Russia's exaggerated claims in Ukraine: Fact-checking Shoigu's statements

"Secretary of Russia's Security Council and former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has grossly exaggerated Russian progress in Ukraine since mid-June 2024," write analysts at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). Shoigu claimed that Moscow managed to occupy 162 square miles of Ukraine. But that's not all.

Many of the pieces of information provided by Russian media or officials are 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 162 square miles of Ukrainian territory.

"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 112 square miles, not 162.

"Russian forces increased the intensity of their attacks towards Toretsk overnight on June 18 after being generally inactive in this sector of the front throughout 2024," we read.

Since July 14, 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.

At the same time, according to Russia's Ministry of Defense, 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," babbled Shoigu.

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 defense 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."