1/ Russian warbloggers are furious that the Russian army has set Vladimir Putin up for public humiliation by claiming falsely that Sviatohirsk has been captured. The army "continues to lie, and the scale of the lies is only increasing," one says. ⬇️ bsky.app
Andrii Biletskyi refutes Putin’s claim: Sviatohirsk remains under the control of the Third Army Corps. The brigadier general recorded a video address from central Sviatohirsk, with the Holy Dormition Sviatohirsk Lavra in the background.
2/ False claims about territorial control have plagued the Russian army throughout the war in Ukraine. The prospect of cash bonuses, medals, and promotions incentivises commanders to make such claims. 3/ This has often had catastrophic effects for Russian troops, who repeatedly find themselves being sent without fire support to places that are marked on the map as Russian-held but is in fact in Ukrainian hands. Thousands are likely to have died as a result. 4/ Russian Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov was widely mocked last year for falsely claiming to Putin in person that Kupyansk had been captured, showing egregiously falsified control maps that the Ukrainians soon refuted. bsky.app
1/ False claims by Russian commanders to have captured Ukrainian towns – a practice known as 'taking on credit' – have likely cost thousands of Russian lives through 2025. A Russian commentary highlights some of the most egregious claims. ⬇️
5/ The same thing has happened with the latest claims about Sviatohirsk, which have been exposed as relying on old videos (the town was captured but later liberated in 2022) and even AI-generated fakes. The Russian warblogger 'Artjockey' highlights the problems with such claims. 6/ The video above from Andrii Biletskyi shows "not just complete control, but also that this was a deeply held rear area for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, where some semblance of normal life still existed. This situation is becoming an increasingly embarrassing debacle for Putin." 7/ "We can take 25th August as a starting point, as that was when the head of the CIA visited Moscow, with the main goal of understanding whether Putin even knew what was happening. 8/ "He was unable to meet with the President of Russia, although Putin cleared his schedule, and then [Putin] decided not to meet with the US representative when he learned that he was bringing not gifts, but something else. 9/ "However, the visit and the subsequent conversations offended Putin, so he decided to respond to them at a press conference in Bishkek [and said]: 'Therefore, before entering this hall, I went upstairs and just spoke with the Chief of the General Staff.' 10/ 'But I want to note that the information I receive, I receive it from various sources, from almost all the bodies of special services and our departments that are somehow involved in the special military operation. Therefore, I have a fairly objective picture.' 11/ "Here, the President directly states that he receives information not only from Gerasimov, and that he has an objective picture, and that if anyone has a different picture, then they are the ones who are mistaken. 12/ "To support his words, Putin begins to recount the situation on the fronts and states: 'Over the past month, 14 settlements have come under the control of Russian troops, including the liberation of Kozacha Lopan, and yesterday - the city of Sviatohirsk.'" 13/ "This statement surprised many, because everyone who was following the front lines understood that this simply could not be true. 14/ "Z-propagandists had to come up with explanations, for example, they started writing about "Newspeak," supposedly Putin was confused about the definitions and Sviatohirsk was "taken under fire control," but of course, Putin knows everything and doesn't make mistakes,… 15/ …he's just not understood correctly. All of these hastily constructed justifications were destroyed the next day by the press service of the Russian Ministry of Defence: ⚡️ "Units of the "West" group of forces liberated the city of Sviatohirsk in the Donetsk People's Republic." 16/ "The definition here is perfectly clear - "liberated," so everyone understood that Putin was initially completely correct. 17/ "At this point, it becomes clear that before the press conference about the capture of Sviatohirsk he was informed by Gerasimov, and Gerasimov was probably informed by the commander of the "West" group of forces, Kuzovlev. The very same one who "captured" Kupiansk last fall. 18/ "For this alone, the entire leadership of the "West" group of forces should have been removed and put on trial, but this did not happen. Moreover, nothing happened at all, it seems that everyone in the world who is following the war knows about Kupiansk, except for Putin,… 19/ …who still hasn't been told that he was deceived. On the contrary, the leadership of the "West" group of forces continues to lie, and the scale of the lies is only increasing. 20/ "When Kuzovlev reported on the capture of Kupiansk, there were at least some Russian troops there, but now he reported on the capture of Sviatohirsk at a time when there was no one there, and the city is in the deep Ukrainian rear. 21/ "There is theoretically no possibility of "working off an advance" here, this is simply a separate reality into which Putin has been placed. I am sure that Putin will again find defenders who will start talking about a clever plan, information warfare, and so on. 22/ "These are completely deluded people who are as cut off from reality as Putin. All that Putin has done is to publicly embarrass himself again, and to embarrass himself seriously, not some random slip of the tongue or story, like with the orcas. 23/ "He tried to respond to [CIA Director] Ratcliffe from afar, to prove that he has objective information, but he confirmed the exact opposite. He publicly proved to everyone that he absolutely does not understand what is happening on the front lines,… 24/ …that his entourage is fooling him and lying, and that this lie is obvious to everyone who is following the war, but not to him. And this story also clearly shows why Russia is losing the war. 25/ "It is impossible to win if the military leadership lives in a world of invented victories and makes certain decisions based on a distorted reality." /end Source: t.me