More than 150,000 Russian troops thrown into battle over key Donetsk region as Kremlin chiefs lie about war gains and disguise their dead or missing by listing them as being deserters

Russia is inflating its battleground gains in Ukraine and disguising frontline dead as deserters as it tries desperately to leverage peace talks. It comes as Moscow’s war-planners have amassed a massive force of some 156,000 troops in the battleground region and try to hide the reality of the war from the Russian public.

Kremlin propaganda relating to a victory in Pokrovsk was debunked by Kyiv’s armed forces Commander in Chief, amid reports of own-side executions of Russian soldiers by ‘barrier units.’ Kremlin claims of having overrun the key city of Pokrovsk were denied by Kyiv’s military commander

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