Lies on the way to the Kremlin: The fake videos that could cost Russia dearly

Russian military commanders reported to Putin that they had captured a Ukrainian town, but Ukrainian forces still held it for nearly three weeks after the announcement. Dozens of videos suspected of being fakes reveal a gap between Russian statements and the reality on the front line, and expert analysis found that at least one of them had been manipulated using artificial intelligence.

This article exposes a phenomenon of fake videos and false information reaching the Kremlin, highlighting a gap between official Russian statements about territorial gains in Ukraine and the reality on the ground. Russian military commanders reported to President Putin that they had captured a Ukrainian town, but Ukrainian forces actually held it for nearly three weeks after the announcement. Expert analysis found that at least one of the documentation videos had been manipulated using artificial intelligence. An expert named Loiev was quoted saying that an AI model is capable of producing flawless videos. The article notes that the Ukrainian side also raised allegations of manipulated images, and that the DeepState organization accused the 425th Assault Regiment in December 2025 of altering an image from Pokrovsk. Beyond that, the affair reveals a problem in the internal reporting chain of the Russian army: sources close to Putin claim that his desire to achieve victory created an incentive for commanders to report captures even when control was not complete.