Russian military deceives Putin with fake “captures” of villages in Sumy and Kharkiv regions

Russia's "North" troop grouping reports the capture of new settlements in Ukraine's Sumy and Kharkiv regions almost daily, but according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), the actual situation on the battlefield does not support these claims.

"There is no indication that the Russians have moved enough troops and equipment into the area or launched offensive operations toward the settlements they claim to have seized," the institute's report states.

Analysts also suspect that Russian claims are based on edited or staged footage — often photos of soldiers planting a flag in a "captured" village. One such case involves the village of Bily Kolodyaz in Kharkiv region, where footage circulated online showing a Russian serviceman with a flag on the outskirts of the built-up area. "Such footage does not mean the Russian army has actually occupied or controls this location," ISW emphasizes.

Ukrainian forces have repeatedly denied Russian claims of seizing new territory in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions. In some settlements, Russian troops are indeed attempting to push into built-up areas, but this is not the same as actually capturing and controlling the territory.

The practice of embellished front-line reports has long existed within the Russian army and is typically employed ahead of meetings between commanders, President Putin, and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov. It also serves a broader propaganda purpose: to show that the Russian army is advancing along the entire front, implying that further Western aid to Kyiv is supposedly pointless.

However, this command-level tactic is being undermined by Russian military bloggers themselves, who receive "firsthand information" directly from soldiers on the front line and sharply criticize the practice of embellished reporting. A notable example is the Telegram channel "Two Majors," with nearly 1.2 million subscribers: its authors described how the command system creates an illusion of control over the situation in combat units. Commanders send reports up the chain, which are then compiled into tables at headquarters and turned into "plans to address shortcomings" that do not reflect the actual situation on a given section of the front at all.

The bloggers are calling for an end to "evaluation based on loyalty and merit," proposing instead that commanders be promoted for their ability to accomplish combat missions and reduce losses, while "unfit" commanders should be immediately removed — drawing parallels with Stalin's purges of the Soviet army in 1937–1938.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz