Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin and Russian state media are actively pushing a false narrative that the "frontline in Ukraine will imminently collapse," despite the fact that this does not reflect the real situation on the battlefield.

That is according to a new report by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Ukrinform reports.

According to analysts, Russia is deliberately spreading this narrative likely in an effort to coerce the West and Ukraine into capitulating to Russian demands that Russia cannot secure itself militarily.

The report notes that a Kremlin-affiliated milblogger observed that the Russian state media, following Putin's November 27 press conference, is widely spreading false claims that the frontline in Ukraine is collapsing as Ukrainian forces "desert and surrender en masse" and leave large areas undefended; that Russian forces will soon drive on Kyiv City.

The milblogger accused Russian state media of fabricating some territorial successes and amplifying Putin's exaggerated claims, using artificial intelligence (AI) to generate fake videos of Ukrainian forces surrendering, and deliberately targeting social media users, ISW said.

"Russian state media are also trying to reinforce the Kremlin's efforts to create a perception that Russian forces will inevitably collapse sectors of the frontline in Ukraine, destroy Ukraine's most combat-capable elite units, and degrade the combat effectiveness of the Ukrainian military writ large — and that Ukraine and the...

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