Russian army told to stage videos to exaggerate success in Ukraine war: Report
Russia- Ukraine War: Images and videos from the frontlines of the war are a constant presence on social media.
A Russian military blogger accused Moscow's military officials of encouraging soldiers to exaggerate their successes in the Ukraine war. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said the blogger claimed that Russian servicemen have been instructed to "report false successes on their missions to please their commanders and claimed that commanders and peers actively discourage Russian military personnel from writing honest, but 'dull' and negative reports."
The think tank said the blogger indicated that Russian soldiers have staged some scenes of battle destruction as well by filming helicopter and artillery units “firing on the same, previously damaged Western-provided armored fighting vehicle from different angles and on different days and reported them as separate kills at least three times.”
Images and videos from the frontlines of the war are a constant presence on social media. Military bloggers have become especially influential in Russia as even Russian president Vladimir Putin held a direct meeting with several of them on June 13 to discuss issues related to the war.
A military blogger who posts under the name "Colonel Shuvalov" on Telegram wrote, “Now I'll say a vile and unpopular thing, but let at least one active officer point that out if I'm lying: Before, and after the appearance of Western military equipment—in general, a very popular way to give a good result upwards is to beautifully fire at the enemy's already destroyed equipment.”
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The blogger then described how a United States-made Bradley fighting vehicle was destroyed by Russian forces and “used for maximum exposure.”
Bradley can “be beautifully fired at from helicopters, and tomorrow you can hit it from self-propelled guns. With video recording, reports, and all the right angles. So this becomes not one, but three wrecked Bradleys,” he said.
The ISW noted that Colonel Shuvalov said “everyone in the Russian military knows that servicemen do this and that the Russian military leadership has no intention of stopping servicemen from making false or embellished reports.”
"The Kremlin has previously used wildly inflated Ukrainian armored vehicle losses to portray Russian defensive operations as extremely effective," the ISW said.
