Shoigu's exaggerated claims: Russian advancements questioned
Analysts at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) write that "Secretary of Russia's Security Council and former Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has grossly exaggerated Russian progress in Ukraine since mid-June 2024." Shoigu claimed that Moscow managed to occupy 420 square kilometres of Ukraine. But that's not all.
Much of the information provided by Russian media or officials is part of propaganda. Such reports are part of the information warfare conducted by the Russian Federation.
Shoigu announced that since June 14, 2024, Russian forces had occupied 420 square kilometres of Ukrainian territory.
Significant losses for Ukraine?
"The window of negotiation for Kyiv is shrinking, costing Ukraine thousands of human lives every day," said Shoigu. "Every day of delay in making such a decision results in the loss of control over another part of the territory," he added.
Meanwhile, ISW has gathered evidence confirming that Russian forces occupied about 290 square kilometres, not 420.
"Russian forces increased the intensity of their attacks towards Toretsk overnight on June 18th after being generally inactive in this sector of the front throughout 2024," we read.
Since July 14th, ISW has not observed "any significant or operational advances by Russia towards Toretsk or Avdiivka," although Russian forces have made tactical advances in these directions.
"The Russian military command has repeatedly exaggerated Russia's territorial gains in Ukraine," remind the analysts.
Outrageous claims by Shoigu
At the same time, according to Russia's Ministry of Defence, Ukraine reportedly lost over 115,000 soldiers in less than two months. "This could have been avoided if Kyiv had implemented half of the proposals submitted in June by Russian President Vladimir Putin," Shoigu rambled.
What does Putin expect? The dictator demands that Kyiv recognize the status of Crimea, the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions as parts of Russia, solidify Ukraine's non-aligned and nuclear-free status, demilitarize and denazify, and lift anti-Russian sanctions.
The Ukrainian side rejected these conditions, calling them an "ultimatum." "Ukraine did not respond in any way to the conditions for resolving the conflict expressed in June by Russian President Vladimir Putin," Shoigu added.
But that's not all. As always, the West was also blamed. "If the West thinks it can drag Russia into a lengthy negotiation process over Ukraine and play out a scenario aimed at gradually losing Moscow's initiative during the special operation, they are deeply mistaken," said the former defence minister.
Shoigu believes that Europeans "once again are hindering true progress in achieving an agreement in Ukraine in every possible way, by pushing obviously unacceptable initiatives in the spirit of the Copenhagen or Swiss format."
