Russian Defence Minister shown in odd building camouflaged on the inside, claiming he was in Ukraine

The Russian Defence Ministry is continuing to demonstrate in every possible way that the Minister, Sergei Shoigu, is allegedly taking an active part in the war against Ukraine and even is constantly at the frontline; another video of an alleged visit by Shoigu to Ukraine was published on Telegram on 25 October.

Source: Russian Defence Ministry on Telegram

Details: The Defence Ministry claims that Shoigu allegedly inspected the forward command post of the Russian Vostok (East) group of troops deployed in the southern part of the Donetsk front.

At the command post, it is claimed he heard reports from the group commander and staff officers on the current situation, the nature of Russia's actions and the performance of Russian troops in the main tactical areas.

Shoigu was shown sitting in a room which looks odd - for some reason it is camouflaged on the inside walls with scrim nets and there are samples of various weapons and drones in the background.    

He looked at some maps and other papers blurred out in the video, gesticulated, and even thumped the table while being filmed aboard the helicopter. However, what was discussed during this visit is unknown because Shoigu only says two words in the video, "comrade officers", and then the sound is turned off. 

Lieutenant General Andrei Kuzmenko, the commander of the Vostok group, reported on the implementation of Shoigu's orders "regarding the formation of regular units for the use of UAVs in subordinate troops, staffing them with trained specialists, as well as providing all units with strike and reconnaissance unmanned systems, including FPV drones."

He also mentioned the "specifics of assault unit tactics... during the performance of combat tasks to capture the strongholds of the Armed Forces of Ukraine by assault groups" and so on.

The Russian Defence Ministry stressed that Shoigu allegedly drew the commanders' special attention to "timely and sufficient provision of all personnel of the group with new winter uniforms, as well as to the shaping of an additional operational reserve of winter uniforms and insulated footwear."

Why it is important: Against the background of the Ukrainian counteroffensive, Russia has tried in every possible way to demonstrate the alleged permanent presence of its military leadership at the front. In particular, in August, the Russians claimed that Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, had visited the temporarily occupied territory of Zaporizhzhia Oblast in Ukraine. A video of a supposed visit by Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu to the war zone in Ukraine appeared a few days later.

However, it is never clear from the video reports of Russia’s Defence Ministry where its leaders actually were.

Moreover, the department has already been caught lying.

For example, on 18 December 2022, the Defence Ministry of the Russian Federation published a video in which its head Sergei Shoigu is inspecting military positions in a helicopter. But later, it turned out that, in fact, Shoigu was about 80 kilometres away from the front line  in temporarily occupied Crimea.

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