According to the BBC, citing internal documents of the 58th Army, the official situation maps of the Russian General Staff in the Zaporizhzhia region deviate by 10 to 20 kilometers from the real front line. Villages such as Mala Tokmachka, Veselyanka, or Prymorske are marked as captured on the maps, although independent military observers and satellite images indicate they remain under Ukrainian control.
On June 12, Putin claimed at a meeting with storm troops that the Russian army was approaching Zaporizhzhia. In reality, the advance on this sector has been stalled for months, and Ukrainian forces have even recaptured territory. The discrepancy between Putin’s statements and reality is not an isolated case: as early as late 2025, Putin twice declared the capture of Kupiansk, although the city is still not fully under Russian control.
The BBC documents that the Russian leadership systematically practices “zakrasy” — the premature coloring of areas on maps as captured. This leads to dangerous misjudgments for their own troops, who operate based on these maps. The analysis shows that the official portrayal of the war’s progress in Russia increasingly diverges from military reality.
Source: www.bbc.com
