The head of the Russian General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, once again reported a lie about the "complete occupation" of the Luhansk region. Previously, similar statements have been made at least four times in recent years – the last time this was reported was at the beginning of April. This is reported by UNN.
Details
The video of Gerasimov's statement was published by the Russian Ministry of Defense.
As noted by the Center for Strategic Communications, even Russian "Z-bloggers" are already starting to get confused by these "victories." At the same time, at the beginning of April, information about the complete occupation of Luhansk region was directly refuted by the Third Army Corps of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Military-political observer of the "Information Resistance" group Oleksandr Kovalenko noted that this is not the first time the Russians have disgraced themselves with lies about the complete occupation of Luhansk region.
According to the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Russian troops completely captured the Luhansk region back in July 2022. It was then, on July 3, that this loud fake was first heard, which is repeated every six months by one of the official Russian figures. However, this time it was a real false start. The fact is that literally three weeks ago, the Russian Ministry of Defense made a similar statement
He added that the situation in the part of the Luhansk region that remains under the control of the Ukrainian Defense Forces has not changed fundamentally during this time. Ukrainian troops still control an area of about 80 km² in Luhansk region.
The Defense Forces of Ukraine hold positions in the area of the village of Nadiia, on the right bank of the Zherebets River, as well as Novohorivka, the area of the Pshenychnyi forest. Positions are also held in the area of Hrekivka - Western Forest. It seems that the Russian command decided to round off the capture of the Luhansk region and add a little mood to the "pensioner in the bunker." At the same time, the "grandfather" (Russian dictator Putin - ed.) was first pleased by the Ministry of Defense, and now a report from the General Staff will be brought in a folder
The expert also refuted Gerasimov's lie about the capture of more than 1,700 km² of Ukrainian territory by Russian troops since the beginning of 2026. He added that all reports of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces and the Russian Ministry of Defense are overstated by at least 2.5-3 times.
Since the beginning of 2026, Russian occupation forces have captured 622 km² of Ukrainian territory, lost 111,340 personnel, or 179 bodies per 1 km², and the pace of territorial capture averaged 5.6 km² per day. That is, Valery Gerasimov in his report almost tripled the real figures for the capture of Ukrainian territories. If Russian troops had indeed captured more than 1,700 km² of Ukrainian territory since the beginning of 2026, they would already control Kupyansk, Kupyansk-Vuzlovyi, would be standing along the entire left bank of the Oskil River, would be fighting urban battles in Lyman, would be on the outskirts of the Sloviansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration, would have gone beyond Kostiantynivka and would be moving along the H-20 highway to the north
Recall
Russian propagandists admitted the fact of control by the Armed Forces of Ukraine over most of the city of Kupyansk, Kharkiv region. On November 20 last year, the head of the General Staff of the Russian Federation, Valery Gerasimov, reported on the capture of the city, and later Vladimir Putin repeated this.