Camilla Jessen
The digital resurrection trend fits into Moscow’s broader effort to fuse nationalism, religion, and technology.
Russian propagandists are using artificial intelligence to digitally “resurrect” soldiers killed in Ukraine.
Digital ghosts of the fallen
Artificial intelligence is now being used by Russian media networks to bring dead soldiers “back to life.”
According to The Washington Post on Oct. 5, AI-generated videos are appearing across Telegram and VKontakte, showing fallen Russian troops smiling, speaking, or walking toward light-filled scenes symbolizing heaven.
Holy Martyrdom
These digital “resurrections” are being used to portray the deaths of soldiers not as tragedy, but as a form of holy martyrdom.
Propaganda disguised as remembrance
The AI videos, reportedly costing about $30 each for animation and another $30 for synthetic voice generation, are created from photos and short video clips of the deceased.
The resulting deepfakes are disturbingly lifelike, featuring the soldiers addressing viewers or blessing their comrades from beyond the grave.
“This is not remembrance — it’s indoctrination”
“This is not remembrance — it’s indoctrination,” one digital culture researcher told The Washington Post.
“The regime exploits the dead to keep the living obedient.”
Manufactured closure for grieving families
Many Russian families never receive the bodies of their loved ones killed in Ukraine.
Instead, they are increasingly offered AI-created “tributes”.
Blurring the line between mourning and myth
By digitizing the dead, Russia’s propaganda machine blurs the boundary between memory and mythmaking.
The videos are part of a wider campaign to sanctify the war effort, a psychological tactic designed to keep morale high while masking the scale of the losses.
Propaganda spreads through occupied territories
Earlier reports cited by The Washington Post revealed that researchers had discovered thousands of AI-generated Telegram accounts operating in occupied Ukrainian territories.
These accounts post coordinated pro-Russian content to create the illusion of widespread local support.
This article is made and published by Camilla Jessen, which may have used AI in the preparation
