Russian ELITE Tried to Stage a FAKE Victory… Ukraine Showed Them REAL Defeat

The Military Show

Russia’s elite troops entered Stepnohirsk expecting a propaganda victory—but Ukraine had other plans. In this video, we break down how a carefully planned Russian infiltration in the Zaporizhzhia region turned into a devastating ambush by Ukraine’s HUR Artan special forces. Discover why this battle matters, how propaganda shapes the war, and what the failed operation reveals about Russia’s broader strategy. Watch until the end for the bigger implications for the battlefield and Putin’s position.  ⏱️ CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Russian Airborne Forces launch Stepnohirsk propaganda assault 02:17 - Ukraine HUR Artan special forces ambush Russian elites 06:02 - Stepnohirsk liberation on May 18 limits Russian advance 08:15 - Russia war propaganda indoctrinates 1000 Russian POWs 13:34 - Russian army fakes flag raising victories in Ukraine 15:13 - Is Putin desperate for Ukraine peace negotiations in 2026?  Support us directly as we bring you independent, up-to-date reporting on military news and global conflicts by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/@TheMilitaryShow/join  #militarystrategy #militarydevelopments #militaryanalysis #themilitaryshow  SOURCES: https://pastebin.com/vqtCBkAJ

Transcript

00:00What do you do when your three-day special military operation turns into a four-year-plus

00:04beating? Why, fake it until you make it, of course. That's been Russia's approach so often

00:10during the Ukraine war, and it always gets exposed. And guess what? It's happened again.

00:16Russia's elite soldiers tried to stage a fake victory in the Zaporizhia region.

00:21Ukraine showed those elites what a real defeat looks like. The fake was turned into a funeral.

00:26Russia thought it had everything figured out. Toward the end of May, Russia deployed reconnaissance

00:31units from its airborne forces. Their target, Stepnohirsk, which is a settlement that has

00:37been contested for much of the war. These weren't any old units that Russia sent. The tactic of

00:42pushing cannon fodder onto the front to get destroyed by Ukraine's drones wasn't a play here.

00:47For once, Russia sent units that are widely believed to be among the elite in its military.

00:51Russia's airborne forces are capable. They're paratroopers who have trained for operations

00:56just like this, and their goal was simple. Storm Stepnohirsk can score a major propaganda

01:02victory for Putin at a time that he needed it the most. And we know that the goal was propaganda

01:07because the units that Russia sent were all carrying the flags of their country. We've seen this from

01:12Russia before. It sends in soldiers to infiltrate, hence them raise the flag and take a few photos.

01:17And then those soldiers scurry away and hide after creating the false narrative that they have scored

01:23a major victory for the Kremlin. But in Stepnohirsk, Ukraine wasn't having any of it. As the Russian

01:28units crept forward, Ukraine was keeping watch. Unknown to Putin's patsies, those troops weren't

01:34storming toward a propaganda victory. They were heading into a trap. And when it was ready, Ukraine

01:39sprang that trap expertly. Before any of that was revealed, Russia's Stepnohirsk assaulters had done

01:45everything by the book when it comes to special forces operations. It all seemed to be going

01:50exactly as planned. Putin's stormtroopers waited until they had the cover of nightfall, which was

01:55supposed to make them harder to spot. Each soldier was equipped with anti-thermal camouflage to mask

02:01their heat signatures. And they even waited for a night when it was raining, adding an extra layer

02:05of cover and potentially making it more difficult for Ukraine's drones to spot them. Those soldiers knew

02:11exactly what they were doing, and they were doing exactly what they were supposed to do.

02:15There may have been smiles on Russian faces for a while. Then, Ukraine struck. Operatives from the

02:21HUR's RTAN Special Forces Unit made their presence known to the wannabe Russian occupiers. RTAN didn't

02:28attack immediately. Ukraine's own special forces knew that they had Putin's soldiers surrounded,

02:33so they made them an offer. Surrender now, and you can survive this war. But surrender is rarely an

02:40option for Russian soldiers, especially if they believe that they'll be sent back to the Kremlin's

02:44clutches. Russia has criminalized voluntary surrender, with soldiers now facing up to 10 years

02:49in prison if they give up when Ukraine tells them to raise the white flag. If these Russian soldiers were

02:55part of the rank and file, they might have risked the gulag to survive. However, the Stepnakhirsk

03:00infiltrators were part of Russia's elite. Dying for their leader has been drilled into them from the

03:05beginning of their training, so the offer to surrender was refused. Instead, Russia's soldiers

03:10opened fire. What followed was an absolute bloodbath. HUR's RTAN unit showed no mercy,

03:16and in a second blow to Putin's attempts to create positive propaganda, Ukraine has ensured that there

03:22is no doubt about what happened in Stepnakhirsk in late May. We don't just have a report from HUR

03:27itself to confirm what happened on that fateful night. We have footage. A lot of footage. We see the

03:33views shot from armored vehicles and tanks as Ukraine's soldiers roll in. Those vehicles were

03:38even hit with enemy blasts, though they survived and continued to move forward. RTAN says that it

03:43was facing troops who possessed heavy weaponry and superior equipment, but none of it made a

03:48difference. Ukraine's troops were able to enter Stepnakhirsk, and they conducted a clearing operation

03:52for the ages. Dividing into small units, those soldiers checked house by house, looking for the

03:57Russian infiltrators. Scouts ran ahead, looking for signs of movements. Assault units followed,

04:03ripping apart the Russian units piece by piece. By the end, Ukraine stood victorious, and Putin's

04:09great propaganda mission had fallen flat on its face. Russia's elite came for glory, but they ended

04:14up following 1.4 million of their comrades and counting into the great beyond. As for RTAN,

04:20its commander says that the Russian forces were tricked into walking straight into what he calls

04:24a fire pocket, and that they were wholly unprepared for what awaited them. The so-called elite of the

04:30Russian army proved unprepared to face the systematic defense of HUR. Thanks to the dedication and

04:35professionalism of the soldiers, as well as coordinated cooperation with adjacent units of

04:40HUR's active operations department and Ukraine's defense forces, our positions in the area of

04:45responsibility remain unbreached, proclaimed RTAN commander, Viktor Tokotsuk. Putin wanted to send

04:52a fake message to Ukraine, his own people, and the rest of the world. Ukraine delivered a brutally

04:58real response to show Putin that even his most elite soldiers can be caught out and eliminated.

05:03What we've seen from Ukraine here is the brilliance of its military tacticians stacked up against the

05:08best of the best that Russia has to offer. Ukraine came out on top. The implications here are huge.

05:14For Ukraine to have set the trap that Russia's paratroopers fell into, it had to know that

05:19Russia's elites were coming in the first place. Despite all of the precautions, and even though

05:24Russian soldiers followed the special forces approach by the book, Ukraine had them scouted

05:28all the way and was able to deliver justice. Luring an enemy into an ambush is far from a new

05:34military

05:34tactic. Ambushes have been carried out for centuries, but rarely has such a fleet been carried out with

05:39such panache, documented so well, and conducted against soldiers that are supposed to be so good

05:45that they're meant to see situations like these coming. Ukraine pulled off a masterstroke. Putin must be

05:51absolutely livid. And he should be, because there are plenty of reasons why Russia sent the best that it had

05:56to

05:56claim Stepnohirsk. Yes, it was about propaganda, and we're going to be getting to all of that, but it was

06:01also about

06:01something so much more for Russia. You see, Stepnohirsk isn't any old settlement. It's been contested for

06:07years, and at times, Russia has held a legitimate claim to holding Stepnohirsk. However, that had

06:13changed in mid-May, prompting the painful propaganda march on which Putin ordered his soldiers.

06:18Let's head back to May 18. On that date, Sensor.net reported that Ukraine's security and defense

06:23forces had regained complete control over Stepnohirsk. The Artan unit was heavily involved again.

06:29Working alongside adjacent units, Artan had driven the Russian occupiers out completely,

06:34meaning that Stepnohirsk was under the full control of Ukraine's military for the first time in months.

06:39The situation in the settlement had been stabilized, and to rub salt into the wounds,

06:43footage of the liberation operation was released, showing how Russia's infiltrators had been destroyed

06:48by Artan and Ukraine's other units. That defeat stung Putin. Stepnohirsk is one of the most

06:54strategically significant settlements in the Zaporizhia region. It's located just 30 kilometers

06:59south of Zaporizhia, meaning it can serve as a launching pad for assaults on a region that Putin

07:04is desperate to claim. Holding Stepnohirsk would also give Russia some control over the north-south

07:10E-105 highway, which could be used for logistics, as well as offer a faster route into Zaporizhia.

07:16Russia has been trying to use the settlement as part of an ongoing advance towards Zaporizhia,

07:20which includes movements across the eastern bank of the Dnipro River toward the town of Primorska.

07:25The goal was to bring Zaporizhia into artillery range. Ukraine destroyed that goal on May 18th.

07:32Deprived of what would have been a very real strategic victory for Russia on May 18th,

07:36Putin and his commanders came up with an alternate plan. If you can't win, fake it. That's what we

07:42saw in late May. The elites that Russia sent into Stepnohirsk were meant to create a fake narrative

07:46that Russia still had a measure of control in the settlement. They failed. And for Putin,

07:51that failure has terrible consequences. Russia's leader is a man who is crying out for some positive

07:57propaganda right now, but he just keeps on getting exposed by Ukraine. But before we dig deeper into

08:02all of that, this is a quick reminder that you're watching the military show. If you haven't subscribed

08:07to the channel, now is the perfect time to pause and hit the button before we get back to it.

08:12So why was Putin so desperate for propaganda that he was willing to send his best soldiers

08:17to Stepnohirsk to die in the off chance that the Kremlin would receive a picture of a Russian flag

08:22raised in the settlement? To answer that, we need to explore the role that propaganda plays in Russia

08:27and the sorry situation that Putin now finds himself in. For Putin, the message is everything.

08:33When he controls the narrative, reality doesn't matter. His goal, always, is to hide the reality of

08:38what's happening in Ukraine and even the wider world from his own people. That's how he maintains

08:43his support. It's rarely through action and often through lies that Putin retains his grip on the

08:48Russian seat of power. And if his propaganda is able to fool other powerful people into believing

08:53the Russian narrative about what's happening in Ukraine, then all the better. That's all leverage

08:57for Putin, which he can bring to bear during peace negotiations or use to convince other nations

09:01to pressure Ukraine into surrendering territory that Russia claims to hold. The power of Putin's

09:07propaganda has felt all the way down to the military that he has sent into Ukraine.

09:11In April, the Atlantic Council reported on a study conducted by a Ukrainian non-governmental

09:16organization, Lingva-Lexa, alongside Ukraine's Office of the Prosecutor General. They analyzed

09:22survey data gathered from more than 1,000 Russian POWs, and they found that soldiers who endorsed the

09:28propaganda that Putin shovels out were also six times more likely to believe that the war that Putin

09:33started in Ukraine was legitimate. Those who believed Putin's bull were also two times more

09:38likely to want to return to combat, and nearly half of those surveyed embraced the concept of the

09:43Russian world, which is an imperialistic ideology spread by Putin that promotes the inevitable

09:49dominance of Russia, which can often only be achieved through self-sacrifice. These results

09:54already show us so much about the events in Stepnohirsk. The soldiers who refused to surrender weren't just

10:00worried about Russian punishment and imprisonment on the back end. Putin's propaganda had likely

10:05indoctrinated them, just as it has so many of the POWs that Ukraine quizzed. They believe what their

10:11leader tells them, and they are willing to sacrifice themselves to make his vision a reality.

10:15On top of that, if Russia's elite soldiers had succeeded in Stepnohirsk, and Putin had gotten his

10:20picture of the raised Russian flags, they would have become contributors to the very propaganda

10:24pipeline that had led them into the situation in the first place. Putin wouldn't have cared that they

10:29died if they had delivered the photo to him. The message would have been created, even if it was

10:34a complete fake. As important as gathering this type of propaganda that is supposed to show the

10:39indomitable power of Russia may be for keeping the military in check, it's even more important

10:43for Putin on a personal level right now. Why? Putin's reputation as the strongman leader of Russia

10:49has been taking a beating in recent months. We've been seeing hints of that in Putin's actions in recent

10:55weeks. As the Independent reports, Putin has appeared on Russian state TV to admit that his

11:00nation is facing problems in the wake of Ukrainian drone attacks that have left oil refineries throughout

11:05the country burning. As for strikes against critical infrastructure in general, and energy

11:10infrastructure in particular, of course these attacks on our infrastructure facilities create

11:14problems, that's obvious, Putin said during an interview on June 28th. Putin even acknowledged the

11:21fuel shortage that has resulted from Ukraine's attacks. A few weeks before this interview,

11:25Russia's leader also admitted, the military isn't advancing as fast as he would like in Ukraine.

11:30This isn't normal behavior for Putin. He is a man who almost never acknowledges Russia's failures,

11:36yet these statements are both blows to the image of an indomitable Russia that Putin wants to create

11:41using his propaganda. So why did Putin make them? He had to. It's impossible for even Russians who buy into

11:47Putin's propaganda to ignore the fact that Ukraine has seized the initiative in 2026.

11:53Those same Russians also can't ignore the fires on the horizon and the smoke in the skies being

11:58caused by Ukraine's drone strikes. For Putin, these admissions are a desperate attempt to appear as

12:03though he relates to the struggles that he's putting his people through. It's all propaganda,

12:08again. Just not the kind of propaganda that Putin wants to make. Still, it will do as a stopgap for

12:13now.

12:13What Putin really needs, and what he tried to achieve in Stepnohirsk, is a clear victory that

12:18he can push onto the Russian people. He wanted the Russian flag raised near Zaporizhia so he could say,

12:23look, we're making progress and Ukrainian settlements are falling. If Russia's elites had succeeded in

12:29Stepnohirsk, Putin would have been able to reset and start claiming battlefield victories again,

12:34however faked those victories were. But Ukraine took that attempt to create a false narrative and

12:39shoved it squarely up Putin's rear. It's not just that the Artan unit led Russia's elite soldiers

12:44into a trap in Stepnohirsk. The footage that has emerged from that operation is the true killer for

12:49Putin. Even if he had gotten his picture of the raised flag, the footage that followed would have

12:54dispelled every claim that he tried to make. Now, a leader whose power is built on the base of propaganda

12:59is floundering. Russia is burning from the inside. Putin's grip on Crimea is loosening due to a

13:05brilliant Ukrainian isolation campaign. And now, Putin can't even claim fake victories because

13:10Ukrainian forces are so adept at shutting his best soldiers down. This is a nightmare for Putin.

13:15But for Ukraine, combating this type of fakery is par for the course. Ukraine was so quick to

13:20release footage and provide details of what has really happened in Stepnohirsk because it knows

13:24that Russia has plenty of form when it comes to lying about battlefield victories. Hell, it even has

13:29very recent form that just goes to underscore Putin's desperation. On June 29, Militani reported that

13:35Russia had sacrificed more of its soldiers, this time for a chance to get a picture of a raised Russian

13:40flag in Novoselivka, which is another village in Zaporizhia. Russia's 38th Separate Guards Motor

13:46Rifle Brigade was sent to do the job this time, but they failed under a storm of Ukrainian drones

13:51and an infantry response that led to the flag bearers being captured. Do you have any doubt about how

13:56urgently Putin needs his propaganda victory? A second attempt for a fake flag raising in a

14:01month tells you everything. The end of 2025 also saw a storm of Russian attempts to fake victories,

14:07all to create the sort of propaganda that it attempted to generate in Stepnohirsk.

14:11Back in December 2025, UKR Inform reported that Russian invaders had attempted the same trick

14:17in Vovchansk, which is in the Kharkiv region. This time, it was soldiers from the 57th Separate

14:22Motorized Infantry Brigade of Ukraine's 16th Army Corps that put a stop to the flag

14:26raising. And it doesn't appear to have been elite soldiers that Russia sent, but the idea was the

14:31same, sneak people in, raise the Russian flag, run away. It didn't work in Vovchansk. And Russia's

14:37fakery also didn't work in Kupiansk. Also in December, Russia flat out lied about taking the city

14:42of Kupiansk. No less than Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky traveled to the city and took

14:47photos to prove that Russia was talking nonsense. And due to a Ukrainian counterattack that followed,

14:53the occupiers who were in the city were quickly pushed out. Time and time again, Russia has been

14:58making false claims about gains, only for Ukraine to expose those claims for what they really are.

15:04The only difference in Stepnohirsk is that Ukraine took out the infiltrators before they ever managed

15:08to make their false claims in the first place. That's efficiency. And as it turns out,

15:13what Ukraine did in Stepnohirsk has been perfectly timed. Putin needs his propaganda victory for more

15:19than convincing the Russian people that his invasion of Ukraine isn't a complete dumpster fire.

15:23Putin also needs leverage. On June 23rd, Putin said,

15:27Russia, however, as has been stated repeatedly, is ready for peace negotiations with Ukraine.

15:33It's ready to proceed on the basis of the agreements reached back in Istanbul,

15:36agreements which, I would remind you, were initialed at the time by the Ukrainian delegation.

15:41Take away the combative nature of these comments and what you see is a Russian

15:44leader bringing up peace unprompted. That's how you know that Putin is in trouble.

15:48He's playing the negotiations card again. The flag raised at Stepnohirsk was supposed to give

15:53Putin some leverage to use in these peace talks, assuming that they ever happened.

15:58Ukraine took that leverage away, just as it shredded every card that Putin had to play

16:02in a brilliant 2026 campaign that has clearly left Russia on the back foot.

16:07So the events in Stepnohirsk aren't just about taking out elite Russian soldiers and depriving Putin of

16:12a strategically important village. They are about much more than that. Putin is looking for a way

16:16out of the war he started. That's why he is talking about peace and acknowledging the effects

16:21that Ukraine's campaign is having on the Russian people. He is buying time to get his hands on fake

16:25propaganda that he can use to raise the chances of coming out of this terrible period with a chance

16:30at holding on to power and getting what he wants out of negotiations. Ukraine snatched it all away

16:36and made it abundantly clear that Russia is nowhere close to holding Stepnohirsk.

16:40Putin is running out of time. And as his attempts to create propaganda fail,

16:45panic reigns in the one piece of occupied Ukrainian territory that means everything to Putin.

16:50If you need any evidence that it's Ukraine that holds all of the cards in 2026, then just look

16:54at Crimea. Occupiers are fleeing across the Kerch Bridge to get back into Russia. Why? Well, you'll

16:59find out if you watch our video, where we break down Russia's situation in Crimea and what it means for

17:04Putin. And if you enjoyed this video, remember to subscribe to the military show to see more

17:09of our analysis of the latest developments in the Ukraine war. And thank you for watching.

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