Russia’s lifeblood is burning. Ukraine has done  something that is brutally wiping out $100 million  

of Russia’s money every 24 hours. Ukraine has  ignited the flame. Hell has descended upon the one  

industry that is keeping Russia alive in Putin’s  insane war. And if Ukraine can keep this up, it  

won’t be a matter of how many years Putin can fund  his invasion. It will be about how many months.  

The commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems  Forces, the infamous Robert Brovdi, explains  

all in an April 18 Telegram post. “$100 million  in daily losses: the result of strikes by the  

Unmanned Systems Forces and other components of  the Defence Forces of Ukraine on the enemy’s oil  

infrastructure,” Brovdi blares, as he goes on to  explain that Ukraine’s approach of systematically  

striking every aspect of Russia’s oil industry,  from refineries to depots to export terminals,  

is crippling Putin’s ability to keep cash flowing  into the Kremlin’s war coffers. A series of  

Ukrainian strikes conducted over the last couple  of months has forced Russia’s oil shipments down  

by a staggering amount. Exports are down 880,000  barrels per day. At the current market price for  

Urals crude, that adds up to the $100 million in  lost revenue that Brovdi mentions. “Step by step,  

the enemy’s oil and logistics system is losing  its ability to ensure uninterrupted exports,”  

Brovdi says, adding, “The result of this  work is already visible on the battlefield:  

fewer resources for the Russians mean greater  opportunities for Ukraine's units.” Russia is  

getting desperate now that so much of its oil is  burning. The Kremlin is trying to reroute the oil  

that Russia wants to sell, bouncing it around the  country in a desperate search for export terminals  

that are outside of the range of Ukraine’s drones  or aren’t already burning due to those drones  

scoring direct hits. This alone affects Russia’s  oil income. Even if Russia is able to find ports  

that Ukraine hasn’t hit, it spends days, if not  weeks, moving oil to them. Delays are happening  

across the border, with each Ukrainian strike  adding to the time that Russian oil that should be  

en route to other countries spends within Russia’s  borders. Buyers are getting impatient. The  

Russians can’t do anything about it. What we’re  seeing here is the result of Ukraine doggedly  

smashing through Russia’s oil industry for around  two months. In its report on Brovdi’s statement,  

Euromaidan Press reports on the Tuapse oil  refinery, which Ukraine struck on April 16,  

causing an enormous fire. But that is just the tip  of the iceberg that runs deep. In Novorossiysk,  

Ukraine hit the Sheskharis oil terminal,  which forced Russia to try to reroute its  

oil to Tuapse. You just found out what happened  there. Every time Russia tries to make a move,  

Ukraine follows up with yet more drone strikes  that take out the next place that Russia wants  

to use to export its oil. This is brilliant  by Ukraine. A step-by-step demonstration of  

how to shatter the one industry that keeps  Russia’s war alive. Going back a few weeks,  

Ukraine has been hitting a ton of other ports and  oil facilities. By March 31, the BBC was reporting  

on day after day of Ukrainian strikes against  Russia’s Baltic Sea oil terminals. Primorsk and  

Ust-Luga, which account for a combined total of  42% of Russia’s oil exports, were hit over and  

over again in late March as Ukraine made sure that  Russia couldn’t get these key ports back online.  

Some facilities in these ports burned for days,  only for Russia to have to deal with yet more  

drones attacking targets once they had managed  to put the fires out. Oil storage tanks were  

also burned up during these earlier attacks – at  least eight each in Ust-Luga and Primorsk, along  

with two at the Kirishi oil refinery that is also  in the Leningrad region. Russia thought this was  

the bulk of Ukraine’s oil strikes for early 2026.  But Ukraine was just getting started. Ever since  

the Baltic Sea depots started to burn, Ukraine  has been expanding its scope. The Tuapse and  

Novorossiysk strikes that we’ve already mentioned  are examples, and both came after the Baltic Sea  

strikes. The latter also just so happened to take  out oil infrastructure in the Black Sea region,  

meaning Russia can’t get its oil out from any  of its European ports. Fast-forward to April 18,  

which is the same day that Brovdi revealed  the $100 million per day figure, and there are  

yet more attacks. Four important oil sites were  hit overnight on April 18, The Kyiv Independent  

reports. Among them were yet another oil terminal  in the Leningrad Oblast, refineries in Samara  

Oblast, and the Tikhoretsk oil pumping station,  which is in Russia’s Krasnodar Krai region. All  

Russia would say is that it intercepted 258  Ukrainian drones on April 18. The truth is  

that Ukrainian drones have shattered yet more of  Russia’s oil. And adding to all of this is another  

strike that was reported literally as we were  creating this video. Tuapse was hit again on April  

20, with Ukraine this time striking facilities  at the Tuapse port that started a major fire  

at a facility that had already needed to call on  more than 150 firefighters and emergency personnel  

to handle the blaze caused by the first Tuapse  strike that we mentioned. Over and over again,  

Ukraine’s drones batter Russian oil. This is  Ukraine’s flying sanctions in action. And there  

is nothing at all random about the timing of these  strikes. When the U.S. launched Operation Epic  

Fury against Iran in late February, Iran responded  by closing off the Strait of Hormuz. Putin rubbed  

his hands in glee. That strait is responsible for  20% of the entire world’s oil flow. For Putin,  

less oil leaving the Gulf states would inevitably  lead to a price shock that would benefit Russia,  

which is precisely what we’ve seen. By April 7,  the price of Urals crude, which is Russia’s brand  

of oil, had risen to the highest that it has been  in 13 years. In a matter of days, all of the hard  

work done by Western sanctions to drive the price  of Russian oil down was undone. To make matters  

worse, the U.S. has made some decisions about  its sanctions that have angered Ukraine. American  

sanctions against Russian oil have been lifted  twice now, most recently on April 17, which means  

Russia will benefit from another 30 days of being  able to offload its oil before America’s sanctions  

come back into effect. There is a certain logic to  this U.S. move. Allowing Russia to sell eases some  

of the price shocks caused by America’s attacks  on Iran and the Strait of Hormuz blockade that  

resulted. But for Ukraine, this would have felt  like the U.S. handing the keys to an oil lifeline  

back to Russia at the worst possible moment. So,  Ukraine has been doing something about it. If  

Russia is going to benefit from sanctions being  lifted on its oil, Ukraine will keep on hitting  

that oil. After all, sanctions don’t matter if  Russia has no oil to sell. And with $100 million  

per day being burned up by Ukraine’s drones,  which amounts to about $3 billion per month,  

Ukraine is proving that it can take the Russian  oil problem into its own hands. Western sanctions  

be damned. Ukrainian flying sanctions will cripple  the Russian economy instead. The sheer level of  

coordination displayed by Ukraine’s military has  been a highlight in all of this. The Security  

Service of Ukraine has been working alongside the  country’s Main Intelligence Directorate, Special  

Operations Forces, and Unmanned Systems Forces to  pull off a broad campaign that has left nothing  

in Russia that is within range of Ukraine’s  drones safe. The timing has been impeccable.  

Every solution that Russia thinks it has found  ends up burning almost instantly. And this is  

where things will start to shift for Russia.  The burning oil and collapsing exports are bad  

enough. But the real problem is that Russia simply  can’t afford to be losing out on $100 million per  

day. Putin was expecting a tax windfall on higher  Russian oil profits than ever before, and he needs  

that because Russia is slipping into an economic  crisis. That alone changes everything for Russia.  

But before we get into that, this is a quick  reminder that you’re watching The Military Show.  

If this is the sort of insight that you crave,  make sure you’re subscribed to the channel. Russia  

is caught in an economic trap. An inescapable maze  of financial foul-ups that have all been caused  

by Putin’s tunnel vision in Ukraine. If Russia’s  president had his way, every single dollar in tax  

revenue that Russia generates would be dedicated  to Ukraine. As it stands, almost every dollar is  

going to the war, which has forced Russia into an  ouroboros of bad financial decisions. The cycle is  

simple – Russia gets money, it spends it on war  equipment, that equipment gets destroyed, Russia  

achieves no returns on its investment, and then  more gets pumped into the war machine. Eventually,  

something has to give. The money can’t keep  on flowing forever. Russia’s military spending  

has grown so massive that it is siphoning away  funds that are supposed to be keeping the country  

itself running. The official figures coming out of  Russia are bad enough. According to the Stockholm  

International Peace Research Institute, Russia  spent 7.5% of its gross domestic product, or GDP,  

on the Ukraine war effort in 2025. That amounted  to 16 trillion rubles, or about $213 billion.  

Spending for 2026 is supposed to be lower. “Just”  6.3% of Russia’s GDP, or around $198 billion,  

will be spent on the war machine this year.  But that is still a ridiculous amount of money  

as Putin’s invasion enters its fifth year, and  it tells us that Russia will likely have spent  

in excess of $1 trillion on Putin’s war by the  end of 2026. And that’s the best-case scenario.  

These official figures are what Russia is willing  to tell us about its military spending. The  

reality going on behind the scenes is much worse.  In February, Defence24 reported that the German  

Federal Intelligence Service, or BND, has found  that Russia’s actual military expenditures are far  

higher than the country is declaring to the world  or its own people. The reality, the BND says,  

is that Russia’s spending might have been up to  66% higher than it was declaring. For instance,  

2025 may have seen Russia allocate 10% of its  GDP to its military, rather than the 7.5% that  

has been accounted for by official spending. This  all means that Russia could be spending as much  

as 50% of the country’s entire state budget on  Putin’s insane vision for a world where Ukraine  

is part of the Russian Federation. How can Putin  possibly see this as sustainable? Even if Russia  

were to somehow win in Ukraine, there would be  nothing left of Russia for Ukraine to become a  

part of. As for where these hidden military costs  lie, there are several expenditures that Russia  

tries to sweep under the rug. A huge amount of the  massive bonuses that Russia pays to its volunteer  

soldiers just for signing up are rarely declared,  as they come out of regional budgets and aren’t  

officially part of the salaries that Russian  soldiers receive. Russia is also relying very  

heavily on off-budget debt that was made possible  by legislation that the Kremlin put in place back  

in February 2022. War-related lending at Russia’s  major banks is now being controlled by the state,  

which allows the Kremlin to provide favorable  loans to businesses that it believes will help  

the war effort. So, if you’re an entrepreneur  in Russia who is looking to set up a factory  

for manufacturing military equipment, you’re going  to find it much easier to get your hands on a loan  

to create that factory. This is war spending that  is being hidden away from the public. At least,  

for now. Keep Russia’s banks in mind, because  they’re at the root of an economic catastrophe  

that is starting to engulf Russia. All of this  brings us back to Ukraine taking out $100 million  

per day of Russian oil sales. Oil underpins  Russia’s war spending. Official or otherwise,  

a huge portion of the hundreds of billions that  Putin is pouring into his invasion comes from  

the revenue that the Kremlin receives through  taxing oil sales. What Putin has done is create  

a military economy that can only exist as long  as money from Russia’s energy sector is flowing  

in. That’s the trap. And Ukraine knows it. The  combination of lower energy revenues and record  

levels of military spending is putting Russia,  as a nation, on the brink of ruin. Stagflation  

runs rampant in a country that has an increasingly  impoverished population. And there’s no way back  

for Russia for as long as the Ukraine war is  happening because Putin needs to keep spending  

on the war machine. All of the money poured into  that machine is creating unproductive output. As  

we said before, the tanks that Russia builds get  blown up in Ukraine. That’s not going to benefit  

anybody inside Russia. Businesses that make  products that Russia could sell aren’t getting the  

funding that they need to grow. State-controlled  banks that favor war-related companies make sure  

of that. Outside of oil, Russia doesn’t really  have a product that it can export anymore. Even  

the weapons that used to bring billions into the  economy are being burned up in Ukraine rather than  

sold to other countries. Sure, you could argue  that Russia’s weapons industry will be revitalized  

when the Ukraine war ends. The equipment currently  being built to be sent to Ukraine could then be  

sold to other countries. But is anybody going  to want to buy Russia’s weapons at this point?  

Over four years of fighting against a country that  Russia was supposed to dominate has revealed that  

the Russian military is a paper tiger. Too much of  Russia’s equipment fails to do what it’s supposed  

to do, so it’s tough to say how successful the war  industry will be for Russia in the future. Plus,  

Putin has to realize that Russia’s oil situation  has the potential to go from bad to worse. The  

Strait of Hormuz-related windfall that Russia is  trying to capitalize on, and Ukraine is expertly  

cutting off, can’t last forever. There is already  an uneasy ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran,  

and the end of Operation Epic Fury should lead  to the Strait of Hormuz reopening. Oil prices  

would fall as a result, which would only compound  the issues that we’ve already mentioned. Russia’s  

economy is still struggling even as it’s able to  sell whatever oil it can get out of the country at  

higher prices than it has at any other point  during the Ukraine war. What happens to that  

economy when the price of oil goes back down, and  Ukraine keeps on hitting the export terminals?  

Nothing good is the answer. And if you need any  more reasons why Ukraine is on the right track  

by taking out Russian oil, you need only look  at something that we raised a few minutes ago:  

Russia’s banks. They’re struggling enormously  as a result of Russia’s reliance on its energy  

industry and Putin’s refusal to let any of the  emerging crises inside Russia distract him from  

spending on the Ukraine war. We got early signals  that Russia’s banks were going to struggle in 2026  

toward the end of January. That’s when The Moscow  Times revealed that Russia’s banks have been  

shutting branches at the fastest pace in years.  In 2025, 1,700 bank branches were closed down  

in Russia, which was 3.6 times higher than the  number of branches that closed in 2024. Right now,  

Russia has 22,300 bank branches. It had about  30,000 back in 2019. Now, there’s a logic,  

at least inside the Kremlin, for these closures.  Russia’s banks are closing branches because  

they’re shifting their services online. This is  something that we’ve seen all over the developed  

world, so, on the surface, nothing should seem  out of the ordinary about all of this. Sure,  

thousands of Russian people are losing jobs at a  time when their country’s economy is crumbling,  

but Putin won’t care about any of that. But  something else that is happening with Russia’s  

banks is catching people off guard. The branch  shutdowns of 2025 happened ahead of the Kremlin's  

crackdown on internet services throughout  Russia. By April 3, The Kyiv Independent  

was reporting that Russian banks are facing major  service outages, as moving to online models isn’t  

exactly a good idea when you have a government  that is actively trying to stop people from  

going online. The outlet says that outages have  affected mobile banking apps, ATM withdrawals,  

and payment transfers for some of Russia’s largest  banks. This all has a knock-on effect for Russian  

businesses, as they are forced to accept cash  payments only. Adding to this, Meduza reports  

that no Russian bank has been able to access the  Russian Interior Ministry’s databases to verify  

passports since April 15, as yet another service  that keeps Russia’s banks running was shut down  

with no timeline for restoration. If we didn’t  know any better, we would say that the Kremlin is  

purposefully trying to cripple Russia’s banks.  None of this makes sense. Speaking about the  

businesses that are struggling to provide services  due to a combination of Putin’s war spending and  

Russia’s banks dealing with outages and closures,  those companies are becoming a problem. Overdue  

accounts receivable in Russia’s business sectors  have reached the highest levels seen since the  

Global Financial Crisis of 2008, Pravda reports.  Overdue receivables increased to $100 billion by  

April 17, which is a 26% increase. Guess what that  means for banks. Russian businesses aren’t getting  

the money they’re owed. That breaks the payment  chain, as those businesses can’t service the  

debts they have with their banks if they’re not  receiving income owed to them. Russian businesses  

are getting poorer as their obligations to banks  remain high, and that is a recipe for disaster.  

When the businesses can no longer pay, the entire  Russian banking system crumbles. Outages and  

closures aren’t helping with any of this. And  still, Ukraine’s drones fly. Ukraine’s campaign  

against Russian oil exports has obvious impacts  on the surface. When oil can’t be exported,  

the Kremlin has less money that it can dedicate  to the invasion effort. But beneath the surface  

of those strikes is a Russian economy that is  in crisis mode. Military spending has spiraled  

out of control, as the Kremlin tries to hide the  true extent of its expenditures from a population  

that is getting poorer and watching as their  towns and cities bear the brunt of Putin’s bad  

decisions. Russia is producing far less product  for export than it has in years, again because  

Putin keeps pumping cash into the war machine.  And now, the banks, which everybody from the  

average person to Russia’s largest businesses  need, are starting to crumble due to unpaid  

debt and Kremlin internet crackdowns. This is an  economic powder keg. Ukraine’s goal now is to keep  

up the deep strike pressure until that powder keg  blows up in Putin’s face. Maybe you want to find  

out more about the types of strikes that Ukraine  has been conducting against Russia’s oil sector.  

If so, we can take you back to Novorossiysk,  where Ukraine unleashed a hell storm against  

one of Russia’s key Black Sea ports earlier in  April. Check out our video if you want to find  

out more about precisely what Ukraine is doing  that is costing Russia $100 million per day in  

exports. And if you enjoyed this video, make sure  you subscribe to The Military Show so you don’t  

miss any of our analysis of Ukraine’s strikes  or Russia’s precarious financial situation.