Context: False as a claim of territory seized. The Institute for the Study of War, which assesses control from geolocated evidence, has observed a net total of 81.1 square kilometres seized so far in 2026 — about one twenty-seventh of the claimed figure — and 626.85 square kilometres seized or infiltrated, still roughly a quarter of the claim. Even the broader figure is not comparable: ISW stresses that Russian forces do not control territory into which they have only infiltrated, and attributes the low net partly to a significant Ukrainian spring–summer 2026 counteroffensive that took territory back. The claim originated on a propaganda Telegram channel amplified by the Russian Ministry of Defense. It is recorded here on the same terms as the outgoing Ukrainian commander-in-chief's 743 sq km counter-claim of July 22: both are interested parties' aggregate territorial numbers, neither corroborated by the geolocated record.