the chasm between the two doctrines. While Russia expended 690 munitions to burn civilian areas, Ukraine severed drone production lines with surgical strikes, blew up fuel arteries, and leveled training grounds.
Despite billions of dollars in dual-use components provided by China and munitions from North Korea, the Kremlin has weakened to the point where it cannot protect its own airspace. Russia’s strategic safeguard is GONE. Despite the military buildup at the front, an army with severed internal logistics lines now races against time to maintain its offensive capacity.
