The Kremlin-controlled media deleted information about Russian control of a Ukrainian city at the request of the Ministry of Defense
Several Kremlin-controlled media outlets have deleted news and reports about Russian forces' alleged control of the Ukrainian city of Myrnohrad, after the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation demanded the cancellation of these publications.
Vladimir Putin. PHOTO: EPA-EFE
Russia's largest state agencies – RIA Novosti, RBC and TASS – retracted material that claimed the Russian Army had “full control” on the southern part of the city of Myrnohrad, known in Russia under the old Soviet name of Dimitrov. The elimination of the articles took place at the direct request of the Ministry of Defense, a fact explicitly mentioned even by the editors in the official explanations, reports ASTRA.
In the case of RIA Novosti, the announcement was published in a short form: the material entitled about the report of the Chief of the General Staff, Valeri Gherasimov, “is canceled at the request of the Ministry of Defense”. The material was quickly removed from news feeds, and the pages were replaced with messages indicating that the content had been removed.
The situation caused strong reactions, given that previously the Russian Ministry of Defense had already announced the “liberation” of the city. On December 31, 2025, Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov publicly congratulated military units for the complete capture of Myrnohrad, a message picked up by pro-Kremlin media.
Reason cited: old images
According to the Russian channels, the official reason for the withdrawal of the materials would have been the use of old video images. In the articles, under the pretext of “current” information, sequences from a visit by Gerasimov to the “Centru” grouping, images from December 2025, were broadcast.
However, the urgent intervention of the Ministry of Defense and the mass cancellation of the news again underscores a recurring problem of the Russian media system: declarations of “full control” over some localities often prove ephemeral even within the state media, social media users note.
