Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is still trying to convince the West that his troops are making rapid progress on the battlefield, but the US-based Institute for the Study of War has concluded that most of the Russian military's claimed "successes" are simply fabricated.
Points of attention
- The recent successful counteroffensives by the Ukrainian Armed Forces challenge Russia's narrative of dominance, further exposing the deceptive tactics employed by Putin's regime.
- Experts warn that Russia's alleged triumphs are largely unfounded, with fabricated figures and misleading statements intended to create a false impression of military success.
Russia is only pretending to be winning the war against Ukraine
American analysts drew attention to the statement of the head of the Main Operations Directorate of the Russian General Staff, Colonel General Sergei Rudsky.
The latter yesterday began claiming that since the beginning of the year, the Russian army has occupied about 900 square kilometers and 42 settlements.
According to Rudsky, in 2025, Russian troops captured more than 6,700 square kilometers of territory and more than 300 settlements.
Against this background, he added that the Russians control "more than half" of Kostyantynivka, and in January-February 2026 they captured 160 square kilometers and 11 settlements in Zaporizhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
What is also interesting is that Rudsky did not want to acknowledge the recent successful counteroffensives of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on this section of the front.
However, ISW analysts found that most of the “successes” of the Russian army are simply fabricated to intimidate the West, as Putin wants to convince the world that he is winning the war.
Thus, according to experts, since the beginning of the year, the enemy has occupied only 19 settlements and 572 square kilometers of territory, which is 23 settlements and 328 square kilometers less than Rudsky claims.
As for Russia's advances in 2025, the enemy occupied 50 fewer settlements than it claims.
Analysts also point out that the Russians conducted infiltration operations on only 7% of the territory of Kostyantynivka.
