The essential The Ukrainian army has managed to enter Russian territory. Inevitably, for the Russian authorities, this operation represents a failure. With populations having been displaced and Ukrainian troops having been seen, this intrusion is impossible to hide from the population. But what do official communications and their media relays tell the Russians?
Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the Russian media have transformed themselves, if they were not already, into a propaganda tool for the Kremlin. This reality has not changed since the beginning of the incursion on Russian soil. The Ukrainian advance is largely minimized. As early as August 6, the first day of the attack by Ukrainian soldiers, the general staff assured that they could easily push them back to the border. This assertion, repeated ad nauseam by Russian military officials, is widely relayed by the media, although it has been denied by the facts for several days. Then, the investigative media The Insider highlighted the lie relayed on August 10 by RIA Novosti, one of the country’s main news agencies, according to which Russian helicopters had successfully bombed Russian vehicles and troops, with video to support it. Problem, the video was in fact filmed in Ukraine. The same maneuver was repeated the next day, this time with a bombing supposedly coming from planes. The Ministry of Defense published at least 4 fake videos, all relayed in the media, according to a pattern that has become classic.
This incursion is also an opportunity to reaffirm the anti-Ukraine propaganda discourse. Thus, in a video published by the FSB, the Russian intelligence service, it is claimed that a Russian prisoner explained that he had received orders to shoot at civilians in the event of resistance. He also reportedly said that he was surrounded by English, Polish and French soldiers during this attack. Of course, neither of these reports are verified and appear to be propaganda. The government, through its spokesperson, is seeking to discredit the Ukrainian offensive on its reliability as well as its motivations and has declared it to be “terrorist in nature” and “aimed at killing civilians”, a statement that has been taken up in many media outlets including Sputnikthe largest Russian news agency.
