Russia manipulates regarding its summer offensive: where the main strike will be

Russian propaganda intentionally spread false information about the possible "advance" of the occupiers on Kharkiv, Kherson, Sumy or Kyiv.

Lieutenant Andriy Kovalenko, Head of the Countering Disinformation Center at the NSDC, explains why the enemy is doing this and what they are up to in Moscow.

"Right now, civilians are being targeted with these psychological operations. They are probing not only the front, they are probing the population's reaction to certain things. They talk about Kharkiv, about the offensive, about the environment," Kovalenko said.

He recalled the fake reports, allegedly from the State Emergency Service about the "evacuation from Kharkiv", which turned out to be hostile psychological operations. Similar fakes were made for the residents of Chernihiv, Sumy and Kyiv. According to the Head of the CCD, with such disinformation the Russians want to induce as many people as possible to leave the cities and cause panic.

"And thus they blur the perception: people don't understand where they will attack from. On the other hand, this railway... that they're extending to Crimea, in the south. And there they also create a certain perception for our military that they might accumulate there... But, of course, the main strike, personally as I see it, will be directed mainly at Vuhledar, Chasiv Yar, Kramatorsk and the Kupiansk direction," Andriy Kovalenko concluded.

Read also:

• Russian army launched missiles from a submarine: details from the Ukrainian Armed Forces

• The occupiers employ a new tactic in the area of Chasiv Yar - analysts

• Missile strike on Poltava region: what was hit and what the victims say (photos)

• The occupiers hit Odesa region with a missile: what is the aftermath?