DNIPRO, Ukraine — Grainy videos purportedly of Russian ammunition depots exploding after being attacked by Ukrainian forces have quickly become a feature of the nearly six-month war, highlighting what some have called Ukraine’s “shadow offensive” against Moscow’s troops.
The images of Russian munitions being reduced to fireballs and mushroom clouds — some verified, some not — have become propaganda for Ukrainian forces, demonstrating Kyiv’s ability to employ U.S.-supplied long-range weapons, Special Operations forces and partisan guerrillas to strike deep behind Russian lines.
But it remains far from clear how much these blasts will shape the outcome of the war or hinder Russia’s war machine.
On Sunday, the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti posted video of smoke and explosions from what it said was a Ukrainian strike on warehouses in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region. One of the most significant strikes hit a Russian ammunition depot last week in Crimea, the peninsula Russia illegally annexed in 2014 and has been using as a key staging ground for its occupation of southern Ukraine. A senior Ukrainian official said Ukrainian forces were behind that attack.
Last month, Ukrainian officials said that a U.S.-supplied HIMARS rocket system was used to hit a Russian ammunition depot in the town of Nova Kakhovka, on the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine, sending munitions flying like a lethal fireworks display.
The amount of Russian ammunition destroyed in such incidents is...
"I will note that in 2024, troops were -- that was Joe Biden by the way, Joe Biden -- were deployed to polling locations in 15 states," Hegseth said April 29, 2026 before the House of Representati...