The True Score of the Ukraine War at Present Day: Cutting Through the Propaganda

If you ask any major AI, it will respond with the following assessment regarding the war in Ukraine:

"The evidence from multiple sources including Ukrainian official claims, Western think tanks, and independent Ukrainian trackers suggests that Ukraine recaptured substantially more territory than Russia captured during the first half of 2026..."

According to AI, Ukraine has come out ahead overall this year, despite acknowledging that Russia has made gains during the summer months.

When you compare that with Russian official reporting and state media, however, the picture looks very different.

Russia entered 2026 claiming it had secured important battlefield victories. General Valery Gerasimov reported the capture of Pokrovsk (Krasnoarmeysk), a majorlogistics center in Donetsk that had been contested for years,along with Vovchansk in the Kharkiv region. These announcements followed a series of reported advances during the closing months of 2025, including additional settlements in Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk.

During the spring, Russian state news agency TASS reported that Russian forces had taken control of 63 settlements between March and May. According to those reports, the advances were spread across several regions, with the largest numbers occurring in Kharkiv, Donetsk, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipropetrovsk. Russian officials described the operations in Sumy and Kharkiv as part of an effort to establish a buffer or "security zone" near the Russian border.

By early summer, Gerasimov stated that Russian forces were continuing offensive operations across multiple sectors. Russian military reports described advances toward Sloviansk andKramatorsk, with claims that several nearbysettlements had been captured and that Russian units were approaching the outskirts of key Ukrainian defensive positions. Additional offensives were also reported around Kupiansk and north of Pokrovsk, where Moscow claimed continued territorial gains.

Russian reporting continued through July, with TASS stating that another 32 settlements had come under Russian control during the month. According to those reports, most of the gains were concentrated in Kharkiv and Donetsk, while Russian battlegroups operating in different sectors each claimed additional advances. Russian officials highlighted the reported capture of Kostiantynivka as particularly significant because it forms part of one ofUkraine's major defensive belts in Donetsk.

Based on Russian reporting, Moscow's current military effort remains focused on the remaining Ukrainian-held urban corridor stretching from Kostiantynivka through Druzhkivka, Kramatorsk, and Sloviansk, while also continuing operations along the Sumy and Kharkiv frontiers and consolidating positions farther south.

Russian sources have also claimed that strikes against Ukraine's Black Sea infrastructure have severely disrupted maritime trade through ports such as Odesa and Mykolaiv. Moscow argues these attacks have significantly limited Ukraine's ability to export agricultural products and receive seaborne supplies, although the full extent of that impact is disputed by other observers.

At the same time, Russia continues its campaign of missile and drone strikes targeting military facilities, logistics hubs, warehouses, and industrial sites across Ukraine. Russian officials portray these operations as steadily weakening Ukraine's military and economic capacity over time.

The reality of the war is the facts vary dramatically depending on the sources being used. Ukrainian officials, Western governments, and many independent analysts often present a different picture from Russian government statements and state media.

Because the Ukrainian side and Western governments have been lying since the start of this war and have never stopped lying.

Written by V