According to the Institute for the Study of War, Russia is increasingly using AI-generated videos to depict false battlefield successes in Ukraine, including clips showing Russian flags being raised along the front lines.
The group says this is part of a broader information war that has intensified since winter 2025, with more realistic and heavily edited videos being published online. Analysts link this trend to a slowdown in Russia’s progress on the ground.
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Russia captured 141 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory in April, one of its weakest monthly gains in more than a year and second only to February’s 126 square kilometers, according to a report by the Ukraine monitoring group Deep State.
Last week, Russia released a video claiming that Ukrainian soldiers from the 81st Air Assault Brigade surrendered in the Donetsk region’s Pisknivka village and raised Russian flags.
Ukraine’s anti-disinformation center said the video was fabricated and generated using AI.
ISW said such “flag-raising” videos are appearing more frequently, especially before symbolic days like Victory Day, as Moscow seeks to project momentum despite limited gains on the ground.
Russia’s extensive AI-driven psychological warfare campaign
Russia is also increasingly deploying AI-generated videos and deepfakes as part of what Ukrainian authorities describe as a coordinated psychological warfare campaign aimed at distorting reality and manipulating different audiences.
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Moscow and Kiev have accused each other of repeatedly violating a temporary ceasefire announced between May 9 and 11, as clashes and drone attacks continue in multiple frontline areas. Ukrainian officials also announced that a Russian drone struck an apartment complex in Kharkiv during the ceasefire, injuring five people, including two children.
Ukraine’s Counter-Disinformation Center (CDD), citing research by Sensity AI, said more than 1,000 composite videos were identified as part of a structured “narrative kill chain” – a modular disinformation system designed to target specific groups, including soldiers, civilians and Western viewers.
Officials say military-related content aims to undermine morale by promoting a narrative of a collapsing frontline, while civilian-focused content seeks to undermine trust in institutions and normalize Russian domination.
Messages targeted at the West often seek to discredit Ukraine and reduce international support.
Analysts warn that the end goal is information chaos, where synthetic content becomes so prevalent that even real evidence is dismissed as fake.
