Russian propaganda has suffered a fresh blow after Ukrainian defence sources debunked a fabricated story about an alleged Russian military breakthrough into the Dnipropetrovsk region. Russian Z-marked military correspondents and Kremlin-controlled outlets claimed that their forces had successfully crossed from occupied Donetsk into the Dnipropetrovsk region near the village of Novomykolayivka, backing their statement with a photograph showing soldiers beside a pickup truck tangled in barbed wire.
However, Ukraine’s DeepState project, which has connections to the Ministry of Defence, quickly refuted this version of events. The pickup in the photo, they said, belonged to Ukrainian forces and had become stuck in barbed wire near Troitske during the night. In the morning, Russian troops stumbled upon the abandoned vehicle, posed for photographs, and were later neutralised by Ukrainian soldiers. The group stated unequivocally that the supposed evidence had been misrepresented and manipulated to serve Kremlin propaganda.
Serhiy Lysak, head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Administration, also called out the report as a complete fabrication. “It’s a fake — both the so-called ‘news’ and the photo supposedly proving it,” he wrote on Telegram. He accused Russia of deliberately spreading falsehoods to frighten the public, sow chaos and destabilise the situation.
Despite months of war and fierce fighting further east, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast has not experienced ground combat on its soil. Since April, Russian forces have pushed westward from Pokrovsk in Donetsk, with intense clashes reported in areas such as Udachne. While Russia has made minor territorial advances between villages like Uspenivka and Novooleksandrivka, and Nadiyivka and Zaporizhzhia, they remain several kilometres away from truly entering Dnipropetrovsk. The village of Kotlyarivka, just three kilometres from the regional border, remains contested.
The broader region, however, continues to suffer from frequent Russian airstrikes, missile attacks and drone assaults that target civilian infrastructure and residential areas. Moscow’s indiscriminate use of long-range weapons has led to significant civilian casualties across the region.
This latest false claim comes as the Russian dictator continues to reject all diplomatic solutions to the war. On 19 May, after a phone conversation with US President Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin once again refused to agree to a ceasefire.
