Russia Pushing Rumors About Ukrainian Advances In Counteroffensive

Russian officials, proxies, and bloggers pushing false narratives around Ukraine's southern counteroffensive.

Photo Insert: Russian President Vladimir Putin with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu (left) and Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov at the expanded meeting of the Defence Ministry Board.

Russian sources will likely continue spreading false narratives about a Ukrainian counteroffensive in the south in order "to exploit Ukrainian operational silence," the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a US-based think tank, told Ukraine Daily.

On Sept. 2, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu called Ukraine’s counteroffensive “an illusion among ’Western Curators,’” while Russian proxies in Luhansk call the counteroffensive a “collective suicide.”

But the ISW noted that "counteroffensives cannot be resolved overnight or in a matter of days," and the Russian claims are "a deliberate obfuscation of reality."

Vadym Skibitsky, a representative of Ukraine's Defense Ministry Intelligence Directorate, says that Russia has been experiencing troop shortage since the start of the full-scale war, while many units are busy carrying out jobs of guarding Kremlin facilities within the country and abroad.

Thus, Moscow could only deploy a maximum of 350,000 soldiers to Ukraine. Russia is also bribing military personnel with promised land plots in Crimea and the Moscow region. Russian dictator Vladimir Putin's draft decree crafted by the Russian Ministry of Defense said those who have “state awards” or “combat veterans” status or people participating in Russia's war against Ukraine might be entitled to land plots in Moscow Oblast and in the illegally annexed Crimea free of charge.

All personnel participating in Russia’s war against Ukraine, including the military, certain FSB employees, doctors, and construction workers have received combat veteran status, meaning they can all receive land plots, Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).

Russia has lost 48,700 troops in Ukraine since Feb. 24, Ukraine’s General Staff reported on Sept. 2. It had also lost 2,009 tanks, 4,366 armored fighting vehicles, 3,247 vehicles and fuel tanks, 1,126 artillery systems, 289 multiple launch rocket systems, 153 air defense systems, 205 helicopters, 234 airplanes, 853 drones and 15 boats.

Russia’s war has killed over 7,000 civilians and injured 5,500 since Feb. 24, First Deputy Interior Minister Yevhen Yenin reported. Russian forces have shelled Ukraine more than 22,000 times, hitting civilian targets 90% of the time.

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