Russian Propaganda Admits Miscalculation in Ukraine

Russian propaganda begins to acknowledge the military disaster in Ukraine

The Russian information machine has stopped pretending. What was weeks ago a narrative of liberation and denazification has become, in the mouths of its own propagandists and retired military, a bitter acknowledgment: Russia misjudged Ukrainian national identity sentiment and faces resistance it did not expect. Even official propaganda now admits that Russians mistakenly believed Ukrainians were simply Russians and that their independence was a sham. The finding, according to the materials circulating, has been a determined and bitter resistance.

Strelkov and the myth of the world's third army

Retired military figure Igor Strelkov, noted for his role in Crimea in 2014 and a regular on state television, has admitted the strategic absurdity. His words leave no room for doubt: the Russian Armed Forces have suffered serious losses, cannot take Kiev, cannot take Kharkiv, and have failed to take Mariupol for weeks. The question he poses — where is the third largest army in the world, after the US and China? — summarizes the confusion. Strelkov goes further and dismantles the myth of contiguous territory: at least in the north and center, Russians controlled only long, narrow appendages along the roads. In practice, they controlled only the roads.

The plan was Czechoslovakia 68 and it failed

The most revealing confession is signed by Dmitriev, a pro-Russian Ukrainian who fled to Russia, prepared a revenge, and was part of the team of politruks who trinc the army with the aim of setting up a new administration once power was taken. His diagnosis is devastating: the operation was designed as Czechoslovakia 68, entering from all directions and placing a new government. It failed. For an entire month, he admits, they pretended everything was going well and tried to win with a small force unprepared for a large-scale war in eight simultaneous directions.

Solovyov, Kots, and the unexplained retreat from Kiev

State propagandist Vladimir Solovyov, known as Pilingui's voice and the best-paid on Russian television, went in a month from announcing that Ukraine would bow and they would capture Kiev to suggesting that things are complicating and it will be a long war. War correspondent Alexander Kots, who works for state media, wrote about the Russian retreat from the Kiev region with uncomfortable honesty: when yellow and blue flags began to appear where they had been days before, it became useless to deny the obvious. We are leaving Kiev, he wrote, adding that he does not know why that decision was taken. General Colonel Fomin, questioned on television, got out of the situation by saying they would drastically reduce military activity in the Kiev and Chernihiv directions because they hoped Kiev would create conditions for future cooperation.

The forecast no one wants to sign

Strelkov doubts that, after losing the first golden month of the war, Russian troops will manage to encircle and destroy the Ukrainian force in the Donbas. And he adds a judgment that weighs heavily: the Ukrainian military command is acting with much greater competence than the Russian. The conclusion that is gaining ground is uncomfortable for Moscow: it was not an execution error, it was a premise error. They believed their own propaganda about who Ukrainians are. And now they must rewrite the narrative while the front remains open.