The Kremlin needed more than two days to draw up ‘guidelines’ for news coverage of Ukraine’s surprise incursion. Here’s what Putin’s policy team finally decided.

Vladimir Putin’s domestic policy team has instructed the pro-Kremlin and state-run media to “avoid sensationalizing” coverage of the Ukrainian military’s incursion into the Kursk region, Meduza has learned from two people who work in the industry. The Putin administration’s “urgent recommendations” also caution against discussions of a “new front” opening in the so-called special military operation. Instead (somewhat confusingly, given the directive to abstain from sensationalism), reporters have been encouraged to compare the ongoing fighting in the Kursk region to the World War II Battle of Kursk — the single largest battle in the history of warfare and a turning point in the USSR’s fight against Nazi Germany. Additionally, the president’s policy team has told the media not to mention the potential advance of Ukrainian troops toward the city of Kurchatov, which is home to the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant — in order to prevent a public panic about a “nuclear threat.” Meduza reviews what we know about the Kremlin’s instructions to reporters.

Could Ukraine’s ground assault actually reach the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant?

This scenario is very unlikely. Roughly 50 kilometers (31 miles) separate the Ukrainian incursion force’s current positions from the power plant. On the third day of fighting, Russian troops managed to restore defensive lines on the main roads around the city of Sudzha. Ukrainian infantry units and armored divisions met little to no resistance in the first days of the incursion and were able to move almost freely throughout the Kursk region, but that is no longer the case.

In the past two years of war, neither side has been able to break through 50 kilometers of stable defensive lines: this requires a concentration of forces impeded by drones, the lack of well-established and flexible logistics, and difficulties in moving artillery after advancing infantry (both the Ukrainian and Russian armed forces have struggled with this). Because neither army has managed to solve these challenges, the maximum advances either side is able to achieve in a day amount to a few hundred meters or a single kilometer at most. For example, in seven months of continuously advancing west of Avdiivka, the Russian Armed Forces have penetrated only 20 kilometers (12 miles) into Ukraine’s defenses.

The Kremlin has told the media to report on the Russian military’s supposed “successes” in the Kursk assault, stressing that Ukrainian troops were halted before advancing deep into the region. Instead of mentioning potential threats to the Kursk NPP, news outlets should focus on civilian casualties in the Ukrainian military’s attacks on Russian settlements, especially injured and killed children. (According to official data, at least nine children have been wounded in the Kursk operation, and there is independent verification of deaths among the region’s civilian population.)

The Putin administration has also instructed media outlets to promote human-interest stories that emphasize themes of “unity and solidarity,” such as reports on blood donation drives and campaigns to provide shelter to refugees from the Sudzha area. Kremlin policymakers specify that these reports should be vividly descriptive, not “dry” and factual.

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The media should also assure their audiences that ample temporary accommodations are available for persons displaced from Sudzha. This coverage should focus on acting Governor Alexey Smirnov’s visits to housing shelters and hospitals where wounded civilians are being treated. (At the time of this writing, according to official data, five civilians have been killed in Ukraine’s incursion into the Kursk region and another 21 have been injured.)

The Kremlin instructed reporters to emphasize the “enormous response efforts” of federal officials, especially President Putin, who “won’t desert anyone in need,” said Meduza’s Russian media sources.

The Putin administration’s “guidelines” didn’t reach newsrooms until Thursday afternoon, more than two days after Ukraine’s incursion began. This delay suggests that the president’s domestic policy team failed to realize the scale of events until well into the operation.