Russia, as usual, cannot admit defeat in the Kharkiv region. Analysts at the American Institute for the Study of War explained why.
The Russian Defense Ministry again failed to recognize the defeat of the invaders in the Kharkiv region and create the desired narrative due to the propaganda media.
Why Russia did not have time to explain its defeat< /strong>
The Russian Ministry of Defense has only announced the destruction of Ukrainian ammunition in Balakliya. Some propagandists complained that the Kremlin seized the information space at the wrong time to prevent the spread of truthful information.
Propaganda bloggers have largely supported the Russian Defense Ministry’s narratives that the Ukrainian counter-offensive in Kherson Oblast had completely failed just days before the Ukrainian breakthrough in Kharkiv Oblast. Such changes can be partly explained by the shortcomings of the Russian information strategy during the war, namely:
- The Russian Ministry of Defense has a difficult time responding to unexpected Ukrainian operations, since its information strategy is based on the portrayal of the Russian invasion of Ukraine as easy and sure-fire operations.
- The Kremlin takes a significant amount of time to develop and disseminate false narratives in the Russian information space. Russia successfully did this before the long-awaited Ukrainian counter-offensive in the South. But she was not able to prepare a narrative about the Ukrainian operations in the Kharkiv region.
- Russian bloggers will share and advertise footage and images of hostilities that are disadvantageous for the Russian forces that dominate the information space.
