Kathrine Frich
These digital lies are now hurting Russia’s own soldiers.
Modern technology has changed how people see the world, making it harder than ever to trust what appears on a screen.
On the battlefield, that digital confusion has now taken a bizarre and deadly new turn.
What looks like a clear triumph online is actually hiding a very different reality on the ground.
Faking the frontlines
According to the Financial Times and United24 Media, Russian military units and bloggers are using artificial intelligence to fake battlefield victories in Ukraine. By generating or altering footage, they claim control over towns that Russian troops have not actually captured.
Researchers at the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington research group, first spotted this widespread wave of fake flag-raising clips in June 2026. Between June 1 and August 30, analysts found at least 35 suspicious videos, and commercial detection tools confirmed with high confidence that at least 10 were changed with AI.
The sloppy editing often gives the game away. On July 27, a military blogger named Divgen posted footage from Bilyi Kolodiaz in the Kharkiv region showing a five-meter-tall Russian soldier raising a flag before vanishing into the bushes.
Even though the Armed Forces of Ukraine said Russian soldiers were still 10 kilometers away, the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed a week later that its troops had entered the village.
Another case happened in mid-October in Dobropillia. After commanders told Russian leader Vladimir Putin they had taken the city, the Russian Ministry of Defense shared video of flags among the ruins, which quickly fell apart under scrutiny when the flag jumped positions in a single frame.
“Without a doubt, this segment was forged,” said Ruslan Leviev, who heads the open-source investigation group Conflict Intelligence Team, as reported by United24 Media.
A deadly backfire
These digital lies are now hurting Russia’s own soldiers. Sources close to Putin and analysts told the Financial Times that commanders believe the fake reports and order troops to advance into areas from which Russian units have already retreated. Those mistakes lead straight to extra casualties.
The doctored clips also expose a massive gap between Moscow’s boasts and real progress.
While Putin claimed his army took 6,500 square kilometers of land since the start of the year, independent analysts told the Financial Times they could verify no more than 1,500 square kilometers.
Still, experts warn that spotting these fakes will get much harder as the software improves. Daniel Mealie, who leads the geospatial intelligence team at the Institute for the Study of War, told the Financial Times that the clips serve a wider psychological goal.
“These videos are part of a broader narrative or cognitive-warfare campaign intended to assert the inevitability of a Russian victory in Ukraine,” Mealie said.
“The Kremlin has an interest in fostering the false narrative that Ukraine’s front line is collapsing and that the West should give up.”
