Fake news on the front: Russian disinformation about the Ukrainian military

Moscow has been continuously spreading complex and continuous propaganda narratives about the Ukrainian army. All of these are aimed at undermining morale, shaking public trust, and minimizing support from the West. Spreading fake news about mass casualties, epidemics, shortages of weapons, or desertions is aimed at reducing the fighting motivation of Ukrainian soldiers and the trust of civilians in the military leadership. By manipulating that the authorities are “hiding the true numbers of casualties,” Moscow wants to arouse suspicion and discontent among citizens. Depicting Ukraine as “already defeated” or “without the capacity for offensives” is aimed at convincing Western governments and the public that sending money and weapons is futile

 

Author: Ana Anastasovska

 

In recent months, Russian propaganda structures and media outlets have increasingly intensified their disinformation campaign, which is not new, and aims to discredit the Ukrainian military, incite panic among the population, and undermine support from the West.

In September 2024, for example, several pro-Russian Telegram channels spread false news that a tuberculosis epidemic was developing in the Ukrainian army, “with sanitary losses of over 10% of personnel,” calling for an immediate evacuation. The Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC) assessed this information as disinformation aimed at demoralizing the military.

Some of that disinformation did not spare North Macedonia either.

Minors will not fight on the front lines

In this context, insisting that the Ukrainian army is running out of people, disinformation is constantly being spread that Ukraine will recruit minors to the front against Russia.

Ukraine will recruit 14-year-old children!!! Fight to the last Ukrainian.
Few are aware that this war is a war against the people in the EU and Russia…. Mass impoverishment of the middle class and the largest number of extremely wealthy corporations, says a post on Facebook.

Another post states:

Zelensky is now targeting those over the age of 17. By July 31, all young Ukrainian men who turned 17 this year are required to register for military service, TKC reports, writes the author, without elaborating what the abbreviation TKC refers to.

The facts show that Ukraine does not recruit anyone under the age of 18, but that it has lowered the age limit for military service from 27 to 25.

 

Legal restrictions

Recruiting children into the armed forces is against the law in Ukraine.

Article 15 of the Law on Military Service of Ukraine states that the only persons to whom this applies are:

Ukrainian male citizens who are healthy, have reached the age of 18 by the commencement date of service, have not yet reached the age of 27, and are not entitled to exemption or deferment are subject to conscription. Citizens of military age may also voluntarily enter military service under contract, in accordance with Part One of Article 20 of this Law and the procedures established by the regulations on military service for citizens of Ukraine.

There is no evidence to document and support the allegations that there are Ukrainian children fighting on the front lines.

The fact is that the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine lowered the age limit for military mobilization last year, reducing the term from 27 to 25 years.

“This will allow the Ukrainian army to call up more people to its ranks after the number of volunteers decreased. Zelensky said in December that 500,000 more soldiers were needed. This law was voted in parliament back in May 2023, but has not yet entered into force because Zelensky had not signed it,” domestic media outlets explain.

According to the draft law, the draft age will be changed from 27 to 25 years. Citizens aged 25 to 60 are subject to mobilization. During mobilization, men aged 18 to 60 are required to carry a military registration document with them at all times, Ukrainian National News wrote at the time.

It also specifies that during the legal regime of martial law in Ukraine, there is no need for citizens under the age of 27 to register with the military for an extended period of time.

 

Russia also disinforms about the number of Ukrainian deserters

Citing statements by Ukrainian lawmakers critical of Zelensky’s government, but without any supporting information, some Macedonian media outlets spread the Russian narrative that the Ukrainian army has 400,000 deserters.

Nearly 400,000 Ukrainian soldiers have left their units without permission, and many–including volunteers–have no plans to return, according to a Facebook post.

In articles we searched regarding the number of Ukrainian deserters, we did not come across a figure of 400,000 soldiers anywhere.

Nexus Newsfeed, recalls a report by Ukrainian journalist Volodymyr Boyko, who in July 2025 reported that authorities filed more than 107,000 criminal charges related to desertion and unauthorized departure from the military in the first half of 2025. He stated that the total number of cases had exceeded 230,000 since the escalation of the Ukrainian conflict in 2022, and the real number of incidents may be even higher. The most commonly cited figure at the end of last year is around 100,000, according to the reputable Defense Post.

Deutsche Welle writes that at the beginning of the year, Ukraine registered about 123,000 investigations into soldiers who were absent without permission or abandoned their units. However, at the same time, there are numerous deserters who, faced with the choice of being punished or returning to the front, choose the latter, and such a number amounted to 21,000 soldiers in March 2025 alone.

After more than three years of intense war with Russia, Ukraine is losing a large number of soldiers every day and is in dire need of additional forces on the front. In the first months of the war, there were a large number of volunteers. Over time, the number of people volunteering has dropped significantly, so the state has had to move to compulsory mobilization. Desertion is a problem, but according to the figures that can be found and compared, it is far from 400 thousand soldiers, as claimed by the deputy of the Ukrainian parliament Anna Skorokhod, about whom in 2024 the Ukrainian National News published a news story with data on the increase in her personal wealth and the wealth of her ex-husband, a Russian with Ukrainian citizenship.

 

Disinformation about arrested NATO officers

Some Macedonian media outlets spread disinformation and claimed that the Russian military had arrested NATO officers.

Russian Federation special forces have allegedly captured several NATO officers in the Ukrainian city of Ochakov, who were helping the Ukrainian armed forces fire missiles and drones at Russian civilian targets, the Telegram channel “Na Marshe” [On The March] reported, as well as several Russian media outlets, as noted by a Macedonian media outlet.

As already analyzed by Truthmeter.mk, some Russian media outlets did indeed report such an event, but the news is fake, and these are extremely propagandistic Russian media outlets such as Glavny, Info24, and Bloknot. Some of them used the equally propagandistic Telegram channel Na Marshe or the similar channel Militarist as a source, but both channels admit that the news is unconfirmed, and yet they spread it. They attribute the news to unnamed Western sources, which is an extremely unconvincing argument.

The independent British security and defense portal, UK Defence Journal (UKDJ), confirmed that this is disinformation.

The news, which lacks any independent verification, comes from sources linked to Russia and includes fabricated photos and fictitious identities, according to a UKDJ investigation.

This is not the first time that such disinformation has been spread. For example, in 2022, a fake news story was spread that during the capture of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, the Russians had captured an American general, and the “proof” of this was a video clip of the arrest of an ordinary person in Crimea, which was falsely described.

 

 

Russian disinformation regarding Ukrainian war casualties

Recent unfounded claims regarding Ukrainian military casualties have also been in the news lately. Originating from pro-Russian “hacktivist” groups and rapidly disseminated across social media platforms and state-sponsored media outlets, the narrative alleges that a staggering 1.7 million Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or gone missing since the invasion began in February 2022. This figure, however, lacks any credible, independent substantiation and bears the hallmarks of a coordinated disinformation campaign orchestrated by pro-Kremlin actors, the Disinformation Social Media Alliance DISA has analyzed.

Independent analysts, including Petro Andryushchenko, head of the Mariupol-based Center for the Study of the Occupation, have debunked the claim as “blatantly false.”  Andryushchenko further connects this disinformation campaign to earlier false claims alleging that the Ukrainian government refused to accept 1,000 captured soldiers in a prisoner exchange, portraying the combined effort as a targeted assault on morale. Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation has also forcefully denounced the 1.7 million figure as an “absolutely absurd fake,” emphasizing that the total size of the Ukrainian military, including reservists, is significantly smaller than the alleged casualty count, DISA reported.

Credible estimates of Ukrainian military casualties paint a very different picture from the inflated figures propagated by pro-Kremlin sources. Both Ukraine and Russia are reluctant to release official casualty figures, although Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has provided some estimates. In February 2025, Zelensky estimated Ukrainian military casualties at around 46,000, with over 390,000 wounded. He has also refuted media reports suggesting a significantly higher death toll, acknowledging the difficulty of accurately recording casualties in the ongoing conflict and prisoner exchanges.

Independent estimates from organizations such as the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) offer a wider range, estimating Ukrainian military deaths at between 60,000 and 100,000, with total casualties reaching as high as 400,000. While these numbers are undoubtedly tragic and large, they remain significantly lower than the fictional figure of 1.7 million.

 

Propaganda is cheaper than classical warfare

Moscow has been continuously spreading complex and continuous propaganda narratives about the Ukrainian army. All of these are aimed at undermining morale, shaking public trust, and minimizing support from the West. Spreading fake news about mass casualties, epidemics, shortages of weapons, or desertions is intended to reduce the fighting motivation of Ukrainian soldiers and the trust of civilians in the military leadership. By manipulating that the authorities are “hiding the true numbers of casualties,” Moscow wants to arouse suspicion and discontent among citizens. Depicting Ukraine as “already defeated” or “without the capacity for offensives” is intended to convince Western governments and the public that sending money and weapons is futile.

Russia is spreading disinformation about the Ukrainian military because it is cheaper and easier than conventional warfare, and it can have a huge effect: weakening morale, divisions within Ukraine, and reduced support from Western allies. In other words, disinformation is a weapon that aims to achieve strategic gains without direct military action. Ukrainian authorities and media outlets are actively working to expose them and highlight the factual situation.

 

 

 

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