Gerasimov Is Lying Again
- 27.01.2026, 11:41
The head of the Russian General Staff announced the capture of a city that the Russian army had not even approached.
The head of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov has said that Russian troops have captured the town of Kupyansk-Uzlovoy in Kharkiv Region. According to OSINT-analysts' maps, the Russian military has not even approached the settlement. Several Russian pro-war Telegram channels pointed out the unreliability of Gerasimov's statement, writes "Agency".
Gerasimov made his statement during an inspection of the Zapad troop grouping, a video of which was published by the Defense Ministry on Tuesday morning. He said Kupyansk-Uzlovoy has been "liberated" and the Russian military is now "inspecting and mopping up the city's neighborhoods."
The statement was highlighted by several z-channels. "We'll probably go for a smoke after such a beautiful report. Silently," wrote the z-channel "Two Majors".
Author of the z-channel "Romanov Light" Vladimir Romanov called Gerasimov's statement the result of "paint-by-numbers," referring to the practice of announcing promotions that do not correspond to reality.
The pro-Russian telegram channel Belorussian Silovik published a map on which it drew in black the border of the territory under AFU control and underlined in blue the settlements that are "to put it mildly, not quite under our control." The map shows that the Russian army has not approached Kupyansk-Uzlovoye.
According to DeepState, which is close to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, it is at least 10 kilometers in a straight line from Kupyansk-Uzlovoye to the territory controlled by the Russian military. Finnish Blackbird also confirms that the "gray zone" has not yet approached the city's borders. According to the map of the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW, fourth photo), the settlement is fully under Ukrainian control.
Kupyansk-Uzlovoy is about five kilometers south of Kupyansk. Gerasimov reported the capture of Kupyansk to Vladimir Putin back in November 2025. In fact, the Russian military never managed to fully capture this town, OSINT analysts' maps showed. And in late December, the Russian military lost control even over the already captured areas in the city.