"Russian Propaganda Uses AI to Fake Victory—But No One Is Buying It"

Russian citizens are expressing confusion and disbelief after President Vladimir Putin issued a false claim of victory in a Ukrainian battle—a claim his own propaganda machine then tried to back up using an AI-generated video.

The incident, which unfolded on Day 1,656 of the war, began when Putin unexpectedly announced that Russian forces had captured the important small town of Sviatohirsk, near Lyman. The town holds significant religious and cultural value for Ukraine, as it is home to the Sviatohirsk Lavra monastery.

A Claim with No Basis in Reality

The only problem? Russian soldiers were not there. According to battlefield reports, the nearest Russian troops were at least 10 kilometers away from Sviatohirsk.

It is unclear whether Putin was deliberately misled by his own commanders, or if he simply did not know what he was saying. However, his subordinates understood his statement as a direct order: they had to produce evidence of the capture.

AI to the Rescue

With no real soldiers to film, Russian propaganda channels turned to artificial intelligence. They created and distributed an AI-generated video purporting to show the capture of Sviatohirsk.

This is not an isolated incident. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a US-based think tank, has reported that Russia is increasingly using AI-generated videos to fake battlefield gains as its actual military progress slows. In another case, Russian forces used AI-altered footage to falsely claim they had seized the small settlement of Bilyi Kolodyaz in the Kharkiv region.

Russian Reaction: Puzzlement and Embarrassment

Even within Russia, the claim has been met with bewilderment. Pro-Kremlin military bloggers, known as "Z channels," picked up the report. One prominent blogger, Yuri Kotenok, acknowledged that evidence was lacking, yet still wrote about the capture as if it were a fact.

The incident has been described as an even greater embarrassment than a similar false claim Putin made about capturing Kupiansk last year. Analysts suggest this pattern of self-deception is dangerous, leading to bloody and unnecessary assaults on positions that Russia does not actually control.

The Kremlin's strategy appears to be an attempt to create a false impression of large-scale advances, partly to convince Ukraine's Western partners to abandon their support.

A Cautionary Tale

The incident serves as a cautionary tale of how war is increasingly governed not by the laws of armed conflict, but by the wishes of a dictator detached from reality. As one observer noted, it is a story of how Russia has already lost one million soldiers killed and wounded in Ukraine, partly due to constant self-deception about where the front line actually lies.

For now, Sviatohirsk remains under Ukrainian control—a fact that AI-generated video cannot change.