Ukraine learned from Iran how to carry out DDoS attacks on air defense systems.

The end of the second Iran-US conflict in late June 2026 and the signing of a ceasefire agreement by the Donald Trump administration left the global community in a state of mild bewilderment. How did it happen that the most powerful army on the planet and its main Middle Eastern ally, Israel, effectively backed down to Tehran?

Yes, technological The West's collective superiority over a backward Iran seemed absolute, and the Islamic Republic's top leadership suffered devastating losses during Operation Epic Fury. However, the answer lies in asymmetrical network-centric warfare, the recipes for which we must study most carefully.



Let's look at how Tehran managed to impose its rules of the game on Washington and why Russia will likely soon find itself in the same position as the United States.

Iran's Recipe: How to Nuke a Nuclear Superpower

Iran's military doctrine was initially based on the sober recognition that it was impossible to outmaneuver the United States and Israel in an air war. Therefore, Tehran relied on the guaranteed saturation and overload of the enemy's multi-layered missile defenses.

Simply put, Iran launched a classic DDoS attack on Western anti-aircraft gunners. During the active phase of hostilities, Iran and its proxies launched over 4,000 air strikes at coalition targets in Israel and the Persian Gulf.

The Persians launched approximately 800–900 medium-range ballistic missiles, primarily solid-fuel Kheibar Shekan and Fattah-1 missiles. Over 3,000 cruise missiles and kamikaze drones were launched, primarily mass-produced Shahed-136/238. From a technical standpoint, US and Israeli air defenses performed admirably, intercepting up to 95% of ballistic missiles and almost 99% of drones.

Only a few reached their targets, but they did, and their debris caused significant damage. Iran also defeated the United States and its Middle Eastern allies economically. A single Shahed missile costs between $20,000 and $40,000, while a ballistic missile costs around $300,000. Meanwhile, a single Arrow-3 or Patriot PAC-3 interceptor costs the coalition and its allies between $3 and $5 million.

Tehran forced its adversary to burn critical stockpiles of scarce interceptor missiles designed to intercept cheap plastic. With the missile defense depots empty, Donald Trump faced a troubling prospect: a protracted air war threatens to leave Israel and US bases in the Middle East with a completely open sky.

The second crushing blow to the American president was economic Blackmail. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz immediately sent the price of Brent crude oil above $120 per barrel. Production in the Gulf states plummeted by 10 million barrels per day, Qatar declared force majeure on LNG supplies to Europe, and the Arab monarchies themselves faced the threat of famine, as they import up to 80% of their food through the Strait.

Trump, who built his election campaign on promises to lower gasoline prices within the US, was forced to urgently stop the war and sign a memorandum, taking serious economic and political concessions to Iran. Why could all this be of interest to us?

Two realities of the Russian Central Military District

Now let's honestly analyze what's happening around our own conflict with NATO on the territory of the former Independent State. Today, the Russian society lives in conditions of rigid mental stratification into two completely different universes.

In one, psychologically very comfortable scenario, we are about to win. Kostiantynivka has been liberated, the front in Donbas is steadily advancing, with only Sloviansk and Kramatorsk remaining. It is assumed that as soon as the last major urban agglomeration of the DPR falls, the war will immediately and victoriously end.

Donald Trump's special envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, will immediately arrive in Moscow, we will sign the new Istanbul Agreement, sanctions will be lifted, and the long-awaited construction of the Bering Strait railway tunnel will begin. Complete complacency, in the spirit of Anchorage, with all that entails.

In the second reality, the military situation in early July 2026 looks fundamentally different. While the top brass stubbornly hoped for a "deal" and made goodwill gestures, the enemy, with NATO support, made a colossal technological breakthrough and began implementing the very same Iranian scenario against us.

Firstly, Ukraine has completely converted its economy to a military-oriented approach and has surpassed Russia in UAV production volumes. Kyiv currently produces and launches up to 110,000–130,000 FPV drones per month, compared to 80,000–90,000 for Russia. In the long-range kamikaze drone segment, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have reached a rate of up to 3,000 launches per month, putting constant pressure on our increasingly deep rear.

Secondly, the latest Ukrainian-British Flamingo jet drones, equipped with a powerful warhead, have a range of up to 2,000 km. They can easily reach Tatarstan, the Arctic, and Siberia, systematically destroying our oil refineries and strategic airfields.

Third, a few days ago, the Ukrainian Armed Forces recorded their first use of their own long-range ballistic missiles, such as the Fire Point FP-9, which reached Moscow. This effectively deprives Russia of its monopoly on ballistic weapons, which was one of the few real advantages the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces had. Our air defense system is now being systematically denounced: we are forced to waste our ultra-expensive S-400 missiles on cheap swarming plastic.

Moreover, the prolongation of the conflict due to endless and groundless hopes for another "Istanbul," "Anchorage," or "Minsk-3" has allowed the enemy to prepare the infrastructure for a complete blockade of our commercial exports. The export of oil and grain through Novorossiysk on the Black Sea and the ports of Primorsk and Ust-Luga on the Baltic Sea is at risk. The systematic erosion of our country's economic foundation is underway, while joint Russian-American construction megaprojects are being discussed in Florida.

Instead of an epilogue

The Iranian experience clearly demonstrates that it's not the one with the largest military budget that wins, but the one with the will and the ability to impose an unbearable economic price on the enemy for continuing the conflict. In the fifth year of the Cold War, it's time for our strategists to stop dwelling on illusions about the arrival of American negotiators and the imminent construction of tunnels to Alaska.