‘Imaginary push’: How Russian TV reported Ukrainian counter-offensive

This article was produced in the framework of the "Unprejudiced" project with the support of the Eastern Partnership Programme and the German Federal Foreign Office in autumn 2022.
Author: Karine Mirumyan 
 

© https://smotrim.ru/video/2472699
[War correspondent Alexander Sladkov saying situation in Donbas "difficult" Rossiya 1, 60 Minut programme, 6 September]
https://smotrim.ru/video/2472699

Russian TV was offering its viewers patchy reporting from the battlefields in Kharkiv Region for at least a few weeks after Ukraine launched its counter-offensive, as a result of which most of the region was liberated of Russian forces.

Following the official Moscow line, which did not directly mention its military setbacks in Ukraine, TV channels - state-owned Rossiya 1, state-controlled Channel One and GazpromMedia's NTV - applied a different degree of denial of the scale of Russia's reverse.

Russian population - who rely predominantly on TV as their news source - seemed to have remained unaware of Russia's setbacks for at least a week, when a war correspondent broke the silence on 5 September and admitted that Ukrinane's counter-offensive was underway.

Political talk shows tried to project the image that Russia was in control of the situation on the ground and attempted to put a brave face in their way of dealing with the "difficult" news of retreat.

Week one: "Non-existent" offensive

For as long as a week since Ukraine launched its counter-offensive in the south of the country on 29 August, Russian TV channels were giving mixed reporting by staunchly denying Ukraine's headway and at the same time dismissing it.

Echoing the Russian defence ministry's reports, Russian TV channels claimed that Ukraine's counter-offensive had failed with "heavy losses" and portrayed the developments on the battlefield as those playing out in Russia's favour.

"Today, on the direct orders of President Zelensky, Ukrainian troops tried to organise an offensive in three directions in the Mykolaiv and Kherson regions. As just reported by our Ministry of Defence, the Kyiv regime's units have suffered heavy losses as a result of active defence by Russian units," Rossiya 1 said on 29 August.

"Resounding failure", "unsuccessful attempt at an offensive", "bloodbath", "so-called counter-offensive", "failed gamble", "imaginary push", "non-existent offensive", "suicidal counter-attack" - this is how guests and hosts on talk shows and news anchors described Ukraine's push to liberate its territories over the course of the week.

Purportedly speaking from Kherson via video link, war correspondent Roman Saponkov told Channel One's host Ruslan Ostashko on 1 September: "We can now safely say that the counter-offensive which was announced and with which they were trying to intimidate the local population and Russian society for a month did not take place."

A weekly news programme on Channel One (4 September) featured a pundit accusing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of "throwing his troops to the slaughter".

News programmes, for their part, echoed the allegations about the "failed" Ukrainian counter-offensive, but they offered no dispatches from the battlefield to support their claims.

Their correspondent reports used static map graphics alleging Russia's gains on the ground and unverifiable footage as their visuals.

Week two: 'There really is a counter-offensive'
 

© https://smotrim.ru/video/2472422
[Rossiya 1’s top correspondent makes first acknowledgement of Ukraine’s counter-offensive 46 minutes into primetime bulletin, Vesti programme, 5 September]
https://smotrim.ru/video/2472422

One week into the Ukrainian counter-offensive, Russian media started hinting that all was not well on the battlefield.
First, Rossiya 1's war correspondent Yevgeny Poddubny acknowledged that a counter-offensive, previously described as wishful thinking, was underway. In his report on 5 September, he presented the news as "day seven of the counter-offensive by the forces of the Kyiv regime in the south," noting, however, that it had "in effect stalled".

Poddubny described the advance of the Ukrainian forces in the south as "insignificant tactical successes" and was the first on Russian TV to report Russia's "tactical retreat" from Vysokopillya, Kherson Region.

However, none of the three main television channels featured meaningful frontline dispatches from Ukraine in their news bulletins.
In talk shows, the presenters were typically bullish about the situation faced by Russian troops, while war correspondents speaking to the shows via video link were less so. 

War correspondent Alexander Sladkov told the 60 Minut programme on Rossiya 1 (6 September) that the situation was "difficult" in Donbas, noting, however, that the Russian forces "were moving forward".
Eduard Basurin, a military spokesman for the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), called for Channel One's host Ostashko to dial down his bluster.

"There really is a counter-offensive. So don't say that there isn't one. They're throwing in more and more reinforcements and heavy equipment," he said.

By the end of the second week, most of the channels' political broadcasts admitted with varying degrees of denial of Russian forces' defeat in Kharkiv Region and, in particular, their retreat from the cities of Balakliya, Izyum and most of Kupyansk.

"There is information that following heavy fighting, Russian forces have, after all, left Balakliya," Rossiya 1 host Olga Skabeyeva said on 9 September.

She described the battles in Kharkiv Region as "the most serious and heaviest battles" at the time, while still trying to put a positive spin on developments, claiming Russia's advancements elsewhere in the frontline.

Rossiya'1 top propagandist Dmitri Kiselyov described the developments as "a most difficult week on the fronts of the special operation".

On 10 September, all news programmes showed Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov announcing the "regrouping" - withdrawal from most of Kharkiv Region.

The TV, as usual, made no mention of Russian losses of men and equipment as a result of the rapid advance by the Ukrainian forces.

Week three: mixed reporting

Russian political talk shows and news bulletins show a mixed picture of the situation on the frontline.
Most of them continue to base their reports on the Russian Defence Ministry's misleading updates, where it described the Russian forces' retreat from Kharkiv Region as "withdrawal" and claimed that thousands of Ukrainian troops were killed and numerous command posts and ammunition depots destroyed.

News programmes' reports on Ukraine were far further down their running order than usual, with most of them being brief and carrying no details from the battlefield.

"The situation is complicated, but the Russian reserves, which were redeployed last week, have made it possible to even out the situation on the front line," Rossiya 1's introduction to Poddubny's report said obliquely on 12 September.

Channel One's Voskresnoye Vremya weekly news programme made its first attempt to explain to its viewers the fact that Ukraine had made significant gains with a rapid counter-offensive in Kharkiv Region on 18 September - weeks into the start of Kyiv's headway.

Talk shows, however, appeared to be more candid, although they did not come anywhere near revealing the extent and nature of the defeat of Russian forces in Kharkiv Region.

While much of the shows' war coverage continued to suggest Russia was in control of the situation in Ukraine following recent setbacks, some voices admitted that serious mistakes had been made. And even then, the programmes attempted to put a brave face on what had happened.
 

© https://smotrim.ru/video/2476508 [Studio guest Karen Shakhnazarov says Russia should recognize its defeat in Kharkiv Region, Vecher s Vladimirom Solovyovym programme, 12 September]
https://smotrim.ru/video/2476508

On the 12 September edition of Rossiya 1's Vecher s Vladimirom Solovyovym (Evening with Vladimir Solovyov), two guests made downbeat assessments of the recent setback suffered by Russian troops in Kharkiv Region.

Filmmaker and regular panellist Karen Shakhnazarov said Russia "has suffered a defeat in Kharkiv Region, and this must be recognised."

"A defeat must be recognised, and conclusions must be drawn from it - otherwise, there will be another defeat, perhaps a far more serious one," he went on.

"We should be realistic: this is genuinely a very complex situation, and we should be aware that we are fighting against an extremely powerful adversary."

Current reporting on frontline situation
 

© https://www.1tv.ru/news/issue/2022-10-30/21:00#8 [Channel One relays a military update by Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov, Voskresnoye Vremya programme, 30 October]
https://www.1tv.ru/news/issue/2022-10-30/21:00#8

Since then, Russian TV channels have been focusing on a range of topics - the "partial" mobilisation in Russia, the so-called "incorporation" of four Ukrainian regions into Russia, the Crimea bridge explosion, Russian missile attacks on major Ukrainian cities, Russian claims of Kyiv's alleged plans to use "dirty" bombs - but their reporting on the frontline situation has not changed.

Russian TV has continued giving a mixed picture of the situation on the ground, but this time in Kherson Region and the rest of Russia-occupied territories. 

The talk shows reported Russia's alleged gains in Donbas while admitting that the situation near Kherson was "difficult".

Over on Rossiya 1's 60 Minut (24 October), war correspondent Yevgeny Poddubny described the situation on the Kherson front as "indeed difficult from the military and humanitarian point of view".

Military commentator Yuri Podolyaka admitted on Channel One's Vremya Pokazhet (26 October) that Russia was facing a problem of "guessing where the enemy will strike" in the area between Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhya and Kirovohrad regions.

The links-up with war correspondents in the latest editions of political talk shows (28 October) largely focused on accusations of Ukrainian forces shelling civilian areas instead of providing any significant updates on military movements on the frontlines.

Similarly, news programmes have been very economical with their military reporting, with most of their updates reiterating Defence Ministry's reports.

Background note

Russian major TV channels, which are the major source of the news for most Russians, are controlled by the government and are widely seen as its mouthpiece.

Rossiya 1, Channel One and NTV allot a substantial proportion of their daily airtime to rehash the Kremlin's official line through its news bulletins and political talk shows.

Through its daily coverage of what Moscow describes as Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine, the TV relays Russian official statements, including the country's Defence Ministry's daily updates on the developments on the ground. 

Even though its popularity has been waning slightly over the past months, Russian TV is seen as the Kremlin's tool to navigate the public perception of the country's offensive in Ukraine and its sentiment towards the Russian government.
 

© Goethe-Institut