Ukraine’s secretive **Operation Ashan** may have been even more devastating than the famous **Operation Spiderweb**. Newly revealed details suggest Ukraine used advanced reconnaissance, AI-enabled drones, and precision strikes to destroy over **1,000 Russian artillery systems and armored vehicles**, crippling Russia’s ability to launch mechanized offensives. Discover how this covert two-phase campaign reshaped the battlefield, showcased Ukraine’s growing drone advantage, and changed the course of the war. Watch now for the full story behind Operation Ashan.
⏱️ CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Ukraine Operation Ashan Destroys 1000 Russian Vehicles
02:02 - Russia Mechanized Offensive Stopped By 800 Drone Strikes
05:08 - New Ukraine Drone Destroys 250 Russian Artillery Units
08:57 - Russian Artillery Strategy Fails After 34000 Total Losses
13:35 - Is Ukraine Drone Advantage Too Advanced For Russia?
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SOURCES: https://pastebin.com/1dF3npmG
⏱️ CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Ukraine Operation Ashan Destroys 1000 Russian Vehicles
02:02 - Russia Mechanized Offensive Stopped By 800 Drone Strikes
05:08 - New Ukraine Drone Destroys 250 Russian Artillery Units
08:57 - Russian Artillery Strategy Fails After 34000 Total Losses
13:35 - Is Ukraine Drone Advantage Too Advanced For 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/1dF3npmG
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NewsTranscript
00:00In the summer of 2025, Ukraine launched Operation Spiderweb. The remarkable drone strikes that
00:06resulted shook Russia to its core and showcased that the war that Russia started with Ukraine
00:11was coming home to roost. What we didn't know at the time was that Operation Spiderweb was just
00:17the start. Something much bigger was coming. In fact, it happened both before and after
00:23Operation Spiderweb, only Ukraine kept it all hush-hush. Ukraine activated a top-secret
00:29operation, a Spiderweb 2.0 that left Russia's equipment all over Ukraine burning as the
00:35rage of Ukraine's machines hit hard. Now we have all of the details. We'll start with the
00:40headline statistic. Over 1,000 Russian artillery systems and armored vehicles have been destroyed
00:46in a secret operation that Ukraine has named Operation Ashan. This two-phase campaign has
00:52completely devastated Russia, both on the front lines and in the rear, and nobody even knew that
00:58it was happening until Ukraine's Defense Minister Mikhailo Fedorov revealed its existence during
01:03the June 30th Brave One Advantage event. The concept was to use specially developed bomber
01:09drones supported by effective reconnaissance. This allowed us to locate and strike tanks,
01:14armored personnel carriers, other armored vehicles, and artillery. In just a few nights, more than
01:19800 pieces of enemy equipment were destroyed. After that, the Russians did not carry out a single
01:24mechanized offensive for six months, Fedorov declared when speaking of a campaign that saw
01:29Ukraine take repeated aim at Russian assets located over 50 kilometers beyond the front lines.
01:35This is insane. So much of the focus of Ukraine's mid-range strike campaign has been placed on the
01:40havoc that it has wreaked on Russian logistics, along with the isolation of Crimea that's resulting.
01:45But while all of this has been happening, Ukraine has been running a separate operation,
01:49right under our noses, that may well be just as devastating to Putin's ambitions as the logistical
01:55lockdown that is loosening his grip over Crimea. Here's what we know so far.
02:00Operation Ashan was a two-phase operation, with the first phase covering what Fedorov details in his
02:06quote. That phase was sparked by Ukraine's drone innovations. Special drones have been developed,
02:11Ukraine's Defense Minister claims, and they, along with Ukraine's reconnaissance and intelligence
02:16gathering, made it possible to strike more than 800 targets. This was an operation that was weeks,
02:21if not months, in the making, and it was all made possible by Ukraine's brilliant Delta system.
02:27That system, which was deployed across all levels of Ukraine's defense forces back in August 2025,
02:32provides Ukraine with real-time battlefield awareness. Whenever a drone records footage or
02:37takes photographs of a Russian position, that data is uploaded to Delta. The same goes for reports
02:43from troops on the ground or any other information that is gathered by Ukraine. It all goes into this
02:48centralized repository, making possible the sorts of coordinated strikes that were key to the success
02:53of Operation Ashan. During the first phase, Ukraine mapped out the positions of Russian tanks,
02:59artillery, armored vehicles, and personnel carriers. Then Ukraine struck. The 800 or so artillery units
03:05and armored vehicles that Ukraine destroyed were all taken out over the course of a handful of nights,
03:09Fedorov reports. And they led to Russia being unable to launch a single mechanized offensive for the
03:15six months that followed. Ukraine's defense minister says that the impact on the battlefield was clear.
03:20Russia had intended to launch a mechanized assault against Ukraine in May 2025, he claims.
03:26That assault wasn't carried out until October, and it's all due to the first phase of Operation Ashan.
03:32This casts a whole new light on what we saw during the summer and early fall of 2025.
03:36You may remember that reports dating back as far as September were claiming that Russia was unable
03:41to launch mechanized assaults. Russia switched to an infiltration strategy during the latter half of
03:462025, with which it was sneaking units with as few as two soldiers into Ukrainian territory rather than
03:52launching armored assaults. At the time, this was seen as a dangerous new strategy being carried out
03:57by Russia. Now we know the truth. The initial phase of Operation Ashan had left Putin with no choice
04:03but to rely on the infiltrators. United24 media provides a little more information about the
04:09first phase. It says that the operation actually wound up with Ukraine having struck 949 targets,
04:15all located more than 50 kilometers beyond the front lines. It seems at the 800 or so that Fedorov
04:21claims were the assets that Ukraine destroyed, leaving about 150 targets that were hit without
04:26being taken out. Thanks to United24 media, we also know that Ukraine's Lazar and Nemesis units were
04:32involved in the operation. Both are among the most skilled and notorious of all Ukraine's drone units.
04:38The Lazar Group in particular has helped to lay the foundations for Ukraine's drone-heavy strategy
04:43from the very beginning of Putin's invasion and is responsible for destroying more than $13 billion
04:50worth of Russian equipment. The man behind it, Colonel Pavlo Yelizarov, is now Ukraine's Deputy Air Force
04:57Command and is spearheading the development of Ukraine's anti-drone shield, which it hopes will
05:02protect against Russia's long-range drone strikes. But by now you may be wondering something. At the
05:07start of the video, we told you that Ukraine had destroyed more than 1,000 armored vehicles and
05:12artillery systems. But so far, we've repeated the number 800. Even the 949 targets that United24 media
05:19claims don't quite measure up. Welcome to phase two of Operation Ashan. The exclamation point on a
05:25devastating assault against Russia's offensive power that bumped the numbers up to quadruple digits.
05:30The first phase of Ukraine's devastating operation appears to have been carried out at some point
05:35during the first half of 2025, though Fedorov provides no specifics beyond noting that it impacted
05:41Russia's plans for May 2025. But we know a lot more about the second phase, starting with when it began.
05:47June 2026 was when Ukraine launched phase two of Operation Ashan, and this time it took a more
05:54strategic approach to the targets that it picked off. United24 media reports that Ukraine focused the
06:00second phase on artillery systems, and it attacked in four key regions of Ukraine, all of which are
06:06dealing with Russia's attempts to advance on the ground. Those regions were Donetsk, Kasson, Starobilsk,
06:12and Zaporizhia, and all Russian positions in those regions experienced a firestorm of Ukrainian drones
06:18that had the singular purpose of taking out as much artillery as possible. They were successful.
06:25By the end of phase two of Operation Ashan, Ukraine had hit another 231 targets, and confirmed 171 of
06:32those targets were destroyed. A combination of intercepted Russian communications and objective
06:37control footage that was inevitably uploaded onto Delta confirmed the outcome. And within the first
06:43day of phase two, the impact was already being felt. Russian activity across multiple regions on the front
06:49dropped by anywhere between 30 and 81 percent, depending on where Ukraine was measuring. By the end of
06:56Operation Ashan, Ukraine had officially hit 1,180 targets, most of which had been destroyed, United24 media
07:03ads. So much of what Ukraine has done to defend itself against Russia has been impressive. However,
07:10Operation Ashan has to rank among the most impressive operations that Ukraine had launched yet,
07:14and it sits alongside Operation Spiderweb in terms of the coordination and quality of command that was
07:20required to pull it off. Sure, Spiderweb may be the more headline-grabbing of the two, especially as it
07:25involved Ukraine sneaking drones into Russia and taking out some of the most important strategic bombers in
07:30Russia's arsenal. But when it comes to frontline effectiveness, Operation Ashan has had far more
07:36immediate impact on Ukraine's campaign. But we'll get to that. There's something else about
07:41Operation Ashan that we haven't mentioned yet. According to Fedorov, the second phase of the
07:45operation saw Ukraine unleash a new type of drone that it designed specifically to destroy Russian
07:50artillery barrels. That's according to a June 17th report by United24 media, which quoted Fedorov.
07:57Ukraine's defense minister revealed little about the new type of drone, though he did point out that
08:01disabling Russian artillery using standard drone drops is extremely difficult, and often not as
08:07effective as Ukraine needs it to be. Artillery damaged in such a fashion can often be repaired,
08:12Fedorov says, making any benefits from such drone strikes temporary.
08:16To overcome this problem, Ukraine's engineers came up with a new type of munition for Operation
08:21Ashan that not only targets a Russian artillery barrel, but is powerful enough to rupture the
08:26barrel to the point where the artillery unit can never be used again. A special shell was developed,
08:32and after just two nights, 250 units of Russian artillery were destroyed. There is video confirmation
08:38for each case, is all Fedorov would say. Beyond that, we don't know much about Ukraine's barrel shredder,
08:44and that's probably for the best. The less that Ukraine says about its new munition,
08:48the higher the likelihood that it will be able to execute another phase of Operation Ashan in the
08:53future without Russia being able to do a thing about it. And that brings us to the big question,
08:58why does Operation Ashan matter? We'll be answering that question in a moment. Before we do,
09:03this is a quick reminder that you are watching The Military Show. If you're getting insight from our
09:07channel, then hit subscribe and ring the notification bell to ensure that you see more of our videos when
09:12they're published. We know what Operation Ashan wasn't. Fedorov says that this two-phase,
09:19multi-year operation was never about Ukraine going on the offensive. Rather, it was about stopping
09:24Russian offensives in their tracks. Ukraine used over 1,000 drones during three days of attacks in
09:30the initial phase, and it would have used hundreds more in the following one, all to prevent Russia
09:35from conducting assaults with anywhere near the ferocity that it would have been able to muster
09:39without this operation. Have any of the counter-offensives that we've seen Ukraine launch
09:44in 2026 been aided by Operation Ashan and its weakening of Russia's forces? Perhaps, but that
09:50was never the intention. The main intention was what we just mentioned, making sure that Russia couldn't
09:55hit Ukraine's cities and defenses as hard as it wanted. Each target means less fire on Ukrainian
10:00positions in cities, Ukraine's military says, adding, each such operation weakens the enemy
10:05and brings closer the moment when it loses the ability to impose its terms on the battlefield.
10:10In other words, this was about survivability across both phases. Russia certainly isn't slowing down
10:16with its ground assaults, even in the wake of the second phase of Operation Ashan. As Pravda reported on
10:21July 1st, the previous 24 hours had seen Russia and Ukraine engage in 256 clashes across the front,
10:28with the most intensive of those fights taking place in the Pokrovsk and Slovyansk sectors,
10:33both of which are in the Donetsk region that Ukraine targeted in the second phase.
10:37It's in this high number of clashes that we see the real point of Operation Ashan.
10:42Putin would order all of these assaults regardless. It doesn't matter if his soldiers have armor and
10:47artillery or not, but to Ukraine it means everything because of how Russia conducts ground warfare.
10:53Artillery in particular is central to the Russian way of war. A lot has been said about the
10:57relentless missile and drone assaults that Russia conducts against Ukraine, but when it comes to
11:02Russia making actual advances on the ground, artillery is key. Russia also uses artillery
11:08differently from Western forces, the Royal United Services Institute points out. Where Western armies
11:14typically use artillery to help them maneuver, Russian forces typically conduct maneuvers so that
11:19they can get into position to bombard defenses with artillery. This fundamental difference in approach
11:24is vital for Ukraine to counter. To Russia, artillery is the main form of firepower that its forces
11:30can bring to the table in close battles over territory. All of Russia's combined armed elements
11:36are organized around artillery units that are positioned to unleash constant fire against Ukraine's defenses.
11:42Typically, those artillery units will go to the front to offer their firepower during assaults
11:46and will then withdraw to what's supposed to be safe territory. Ukraine knows this.
11:51And both phases of Operation Arshan were designed to counter this Russian approach.
11:56When Ukraine's military talks about absorbing less fire from Russian artillery, that has been made
12:01possible by the wholesale destruction of that artillery during Operation Arshan. For Russia,
12:07this means assaults aren't conducted in the way that its entire military is trained to conduct.
12:12Artillery can't be used to provide sustained fire because it doesn't exist to be moved into position in
12:17the first place. That leaves assault units to attack much stronger Ukrainian defenses, which are also
12:23lethal due to the swarms of drones ahead of them. And remember, Ukraine also used its brilliant operation
12:28to cripple hundreds of armored vehicles. That leaves Russia's assault forces unprotected and forced to
12:33attack without the backdrop of artillery fire that is supposed to weaken Ukraine's defenses before
12:38Russian troops ever reach them. The result is inevitable. Russian soldiers die on a scale they otherwise
12:44wouldn't. And Ukraine's defenses hold up much longer because they don't have to sustain the
12:49pressure that Russia's artillery-based strategy is supposed to provide. And as a nice little coda
12:54to this aspect of Operation Arshan, Russia's artillery losses across the entire war are so vast,
12:59with up to 34,000 units having been lost, that it's having to come up with new assault tactics on
13:04the fly.
13:05Russia is now being forced to use drones where it would otherwise have used artillery. Using FPV drones
13:10isn't new to Russia, of course. But previously even those drones acted in a supporting role to artillery.
13:16Now they have to take center stage. That could cause problems for Ukraine in the future. As Russia
13:21wraps up its drone production, particularly of the heavy bomber drones that are closest to artillery
13:25shells in terms of firepower, it will gain precision that artillery couldn't offer. However, Ukraine is
13:31a long way ahead of Russia when it comes to drones. And that brings us to the second reason why
13:35Operation Arshan is so important. It highlights just how deep Ukraine's drone advantage is and has
13:42been for so much of the war. Practically every target that Ukraine hit during Operation Arshan was
13:47struck by a Ukrainian drone, showcasing how far ahead Ukraine is off Russia when it comes to using
13:52its drones for precision strikes. Russia is only just starting to do the same on the front lines now,
13:57and that's only after Ukraine has caused so much damage to its artillery-based strategy. But Russia has
14:03a long way to go before it can catch up to Ukraine. Ukraine leads when it comes to numbers and
14:08tech.
14:09On June 11th, the commander-in-chief of Ukraine's armed forces, Alexander Siersky,
14:13revealed that Ukraine struck almost 180,000 military targets in May, most of which were hit by drones.
14:20Ukrainian FPV drones now outnumber Russian FPV drones by 1.5 to 1 on the battlefield, and that gap is
14:26only getting wider. The emergence of Ukraine's mid-range strike drones also means that any future
14:32phases of Operation Arshan will see Ukraine striking deeper than ever before. The first two phases saw
14:38Ukraine hit targets over 50 kilometers away from the front. Now Ukraine's mid-strike drones can travel
14:44200 kilometers or more. They're already doing that to shatter Russian logistics in the rear. If Russia
14:50has a mind to withdraw its artillery to this sort of distance, it still won't be safe. And that's the
14:55point. Artillery is already useless at 50 kilometers, never mind 200. As Ukraine's drone advantage grows,
15:02Russia has to push its artillery even further back, rendering it a non-factor.
15:06Sticking with drones, Ukraine is also a long way ahead of Russia when it comes to drone technology
15:11and tactics. While Russia is struggling to adopt Ukraine's approach now that it's lost so much
15:15artillery, Ukraine is already using drone interceptors to destroy Russian Shahid-types before
15:20they're able to crash down into cities. Many of the drones that Ukraine unleashes on the front and in
15:25the mid-range now use AI to travel and automatically identify targets. That capability often takes
15:32satellite navigation out of the equation, which also means that Russian electronic warfare systems
15:37have no signals to jab. Russia claims that it's using AI for similar purposes. Ukraine's results are
15:43far more obvious, suggesting that Russia is puffing up its AI capabilities in the face of Ukraine's drones
15:49performing much better. What Operation Ashan shows us is the true gulf in class that exists on the
15:55drone front. As Ukraine continues to innovate, it's likely we'll see a third phase, likely as unannounced
16:01as the first two, that Russia won't be able to stop either. Who knows? The scope of the next phase
16:07could
16:07be extended to Russia's drone operation facilities, thus counteracting Russia's adaptation to its artillery
16:12problems. What's clear is that drones have been key to Ukraine reversing the momentum of the war.
16:18Operation Ashan now stands as one of the purest showcases of how that momentum shift has been
16:23achieved. Russia knows that more is coming. On June 25th, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky
16:29announced that he had approved a new 40-day strategic initiative that will be carried out by the
16:34Security Service of Ukraine. The goal of this initiative is to pressure Russia into giving up
16:39its war, and it seems likely that pressure will come from more middle and deep strikes.
16:43With the artillery down, Ukraine is now targeting Russian infrastructure and logistics more
16:47frequently. Will a third phase of Operation Ashan happen during these 40 days of pressure?
16:53Zelensky isn't saying, and Russia won't know until it's happening.
16:56What we do know for sure is that Ukraine raged against Russia's machines with machines of its own
17:01in this secret operation. And now, so much of what's been happening in Ukraine since mid-2025 makes a lot
17:07more sense. The drone strike numbers for 2026 alone show how much the momentum shift that
17:12Operation Ashan helped to create is affecting Russia. 800,000 verified targets hit and continue.
17:19That's what Ukraine has to show for the first half of 2026, and it's all due to the drone
17:24advantage we talked about. You can dig a lot deeper into that advantage if you watch our video. And if
17:29you
17:29enjoyed this video, make sure that you subscribe to The Military Show and hit the notification bell
17:33so that you're among the first to know when we publish a new video. And thank you for watching.
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