Moscow Media Referring to ‘Pro-Russian Underground’ in Ukraine Far Less Often Now than in the Past, ‘Vot-Tak TV’ Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Mar. 17 – After frequently speaking about the supposed existence in Ukraine of a pro-Russian underground during the first two years of Putin’s war in Ukraine, Russian media have cut back their references dramatically with the number falling by half between 2024 and 2025 and continuing to fall during the first quarter of 2026, Vot-Tak TV reports.

            In the first three months of this year, the independent television network says, there were only 47 news reports about the supposed existence of “a pro-Russian underground” in Ukraine, less than a third of the 161 references to such a phenomenon during the same period in 2025 (vot-tak.tv/92131398/propaganda-prorossiiskoe-podpolie).

            Ukrainian intelligence officials say that such Russian reportage is intended to legitimize what Putin’s invasion force is doing, draw parallels with the resistance to the Nazis in World War II, and sow panic within the Ukrainians about their ability to defend themselves against the Russian army.

            But they and other experts say that there is no way to say how many people in Ukraine are really part of any such underground, although most express confidence that it is far smaller than Moscow has ever claimed, a judgment that Moscow media now appear to agree with given the decision to give such stories less space.

            It is also the case, although Vot-Tak TV doesn’t mention this possibility, that as the war drags on, the credibility of such stories is declining given that Ukrainians are still able to defend their country effectively and even in places to advance into areas Russian forces had once occupied, hardly evidence there is much support for Moscow anywhere in Ukraine.