Soviet propaganda poster, public domain, courtesy of the Frye Art Museum

The Institute for the Study of War analyzes Putin’s propaganda moves designed to fake the West into believing they are winning their invasion of Ukraine.  Excerpt:

Russian forces are conducting a new cognitive warfare campaign through limited cross-border attacks across a broad part of the previously dormant northern frontline in Sumy and Kharkiv oblasts. Ukrainian authorities reported on December 20 and 21 that Russian forces entered Hrabovske, Sumy Oblast (a small rural village southeast of Sumy City along the international border) overnight on December 19 to 20, and the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) and other Russian sources claimed on December 20 and 21 that elements of the Russian had seized Hrabovske and Vysoke (immediately south of Hrabovske)….  Available evidence indicates that Russian forces have likely seized Hrabovske….

Russian forces also conducted a geographically separate across-border attack against another small rural border village in Kharkiv Oblast. Geolocated footage published on December 21 shows Russian infantry (about two squads totaling around 15 infantry) attacking Ukrainian positions in northern Sotnytskyi Kozachok (northwest of Kharkiv City, about 15 kilometers east of Grayvoron, Belgorod Oblast, and less than half a kilometer from the international border), and a Ukrainian drone unit operating in the border area reported that Ukrainian forces repelled the assault.[7]

These two cross-border attacks likely intend to advance the Kremlin’s cognitive warfare campaign to convince the West that the frontlines in Ukraine are collapsing, such that Ukraine should concede to all of Russia’s demands. The Kremlin likely intends to portray these limited cross-border attacks against small rural border villages in long-dormant areas of the international border as part of a broad new Russian offensive to reinforce a false narrative that Ukraine’s frontline is collapsing across the theater. Russian President Vladimir Putin stated on December 17 that Russia will achieve all of its war goals militarily if it cannot do so diplomatically, including the creation and expansion of a “buffer zone” in Ukraine.

Slava Ukraine!