The spring has arrived, and Russia is supposed  to be making its war-ending offensive.

Finally,   the cover is appearing, and the weather is getting  better.

But the same old story is playing out for Putin – he orders advances and his soldiers die.

Russia just had its worst month of the entire war,   and Ukraine had its best, as the spring offensive  has collapsed and Russia’s war machine burns.

Record casualties, a new milestone reached,  and an advance rate so humiliating that Russia   may as well have spent March doing absolutely  nothing are all lowlights for Putin that we’re   going to be exploring as the video goes on.

But  we’re going to start with what Ukraine has done   directly to make March 2026 the worst month of  the war so far for Putin’s forces, and we can sum   that up with three words: Ukraine hit everything.

As Russia begins its spring push that is supposed   to deliver the “inevitable” into Putin’s lap,  Ukraine has been amplifying its deep-strike   strategy to a level that Russia never expected.

Strategic targets have been hit all over Russia   in what Euromaidan Press dubs a “March Harvest.

”  Five factories, 10 oil refineries, oil plants,   and air defenses have all been destroyed, with  Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense itself stating   that March 2026 has been one of the largest months  in terms of the sheer number of strategic targets   that Ukraine has hit inside Russia itself.

Let’s  start with the factories.

Five of Russia’s key
factories have been hit over the course of the  month, starting with the Kremniy El Plant, which   is in the border region of Bryansk.

Known as one  of Russia’s largest microelectronics enterprises,   this factory is where Russia makes the  microchips that are later placed inside   its Iskander ballistic missiles, as well as  in its air defenses.

Ukraine has ruined this   factory by taking out a production building and  a component warehouse used to store the equipment   that Russia needs to make its missile chips.

Russia’s entire missile supply chain fell apart   with this one strike.

For the next six months,  Russia won’t be able to make the microchips it   needs for many of its missiles.

Repairs have to be  completed.

And with Bryansk being so close to the   border with Ukraine, we’re willing to bet that the  Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, is watching   and waiting for Russia to get just about so far  with its repair work before another drone or ten   is launched to take out the Kremniy El Plant  once again.

But that’s just one of the five.

In Ulyanovsk, Ukraine hit the Aviastar Aircraft  Plant, taking out a climate-controlled shelter   and several of the Il-76 and Il-78 aircraft being  stored at the plant.

Aviastar makes and maintains   heavy transport aircraft, Euromaidan Press  reports, so losing it has a crippling effect   on Russian logistics.

No heavy cargo aircraft  means a slowdown in the shuttling of equipment   and troops throughout Russia and Ukraine.

Plus,  Ukraine took out a plant that keeps Russia’s   aerial refueling tankers in good condition, so  we’ll see an impact on Russia’s aerial power,   too.

The hits keep on coming with the 123rd  Aircraft Repair Plant, which is in Staraya Russa   in the Novgorod oblast of Russia.

Yet more of  Ukraine’s drones rained down, and they hit hangars   storing Il-76 aircraft, along with hitting missile  defense aircraft and the storage facilities Russia   uses to keep its anti-aircraft missiles safe.

This  was yet another blow against Russia’s aircraft   maintenance facilities, which, in turn, puts even  more pressure on Russia’s internal logistics.

Next   up was Alchevsk and the Metallurgical Plant that  carries the region’s name.

Ukraine’s strike caused   a massive fire at the facility, which builds  artillery shell casings, and is involved in the   production of the armored steel that is used in  a lot of the military equipment required by the   Russian armed forces.

So, bye-bye mechanized  assaults! And finally, there’s Sevastopol,   where Ukraine hit Granit.

Why does that matter?  Granit is an “Innovation Center” and, according   to Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense, it’s the only  center that Russia has in Crimea that is capable   of repairing S-400 air defense systems.

You can  guess what this means.

More strikes against Crimea   are incoming, and Russia won’t be able to do  much about them as its S-400 network falls apart.

This is bad for Russia.

And we’re just getting  started.

The Kremlin is already responding to   Ukraine’s strikes by trying to move its production  facilities as far away as possible.

That’s what’s   happening with the Roscosmos facility that  was in Khimki, which is in the Moscow region.

That facility is being moved to Omsk, which is in  Siberia, and the Ural Mountains region of Perm, in   what Roscosmos is trying to frame as a move being  made to increase efficiency.

That makes sense.

War in Ukraine | Global Conflict Tracker

We all know that efficiency is achieved by moving  your production plants as far away from the places   where they’re most needed.

It’s all nonsense,  of course.

Roscosmos is moving its plant away   from the Moscow region because it’s been watching  what happened in March, and it knows that Moscow   is well within the range of Ukraine’s drones.

This  isn’t a move made for efficiency.

It’s literally   running away from the problem.

And can you blame  Roscosmos? After all, it’s not like Ukraine is   showing any signs of slowing down with its strikes  against Russia’s industrial complex.

On April 4,   United24 Media reported that SBU drones had scored  another successful strike against the Alchevsk   Metallurgical Plant that we mentioned a couple  of minutes ago.

That’s the second hit in a month,   and it shows us that Ukraine has a strategy  in place.

Everything that Ukraine has hit   once is (PROBABLY) going to be hit again.

And  if there’s anything that shows us how effective   that particular strategy is, it’s what Ukraine  has been doing to Russia’s oil sector throughout   March.

Ports and refineries are burning.

In  Afipsky and Albashioneft, a pair of refineries   were hit by Ukraine’s drones.

Both made diesel  fuel, which is transported from the facilities   to Russia’s southern military group in Ukraine.

In Novorossiysk, Ukraine hit the Sheskharis oil   terminal and launched a devastating attack against  Port Kavkaz.

Those are hubs that Russia relies   on to transport oil via the Black Sea to its  customers, as well as to get fuel to the warships   in the Black Sea Fleet.

In Saratov, another  refinery was hit, and the same happened in Kirishi   and Yaroslavl.

What we see there is the whittling  away of Russian resources that are responsible for   creating aviation fuel, along with other products  that stabilize Russia’s domestic fuel sector.

Then, there were the headline strikes.

Primorsk  and Ust-Luga.

Both are homes to ports that Russia   needs to keep its oil exports flowing through the  Baltic Sea and on to its customers all over the   world, and both have been hit again and again by  Ukraine during the latter half of March.

Remember,   this is the strategy that we told you about.

Hit it once.

Let Putin know that the drones can   reach.

What Ukraine needs to win the war - Atlantic Council

And before Russia can do much of anything  to respond, hit it over and over until it’s gone.

Ust-Luga was hit five times in March, with strikes  being recorded on March 22, 25, 27, 29, and 31.

Reuters reports that Ukraine has hit the Primorsk  oil terminal so many times that at least 40% of   the terminal’s oil storage facilities have been  lost forever.

Back in Ust-Luga, the terminal was   still on fire seven days after Ukraine carried  out its first strike, as highlighted in pictures   shared on X by the Special Kherson Cat open-source  intelligence account.

There is no chance for   Russia to claim that this was a minor strike, or  that Ukraine’s “drone debris” did a little bit of   damage.

One of Russia’s most important ports is  a smoke-filled, fiery hellhole, and no matter how   hard the fires are fought, they keep on growing  and are being made worse with every strike that   Ukraine completes.

Here’s where this gets really  serious for Russia.

In a March 25 report, The Kyiv   Independent called what was happening a “historic  low” as Russia’s oil exports plummeted off a   cliff.

Bear in mind that there were more Ukrainian  drones to come, especially at Ust-Luga.

Ukraine   had essentially halted 40% of Russia’s entire  export capacity with its attacks against Primorsk   Ust-Luga and others, stopping Russia from selling  its oil at a time when the war in Iran has led to   prices for a single barrel rocketing up to and  beyond $100.

Russia should be raking in the cash   right now, but it’s instead dealing with fires  of indescribable magnitude at the very ports that   were meant to be its liquid gold lifelines.

On the  refinery front, The Moscow Times reported on March   30 that Russia now faces a fuel production crunch.

Ukraine has intelligently combined its destruction   of at least 40% of Russia’s export capacity with  attacks against facilities that make the fuel that   Russia is trying to sell or send to its troops.

And here’s where it gets really clever.

Ukraine’s   attacks against Primorsk and Ust-Luga prevent  Russia from shipping its oil.

That has a knock-on   effect against the stricken refineries.

Even if  they’re able to produce their products, Russia has   nowhere for those products to go.

They have to be  stored at the refineries until the logjam clears,   and there is only so much space for that storage  before the refineries have to shut down and simply   wait for everything to clear up.

This is an  indirect shutdown to go along with the chaos of   the drone strikes.

And if Ukraine keeps on hitting  the oil terminals in places like Novorossiysk,   Primorsk, and Ust-Luga, Russia is going to have  a whole lot of oil and fuel with nowhere to go.

Oh, and one more thing before we move on to  Russia’s wrecked air defenses.

On April 1,   Kyiv Post reported that Rosneft, which  is one of Russia’s oil giant companies,   had reported that its net income fell by 73% in  2025.

A combination of high taxes on profits,   high interest rates, and “one-off factors,”  which roughly translates to “sanctions and   drones are wrecking our operations,” led to the  company making just $3.

6 billion last year.

Sure,   this sounds like a lot of money.

But that figure  representing a 73% decline is bad for Rosneft,   which makes it bad for Russia.

Less oil being sold  means less revenue for the Kremlin to tax.

And now   that terminals and refineries are burning, Rosneft  is staring down the barrel of a 2026 gun that is   ready to fire in its face.

We haven’t even gotten  to the air defenses yet, and it’s already clear   that March 2026 has been a horrendous month for  Russia in its war against Ukraine.

There’s a lot   more coming.

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

If you haven’t subscribed yet, now is the  perfect time to hit the button so you never miss   one of our videos.

Now, back to the air defenses.

Russia lost a lot of them to Ukrainian strikes in   March.

A dozen S-300 and S-400 air defense  systems were taken out during the course of   the month.

These are both long-range air defense  systems that Russia relies on to take out drones   and missiles.

Granted, they haven’t been doing  their jobs very well.

Ukraine wouldn’t have been   able to hit Russia as hard as it has in March  if they were.

But Russia would rather have them   than not, and now it doesn’t.

Adding to these  losses was the destruction of 10 of Russia’s   medium and short-range air defense systems,  including Tor, Tor-M1, Pantsir-S1, Tunguska,   and various versions of the Buk air defense units.

All are being used in Russia’s near and deep   rear to fend off Ukraine’s drones.

The irony, of  course, is that it is the very drones that these   air defenses are supposed to be stopping that are  taking them out of the war.

Plus, remember Crimea.

You’d be forgiven for forgetting, as we’ve been  rattling off so many March strikes that it’s easy   to lose track.

But Ukraine also took out a repair  and maintenance facility that keeps Russia’s   S-400s up and running.

So, we’re seeing Ukraine  take out multiple layers of Russian air defenses,   and not just in terms of destroying units across  the range spectrum.

Ukraine is also hitting the   means of repair and maintenance, meaning that  Russia’s damaged units aren’t going to be making   it back out onto the battlefield.

The strikes  against air defenses are important because they   open the door for everything else that we’ve  talked about in this video.

Factories and oil   refineries are burning because Ukraine spent as  much of March carving out safe aerial corridors   as it did on hitting those key facilities.

This  is a complex strategy, and it’s one that Ukraine   is employing against the occupied territories  just as much as it is inside Russia itself.

The Kyiv Independent highlights that, noting that  an analysis of 1,530 verified Ukrainian strikes   in Russia and the occupied territories carried  out between June 2025 and March 2026 revealed   that 492 of those strikes targeted air defense  infrastructure.

Several hundred more targeted
anti-access and aerial denial assets, such as  electronic warfare units and command systems.

This is a clear degradation of Russia’s air  defenses.

And we’re seeing the impact in Russia’s   burning oil terminals and its shattered factories.

And just to rub a little salt in the Russian air   defense wound, all of this happened to Russia  in a month when Ukraine’s air defenses performed   better than they have in months.

According to  the Defense of Ukraine X account, Ukraine’s air   defense efficiency has increased by 9.

7 percentage  points over the last four months.

Right now,   Ukraine is at 89.

9% efficiency, having been at  80.

2% back in December, and it has a target of   reaching 95% efficiency through its combination  of Western air defenses and homegrown assets,   such as the interceptor drones that it has been  deploying against Russia’s Shahed-type drones.

Ukraine is getting better at defending against  aerial threats, while Russia faces more of those   types of threats than ever before.

And that is  why March 2026 was the worst month of the war   for Russia so far… Gotcha.

There is even more to  cover, as Russia’s woes in the skies are being   compounded by an absolutely disastrous start to  the spring and summer offensive that is supposed   to lead to Russia taking the Donbas and large  swathes of Ukraine’s southern territory.

Putin   would have hoped he could console himself with  gains in Ukraine even as Russia’s factories,   oil infrastructure, and air defenses burned.

Putin was wrong.

What next on the war in Ukraine? | Brookings

Heading to the ground, we see   that March 2026 was the first month in two and a  half years that Russia made precisely no net gains   on the ground in Ukraine.

That’s according to The  Independent, which points out that the same month   saw Ukraine recapture nine square kilometers, or  about 3.

47 square miles, of its own territory,   as Russia’s ground assault has been rattled by  continued communication problems caused by the   loss of Starlink and Putin’s own campaign  against the Telegram messaging app.

What   this tells us is that the spring offensive, which  has been marked by Russia launching more assaults   against Ukraine’s defenses in March than it has  at any other time in 2026, has gotten off to a   bad start.

Scratch that.

This is the equivalent  of an Olympic sprinter hearing the starting gun
and running backwards before falling flat on  their face.

If Putin were paying attention,   he might have seen this coming.

Russia’s gains in  Ukraine have been slowing down for a long time,   as the Institute for the Study of War pointed  out in a March 31 assessment of Russia’s invasion   of Ukraine.

It says that the period between  October 2025 and March 2026 saw Russia seize just   1,929.

69 square kilometers, or about 745.

06 square  miles, of Ukraine.

That’s already a low figure,   but it even pales in comparison to the October  2024 to March 2025 period, when Russia was able   to capture 2,716.

57 square kilometers, or about  1,048.

87 square miles, of Ukraine.

Russia’s   forces are stalling out on the ground even as the  spring offensive officially gets underway.

And   they’ve just hit the grimmest of milestones.

As Putin feeds more meat into the grinder,   Russia has just surpassed 1.

3 million casualties  in the Ukraine war.

That’s according to MINFIN,   which puts its official figure at 1,303,550  casualties as of April 5.

That is a catastrophic   number of losses.

It’s certainly more than  the losses experienced by any modern military.

For context, the U.S.

and its coalition allies  suffered 3,486 deaths during Operation Enduring   Freedom in Afghanistan, per the U.K’s Help for  Heroes charity.

That was in an operation that   lasted for 13 years between October 2001 and  December 2014.

Russians See Ukrainian Progress Where Others Don't - New Lines Magazine

Russia hasn’t even hit a third   of that time in its Ukraine invasion, and it has  suffered a casualty count that makes it seem like   Putin is waging a war against his own military.

March was a big contributor to getting Russia   over the line in reaching a new milestone that  no modern military should ever reach.

March 17   saw Russia record a record-breaking day as it lost  1,710 of its soldiers, which is the most recorded   in 2026 so far.

It’s only going to get worse for  Putin.

As Russia’s latest offensive intensifies,   it seems almost inevitable that we’re going to see  several days where Russia burns through more than   2,000 of its soldiers in 24 hours.

Compounding  this issue is that March was yet another month   when Russia’s volunteer recruitment was lower than  its losses on the battlefield.

Confirmed Russian   losses were 89,000 between January and March  2026, United24 Media reported on April 1.

The   real number is likely much higher, perhaps even  veering above 100,000, as these are only losses   that Ukraine has been able to confirm on camera.

The same period has seen Russia recruit just   80,000 new soldiers, the same outlet reports.

That  means it’s well behind its target of recruiting   409,000 by the end of 2026, and it’s falling below  target at a time when its casualty count is on   the rise.

None of this is good for Putin.

So, how  has Russia’s failing president responded? If you   think he’s going to change Russia’s approach or do  anything that could reverse the flow of its losses   on the battlefield and inside its own territory,  then you haven’t been paying attention for the   last four years.

Putin has no new ideas.

But what  he and his Kremlin cronies do have are threats.

Hilariously, Russia has looked at the shambles  that March 2026 has proven to be and decided   that now is the perfect time to tell Ukraine  that it needs to cede the Donbas.

On March 31,   Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reported  that Ukraine has been told by Russia that it   must withdraw its forces from the Donbas within  the next two months.

Putin’s mouthpiece Dmitry   Peskov has doubled down on this demand, stating  that Zelenskyy should make this decision for the   sake of Ukrainian troops right now to save them  from the horror that Russia is going to inflict.

Has Putin been watching the same war as everybody  else? Russia has its worst month of the Ukraine   war ever in March 2026, and it decides that  now is the time to make demands of Ukraine.

“Withdraw from the Donbas, and Russia promises  to stop losing record amounts of troops and air   defenses, and we’ll also be gracious enough  to allow Ukraine to stop hitting our oil   infrastructure and factories.

” It’s a ridiculous  demand, and it shows how disconnected the Kremlin   is from the realities of what’s happening on the  battlefield and inside its own territory.

This   is Russian desperation.

And if March 2026 is  any indication, there will be no withdrawal.

Just more firepower delivered to Russia by  a Ukrainian military that is in a very clear   resurgence.

The March from hell may be over, but  worse is to come for Russia.

Putin’s narrative   of an overwhelming force coming to topple  Ukraine has collapsed.

Experts are saying that   Ukraine is finishing this war, as we’re hitting a  turning point that goes anywhere but Putin’s way.