Oleshky: The Kremlin’s Next Propaganda Spectacle?

As reports emerge of a ceasefire in Russian-occupied Oleshky, Kherson region, beginning Oct. 29, understanding the Kremlin’s modus operandi is crucial.

The Kremlin will be seeking to repair the reputational damage caused by the humanitarian catastrophe in Oleshky and surrounding communities. As the technical details of the evacuation are being discussed, the global community is to expect a controlled press tour of the occupied part of the Kherson region.

Kremlin-funded media have already begun gaslighting and shifting responsibility for the crisis onto Ukraine and its military. On Oct. 7, Ukraine’s Security Service warned that Russia is launching information and psychological operations on the situation in temporarily occupied Oleshky.

“According to operational data, servicemen from one of the occupying units have been ordered to prepare a series of ‘compromising’ interviews with the residents of the occupied town. In these videos, local residents are required to accuse the Ukrainian Defense Forces of constant shelling and the blockade of the town; discredit the decisions of Ukraine’s military and political leadership; and express a positive attitude and gratitude towards the military of the aggressor state.”

Following these orders, one of the leading Kremlin propagandists, Margarita Simonyan, has shared a video of Oleshky residents accusing Ukrainian forces of carrying out the attacks.

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In reality, the Ukrainian military has been trying to save Ukrainian civilians trapped in Russian-occupied Oleshky. For months, the 34th Separate Marine Brigade “Borysfen” has been delivering food and essential supplies by drone across the Dnipro River, as Russian forces block conventional humanitarian access. Russian forces have shot down humanitarian drones and confiscated supplies intended for starving civilians.

With the US now involved, Moscow can turn to a familiar strategy: orchestrated press tours for foreign journalists.

Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, the Kremlin has organized controlled press tours of occupied Ukrainian territory to promote its narratives. Journalists, bloggers, and influencers presented as independent foreign reporters interview preselected witnesses and film carefully arranged scenes, producing reports that support the Kremlin’s version of events. Russia organized visits to Mariupol in 2022, followed by recurring tours of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and other occupied Ukrainian cities.

The international community should be aware of the fact that these press tours are part of an organized international influence operation.

In a 2024 report, Estonia’s Foreign Intelligence Service established that Russian intelligence services used state agencies and Kremlin-linked organizations to recruit foreign journalists, bloggers, and influencers for visits to occupied Ukrainian territory, arranging and financing their trips. Some participants were paid to produce reports.

“The Kremlin’s key objective is to reshape the Western public’s anti-Russian attitudes and undermine support for Ukraine,” the report explains.

A brief history of Russia’s staged disinformation operations in Ukraine

From the first months of the full-scale invasion, Russian authorities deployed large-scale information and psychological operations. Several campaigns launched in March 2022 established a pattern that would recur throughout the war: create or exploit a humanitarian catastrophe, deny responsibility, blame Ukraine, and present Russia as the rescuer.

In Mariupol, Russian forces destroyed bridges, damaged railways and trains, and blocked food deliveries and evacuation routes, creating conditions reminiscent of those now reported in Oleshky. Russian propaganda then falsely claimed that Ukrainian troops were preventing civilians from evacuating and using them as “human shields.”

Following a Russian airstrike on the Mariupol maternity hospital, Kremlin-controlled media claimed the attack had been staged by Ukraine and that injured pregnant women were actresses. The Russian Embassy in London amplified allegations that photographs of the victims were fake.

After a Russian airstrike destroyed the Mariupol Drama Theater, where hundreds of civilians had taken shelter, Russian propaganda claimed that Azov fighters had blown up the building themselves and held civilians hostage.

By June, Russian television was broadcasting a guided tour of the theater’s ruins, during which the guide blamed the destruction on “Ukrainian Nazis.” Occupation authorities announced plans to resume performances at the destroyed theater, reinforcing a narrative of normalization. Kremlin-controlled media always promote stories of reconstruction, reopened cultural institutions, and the restoration of ordinary life in a city devastated by the Russian siege.

In Kherson, Russian occupation forces arranged to bring people from Crimea and occupied Donbas to stage a demonstration supporting so-called “Kherson People’s Republic.” At the same time, they blocked humanitarian aid deliveries, creating a crisis so they could portray the occupiers as rescuers distributing food.

The weaponization of hunger has a long history in Soviet and Russian state practice, most notably Stalin’s Holodomor, the man-made famine that devastated Ukraine in 1932–1933.

On March 14, 2022, Russian media claimed that Ukrainian forces had committed mass killings near a railway in Popasna, Luhansk region, and used civilians as human shields. No photographic or video evidence was provided, and local residents did not confirm the allegations.

On March 28-31, Russia’s Ministry of Defense organized a press tour in occupied Donbas titled “Za Pravdu” (“For Truth”), for foreign journalists to document the alleged “atrocities of Ukrainian neo-Nazis.” A US State Department Global Engagement Center assessment documented another “Za Pravdu” tour on April 24, involving approximately 20 journalists from multiple countries. The report described these visits as “Potemkin Village Press Tours of the Donbas,” designed to present pro-Kremlin activists as independent foreign journalists.

On April 8, a missile strike on the Kramatorsk railway station killed more than 50 civilians waiting to evacuate. Russian propaganda blamed Ukraine, circulating several contradictory explanations: a deliberate Ukrainian provocation, an accidental strike, defective ammunition, or an attack on civilians supposedly considered disloyal to Kyiv. RIA Novosti published information about the explosion before the first eyewitness reports appeared.

Also in April, after the bodies of murdered Ukrainian civilians were discovered in Bucha, Russian authorities and propagandists claimed the massacre had been staged by Ukraine and Western media. Reuters published an investigation identifying Russian military units and personnel present in Bucha during the occupation.

The same month, the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed that Ukrainian psychological operations units were filming staged scenes of civilian deaths in Moshchun, near Kyiv, and conducting similar operations in Sumy and Konotop to blame Russia for atrocities.

In July 2022, the deaths of Ukrainian prisoners of war at Olenivka prison became the subject of another disinformation campaign. After an explosion killed Ukrainian POWs, Russian propaganda claimed that Ukrainian forces had deliberately attacked their own prisoners using American HIMARS rockets. Representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross were not granted access to investigate the site.

In September, after mass graves were discovered following the liberation of Izium, pro-Kremlin outlets again claimed that Ukraine had staged evidence of atrocities, this time with the assistance of controlled media.

Oleshky: Another Kremlin press tour?

The tactic is consistent and clear: when the Russian military commits atrocities, the Kremlin denies responsibility and blames Ukraine. Controlled press tours, selected witnesses, and staged or misleading reports help give these narratives an appearance of independent verification.

A ceasefire brokered by Melania Trump must provide Ukrainian civilians with food, medicine, and safe evacuation. It should not provide Moscow with an opportunity to rewrite history and win sympathies abroad. The responsibility for the humanitarian catastrophe must not be obscured by a Potemkin villages press tour.