The Ministry of Defense regularly reports on the successes of the Russian army in the war in Ukraine, including the destruction of equipment. As the Project found out , the agency is lying, because, according to these reports, Russia has already destroyed more equipment than Ukraine has in total, taking into account Western supplies.
The representative of the department, General Igor Konashenkov, holds briefings in which he cites “official data” for the Russians.
For example, on the first day of the war, on the afternoon of February 24, Konashenkov already reported: “As a result of the strikes of the Russian armed forces, 74 ground objects of the military infrastructure of Ukraine were put out of action.” He listed among these facilities 11 airfields, four Bayraktar drones, 18 radar stations, three command posts, a naval base and one helicopter. If you count them, you get 37 objects, that is, half the number he named. Also, the Russian Ministry of Defense stated that before the war, Ukraine had 152 aircraft, but by June 26, Konashenkov reported the destruction of 215 aircraft. In addition, according to the agency, the Russian military shot down 84 of the 36 Bayraktar drones that Ukraine had.
The publication drew attention to the "dictionary" of the Ministry of Defense. In addition to calling the war a "special operation", for fighting on the streets of cities, briefings use the phrase "cleansing from nationalists" or simply "cleansings". Servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are always called “nationalists, militants, Nazis” in speeches, and the retreat of the Russian army is called “planned regrouping of troops.” At the same time, the publication drew attention to the fact that there were a lot of such “planned regroupings”, that is, retreats. Instead of talking about the capture of the Ukrainian city, the Ministry of Defense reports on "taking control."
In addition, Konashenkov several times reported on “establishing control” over the same cities, at least 25 settlements were taken more than once.
In early June, the BBC Russian Service, citing a high-ranking representative of Western intelligence agencies, claimed that the number of Russian military dead during the war in Ukraine could reach 20,000. A week earlier, the official said that the number of victims on the Russian side was about 15,000.
Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the Ministry of Defense has twice reported on the death of Russian servicemen, according to the latest data, 1,351 soldiers died. At the same time, on May 30, the BBC Russian Service found out the names of 3,052 Russian soldiers who died in the war in Ukraine. The publication clarifies that these are incomplete figures, since the media and regional authorities do not name all the dead, even if their bodies were delivered to their families and buried. The text says that in some cities, entire alleys have been allocated for the burial of those killed in Ukraine.
Before that, the Proekt publication published an investigation in which it established the names of 166 Russian commanders who give orders in the war in Ukraine. The list includes 72 generals and admirals, 69 colonels, 16 lieutenant colonels and 5 active state advisers of the Russian Federation of the 1st class, while every eighth of the officers is connected with Ukraine (has relatives, was born or studied there). At least 20 identified commanders from the list had already died by mid-May, the journalists specified.