General Staff: Russia to stage military propaganda video in Kherson Oblast to boost morale

Russia is preparing to shoot a propaganda video about an alleged defeat of so-called "Ukrainian saboteurs" in Kherson Oblast to boost flagging morale, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces reported on Aug. 16.

"Amid the decline of the combat spirit of Russian occupation forces, the enemy command succeeds more often in staging their successes," the General Staff said.

The shooting is reportedly to take place in the occupied town of Kozachi Laheri, portraying how Russian forces supposedly defeated 150 Ukrainian fighters based in a local center of culture.

According to the General Staff, the center of culture in fact serves to accommodate around 25 Russian soldiers.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said on Aug. 13 that Russian pro-war bloggers complain of poor Russian morale due to Ukraine's gains in the Urozhaine direction.

One author claimed that Russian soldiers "prematurely withdrew" because "the unit's personnel were drunk," the ISW reported.  The village has been confirmed as liberated on Aug. 16.

Pro-Russian sympathies make life harder for soldiers, cops in Kupiansk district

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The Kyiv IndependentIgor Kossov