FACT CHECK: Was Putin Telling the Truth About Some More Big Russian Victories in Ukraine?

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sept. 1 during a conference in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, said that Russian forces are continually advancing in Ukraine and capturing new towns and villages daily. Specifically, the Russian leader told dignitaries and Krygyz and international media at the event: “The Sever [North] grouping of forces continues creating a security zone along the Russian-Ukrainian border in the border areas of Sumy region – it is 12 kilometers [7.5 miles] to Sumy, to Sumy’s ring road – and in Kharkiv region. Over the past month, 14 settlements have come under the control of Russian forces, including Kazachya Lopan, and yesterday – the city of Sviatohirsk. In the northeastern part of Kharkiv region, another encirclement of another enemy grouping, numbering up to 2,000 men, has been completed. The area of the resulting pocket is large – 460 square kilometers [178 square miles] – and includes 27 settlements.”JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. A Kremlin-generated transcript of Putin’s comments was posted here. None of Putin’s claims could be confirmed and most were provably false, Kyiv Post research into the former mid-grade KGB spy’s claims found. The most compelling recent evidence of the total absence of any Russian forces in Sviatohirsk was recorded on Sept. 5 by Ukrainian Brigadier General Andriy Biletsky, during a relaxed walk through town. Biletsky commands the Armed Forces of Ukraine’s (AFU) 3rd Army Corps, a major combat unit fighting in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region since March 2025. Sviatohirsk is in the center of 3rd Corps’ area of responsibility.Accompanied by a camera operator and two soldiers, an unhelmeted Biletsky is shown talking to a civilian as he walks across the T0521 road bridge across the Siverskyi Donets River to stand in front of the monastery. Aside from a pistol, he is unarmed. He states the town is fully under Ukrainian control, that no Russian soldiers are anywhere near where he is standing, that Ukrainian frontline positions are more than a dozen kilometers to the east, and that in Sviatohirsk: “There are no Russian soldiers anywhere.””Here you need to wear an armored vest, but you can walk around without any problems at all. As you can see, we have a quiet, pretty day here. Cars are driving around freely,” Biletsky said. “I have this to say to the Russian military-political leadership: You should just take off your clown noses and your multi-colored wigs. Stop making fools of yourselves.” Other Topics of Interest Putin’s ‘Battlefield Fiction’ Could Take Russia Until 2032 to Seize Donetsk, ISW Says Putin has reportedly set at least 15 deadlines for the seizure of Donetsk region since February 2022. Russian forces have failed to meet every one. Kyiv Post checks of local government agencies showed utilities operational in Sviatohirsk, and small grocery stores, pharmacies, and the town bakery open for business. Biletsky said the main Ukrainian force in the area is the 60th Mechanized Brigade. Sviatohirsk serves primarily as a 3rd Corps rear area support base. Recent 60th Brigade combat video reviewed by Kyiv Post showed engagements typical of Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) “drone wall” tactics, with kamikaze, bomber drones and mortars seeking out individual Russian soldiers. Directly contradicting Putin’s claim that the city fell on Aug. 31, AFU statements in August described the sector as moderately active with continuing and generally unsuccessful Russian attempts to infiltrate soldiers forward. 2. Putin claimed the Ukrainian Kharkiv region border town Kozacha Lopan (Ukrainian: Козача Лопань) came under full Russian control during August. In reality, Putin was conflating ongoing and mostly unsuccessful light infantry assaults, which really are taking place, with conquest, of which aside from Putin’s words there is no evidence.Kozacha Lopan is a largely agricultural community a few kilometers from the Russian border – with a pre-war population of 4,000-5,000 inhabitants. Russian forces overran it in Feb. 24, 2022, the first day of the full-scale invasion, and were ejected by Ukrainian forces in September 2022. Since then, civilian life has gone on under intermittent Russian mortar, artillery, and drone attacks.Relatively recent Russian probes towards Kozacha Lopan date back to June. On Aug. 8, Ukrainian military spokesman Viktor Trehubov stated Russian forces appeared to be attempting to infiltrate infantry into the northern edge of the town, in an attempt to establish footholds.Reports on the progress of that fighting are split, with the AFU reporting heavy Russian casualties recorded by drone video and the Russian Defense Ministry asserting continuous ground gains, without making evidence public. An Aug. 14 article by the independent Russian analytical magazine Insider reported Russian attempts to capture the town had failed because local commanders ran out of men to send to attack.A more recent, Sept. 2 report by the overall AFU command headquarters for the sector, 14th Army Corps, stated that “active combat operations” were in progress north of Kozacha Lopan, which, that source said, remained fully under Ukrainian control. Russian forces launched renewed attempts to break into the town in late August. They had lost 178 killed and 210 wounded in the area, that official Ukrainian source said.A Sept. 2 situation update published by the independent Institute for the Study of War (ISW) concurred that Russian attacks on the Ukraine-held city had been partially successful, with Russian forces possibly having gained footholds in about 13% of the town. The Sept. 5 Ukrainian General Staff situation update said Russian forces had conducted nine attacks toward Kozacha Lopan and surrounding villages, with two attacks still underway.3. Putin said Russian forces had scored a major victory by encircling 2,000 Ukrainian troops in the northeastern Kharkiv region in a 460-square-kilometer (178-square-mile) pocket. In fact, aside from Kremlin sources, there is no credible evidence that the surrounded pocket of Ukrainian exists or ever existed.On Sept. 3, Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed its forces had, in the vicinity of the claimed encirclement, called by it and other official Russian state media “the Vovchansk Cauldron” captured the Ukrainian villages of Vasylivka, Blahodatne, Dovzhanka, and Slyzneve.This drew an immediate challenge by the popular and influential Russian milblogger Mikhail Zvinchuk (Handle “Rybar” – 1.5+ million followers), who said that the much more likely situation was that Russian troops were attempting to attack into territory thinly or not even held by Ukrainian ground troops, but densely covered by Ukrainian drones and lethal for Russian forces to attempt to enter. If Putin’s generals attempt to “close the pocket,” the only result will be mass casualties, Zvinchuk predicted.The Institute for the Study of War’s Sept. 4 assessment called Putin’s encirclement narrative “falsely and baselessly claimed.” Graphics published by the independent Ukraine-based battle information group DeepState, around the purported “cauldron” described by Putin showed stable lines throughout the sector for the past two months at least, and no evidence of even light combat activity.In a Sept. 3 situation update, the usually dry AFU report on daily combat activities said of Putin’s comments: “The inflating of an information bubble called “Vovchansk Cauldron”…has been going on for the past three months…The enemy media is creating a victorious backdrop…The main thing is to hold fake elections (and manufactured public support to the Russian state) especially in the border areas of the Belgorod region.”A Sept. 3 statement by Ukraine’s 16th Army Corps explicitly denied the four villages had fallen or that any of its troops had been surrounded. In the territory where Putin claimed a major Russian victory was in progress, in fact, Ukrainian forces had suffered no loss of positions during the preceding six months, that statement said.In the town of Prykolotne, a town near center of the territory in which Putin claimed thousands of Ukrainian troops were surrounded, on Monday, per Kyiv Post checks, city power and water services were running normally, grocery stores and pharmacies were open for business, and mobile phone coverage was operational. Russian bombs hit the town in March, since then, there has been no significant combat activity. Civilians remain in residence; however, as a border region town, the military controls access and only permits locals to use roads in the area.