Gerasimov’s and Belousov’s exaggerated claims actually demonstrate the slow pace of Russian advances and undermine the Kremlin’s ongoing cognitive warfare effort to portray a Russian battlefield victory in Ukraine and the collapse of Ukrainian defenses as inevitable.
Gerasimov
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Gerasimov’s and Belousov’s exaggerated claims actually demonstrate the slow pace of Russian advances and undermine the Kremlin’s ongoing cognitive warfare effort to portray a Russian battlefield victory in Ukraine and the collapse of Ukrainian defenses as inevitable.
Gerasimov further claimed that Russian forces have seized over 6,300 square kilometers in 2025 — slightly more than Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov’s December 17 claim of 6,000 square kilometers. ISW assesses that Russian forces have seized only about 4,700 square kilometers in 2025, but even Gerasimov’s more exaggerated claim only amounts to an area slightly larger than the state of Delaware or just 1.04 percent of Ukraine’s total land area.
Gerasimov used his briefing to foreign military officials to repeat many of the claims from Putin’s and Belousov’s addresses to the December 17 Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) board meeting, likely in order to spread these Russian narratives to an international audience.
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