Generals Have Begun Sending Putin AI-generated Videos About "successes" In Ukraine
- 9.11.2026, 19:49
The dictator of the Russian Federation lives in a fantasy world.
The Russian military command is likely passing on to Vladimir Putin fake, AI-generated videos depicting victories in Ukraine that do not actually exist, according to Financial Times citing sources close to the Russian dictator.
According to the FT’s sources, Putin’s determination to achieve victory on the battlefield is pushing generals to exaggerate the scale of their conquests. “When someone reports that they’ve captured a settlement, they brag about it to a colonel, who brags to a general, who brags to a lieutenant general, who passes it on to the General Staff, and the General Staff passes it on to the commander-in-chief. And by the time they’ve all managed to report, our troops have already retreated,” said one of the newspaper’s sources.
According to him, orders then come to attack the next positions, based on false reports of the capture of the previous ones, even though in reality there are no Russian troops there. “Because of this, both sides are suffering enormous losses. That’s why Stalin used to have people shot for this,” the source added.
As the FT notes, the number of fake AI-generated videos claiming the capture of various settlements in Ukraine is already in the dozens, and while they used to appear on pro-Russian blogs, they have now become part of official reports. In particular, in mid-October, the Russian Ministry of Defense published footage of a soldier waving the Russian tricolor from the window of a damaged building in Dobropillya, an important city in the Donetsk region. This footage was undoubtedly edited, as “the flag in the video abruptly changes its position,” and this cannot be explained by file compression or camera “noise,” Ruslan Leviev , head of the Conflict Intelligence Team , told the FT.
From June through August, ISW analysts identified at least 35 videos that may have been fabricated using AI, 10 of which were determined to be fake with a high degree of certainty. These videos feature fighters from at least 10 regiments and brigades. The total number of fake recordings is likely higher, given the limitations of existing AI detection software, ISW noted.
One telling example demonstrating that Putin relies on false reports is an AI-generated fake showing the pseudo-capture of Svyatogorsk, which was debunked by General Andriy Biletsky, commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ 3rd Army Corps, who personally visited the city, as well as by the Z-community.
Russia will most likely continue the practice of issuing fictitious reports of victories, according to Dara Massicot, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “The gap between the claims (and reality) is widening. The Kremlin feels no internal pressure to be held accountable for these assertions,” she notes.
In September, Putin claimed on national television that his army had seized 6,500 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory since the beginning of the year, the FT reports. In reality, the territory under Russian control has increased by no more than 1,500 square kilometers, according to estimates by OSINT analysts.
If we take into account the territory recaptured by the Ukrainian army, the Russian army’s “net” gain from January through October was only 119 square kilometers of captured territory, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
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