DISINFO: Russia’s advance is slow because it is always careful not to damage civilians
SUMMARY
The Russian advance in Ukraine is much slower than it could be because Russia is constantly careful not to damage civilian targets. It is clearly advancing on the front, but if it wanted to advance faster, it could.
RESPONSE
The claim is demonstrably false, since Russia has systematically and deliberately targeted non-combatants and civilian infrastructure during the war in Ukraine, including the city theatre in Mariupol, residential buildings, schools and energy facilities. The same day this disinformation story appeared, Russian armed forces attacked a maternity in Zaporizhzhia and a civilian bus in Dnipropetrovsk in two separate drone strikes.
The allegation is an attempt to disguise Russia’s negligible advances on the ground despite massive casualties as the result of a deliberate decision driven by humanitarian concern. Pro-Kremlin disinformation tries to portray Russia as overwhelmingly prevailing over Ukraine and the Russian military as an unstoppable fighting force despite having conquered only around 0.77% of additional Ukrainian territory in 2025 at the price of overwhelming losses. This kind of allegations has been called out by both Ukraine’s military and independent analysts as attempts to project force and influence peace negotiations over Ukraine, based on optics and not on the real battlefield situation.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that Russia only attacks military facilities in Ukraine, that Ukraine violates international humanitarian law while Russia respects it, that Russia wages war humanely and does not hit civilians, or that Russian are liberators and a peace-making people.