Investigation shows Russia's Defense Ministry lying about ‘victories’ in Ukraine
It found many mistakes and inconsistencies in them – if not to say downright lies.
According to Proekt journalists, Konashenkov reported at least twice about Russian taking control of 25 settlements. The capture of the town of Kreminna was reported four times, while the settlements of Borovenky, Taramchuk, and Novomayorsk "were seized" three times.
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Konashenkov's press releases sometimes mentioned non-existent toponyms, for example, "Pavlohrad Oblast."
In one of the reports on Russia's success in Ukraine, Konashenkov said that the invaders had allegedly managed to "shoot down three Su-25 planes of the Ukrainian Air Force in a day, namely two near the village of Kyselivka in Kherson Oblast and one over the town of Pavlohrad in Kharkiv Oblast," despite the fact that Pavlohrad is located in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.
Proekt also noted that the Russian Defense Ministry had reported the destruction of 84 Bayraktar UAVs since the beginning of the war, which was about two dozen more than the officially known number of these drones in Ukraine.
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In addition, the number of allegedly destroyed armored vehicles (3,800) significantly exceeds their number not only at the beginning of the war (2,416 according to Russian estimates), but also taking into account possible Western supplies during the war (about 700).
According to Konashenkov, Russia had shot down 215 Ukrainian military planes by June 26. At the same time, open data shows that before the start of the full-scale war, Ukraine had only 98 military aircraft, 35 transport aircraft (three of which have been recently ordered) and five special ones – in total 138 aircraft, according to the publication.
Theoretically, the Russians could also destroy training aircraft: there are 61 of them in the Ukrainian army, but even in this case the total number of aircraft is less than 200.
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"The human losses in the Ukrainian army are simply enormous," the investigation reads.
"If we sum up all the data of Konashenkov's briefings, it turns out that at least 40,596 people have been killed. In this case, it turns out that up to 80% of the military staff in Ukraine have lost their combat capability."
