# Russian Operation Uses AI‑Generated ‘Soldiers’ to Target Ukrainian and Pro‑Kyiv Channels Near Lyman

*Wednesday, September 30, 2026 at 6:10 AM UTC — Hamer Intelligence Services Desk*

**Published**: 2026-09-30T06:10:23.792Z (2h ago)
**Category**: cyber | **Region**: Eastern Europe
**Importance**: 9/10
**Sources**: OSINT
**Permalink**: https://hamerintel.com/data/articles/19216.md
**Source**: https://hamerintel.com/summaries

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**Deck**: Russian operators are contacting Ukrainian and pro‑Ukrainian channels while posing as Ukrainian soldiers near Lyman and offering “exclusive” frontline videos that feature AI‑generated figures based on dead troops’ obituaries, part of an information campaign to discredit reports on the counteroffensive.

Russian information operators have opened a new line of attack against Ukrainian and pro‑Ukrainian media channels, according to observers tracking activity around the Lyman sector. They report that Russians are messaging these channels while impersonating Ukrainian soldiers supposedly standing in recaptured villages in the Lyman direction and offering them exclusive video clips to post.

The people monitoring this effort say the “soldiers” shown in the videos are not real. Instead, they describe them as AI‑generated figures built from images taken from obituaries of Ukrainian troops who were killed earlier in the war. The intent is to plant fabricated frontline footage in sympathetic channels and later expose it as fake, undermining confidence in coverage of Ukrainian advances.

The current focus of debate is around the village of Shevchenko in the Komar direction near Lyman. Some online commentary framed recent geolocated footage of Ukrainian soldiers active in Shevchenko as a surprise. An analyst who has been reporting on the area for some time countered that characterization, saying Ukrainian forces have been fighting on the outskirts of Shevchenko since late July. According to this account, they have suffered heavy casualties while trying to cross a multi‑layered Russian defensive line north of the village to establish a foothold.

The combination of genuine, hard‑fought Ukrainian activity near Shevchenko and the appearance of AI‑generated “soldiers” in other supposed frontline videos creates fertile ground for confusion. Russian information campaigns are exploiting that by trying to blur the line between authentic battlefield reporting and manipulated imagery.

For families and comrades of the dead, the reported use of obituary photos as raw material for AI composites adds a further layer of abuse, turning personal loss into a tool for psychological operations.

How quickly Ukrainian and pro‑Ukrainian channels adapt their verification practices, and whether platform moderators start to detect and remove such deepfakes, will shape how effective this particular operation remains. The pattern around Lyman may also signal how information tactics could evolve on other parts of the front.