Leaked Kremlin maps expose how generals are lying to Putin

An old saying goes: In war, truth is the first casualty.

It makes sense, since much of warfare is based on deception, misleading the enemy with false intelligence and similar tactics.

One of the most famous examples is probably Operation Fortitude, when the Allies tricked Nazi Germany into thinking that the D-Day invasion would happen at Pas-de-Calais instead of Normandy, where it actually happened.

But even though deception is a key part of warfare, it is usually aimed at the enemy. Not at your own leader.

That, however, is what the Russian military command seems to be doing to Vladimir Putin.

Fake progress

According to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Russian President Vladimir Putin has likely developed a completely “false perception” of his military’s success in Ukraine.

This delusion stems from the Russian military showing heavily exaggerated, if not downright false, information about the situation on the battlefield.

The issue came to light on May 28. A Ukrainian open-source cartographer published a leaked Russian Ministry of Defense map on X. Dated April 9, the document details the front line in western Zaporizhia Oblast. Experts believe it is authentic.

The map claims that Russian forces seized a dozen Ukrainian towns and pushed into the strategic area of Orikhiv. Russian Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov publicly backed these claims on April 21.

Yet independent monitors found no evidence of these victories. In fact, tracking showed that Russian forces remained miles away from their main targets.

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Falling behind

ISW suggests that these falsified reports are giving Putin a distorted view of his army’s capabilities.

The Financial Times reported that sources close to Putin claim he believes his military can capture the entire Donetsk and Luhansk regions by fall 2026.

But the reality on the ground completely contradicts this confidence. ISW noted that Russia’s rate of advance has plummeted in 2026 compared to last year. Troops are currently gaining just 2.63 square kilometres per day in the Donetsk region. This sluggish pace makes rapid victory highly unlikely.

Data reveals that Russian troops seized just 104 square kilometres in Ukraine between the start of the year and May 26. During the exact same period in 2025, they captured a much larger 1,619 square kilometres.

On May 2, 2026, ISW released an assessment of Russian territorial gains in Ukraine, showing that Putin’s forces actually lost control of roughly 116 square kilometres in April after gaining only 23 square kilometres in March.

By feeding the president overly optimistic maps, the military command appears to be hiding a stark decline in battlefield performance. The strategy keeps the leader happy but deeply misinformed.

Sources: Institute for the Study of War, Financial Times, X post by @M0nstas

This article is made and published by Jens Asbjørn Bogen, who may have used AI in the preparation