A sense of unreality continues to permeate Russia and their claims to annexation of southern Ukraine, and that may be almost literally. Newsweek reports today that the Kremlin added “fake cheers” to Vladimir Putin’s speech on Friday announcing the annexation to sell this glorious nonsense to a Russian audience that has clearly grown tired of the war. And speaking of the audience …

Unedited footage from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annexation speech in Moscow on Friday appears to show fake cheers were edited onto clips broadcast on state TV, while reports say that people were bussed in to attend the rally. …

Local Telegram and Twitter channels have shared unedited clips that were taken at the event itself, alongside videos that appear to have cheers and chants added by state media.

On-the-ground clips show a lifeless crowd, with many standing still while holding Russian flags as they watch a speech by Ivan Okhlobystin, an actor and director, as well as a staunch Putin fan.

Okhlobystin called Putin’s war against Ukraine “holy,” and he led battle cries. Edited clips appear to show the audience cheer and applause in response, but the raw footage shared on Telegram shows just several responding positively to his speech.

If this is on the level, it doesn’t appear that Russians are terribly interested in “holy war.” And since when are Russians jihadists anyway?

Unedited footage from Putin’s recent war rally in Moscow appears to show complete indifference among the captive crowd of bussed-in state workers. It seems propagandists added cheers and chants in the editing room. Is anything in Russia not faked? pic.twitter.com/P8BOXEZh7b

— Business Ukraine mag (@Biz_Ukraine_Mag) October 3, 2022

Judging by the way Russian men have thundered to cross any border except Ukraine’s, I’d guess that jihad isn’t very popular in Russia these days. That may be why the Kremlin needed to add some sound effects. The sound of one man responding with a listless “Goyda” doesn’t quite stir the nationalist heart.

Neither do the nationalists’ results in Ukraine. While the Russian Federation Council and the Duma try to figure out the boundaries of their supposedly annexed lands in Ukraine, Russians continue to run away from Ukrainian forces in those same areas Russia claims. According to multiple reports, the Kherson counter-offensive suddenly accelerated in the last 24 hours, but the pace is increasing in Luhansk and Donetsk as well:

Ukrainian troops on Tuesday accelerated their military advances on two fronts, pushing Russian forces into retreat in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions to the east and Kherson region to the south.

The gains showed Kyiv continuing to recapture occupied territory on the same day that President Vladimir Putin and his rubber-stamp parliament sought to formalize their increasingly far-fetched annexation claims of four Ukrainian regions.

“The Ukrainian armed forces commanders in the south and east are throwing problems at the Russian chain of command faster than the Russians can effectively respond,” said a Western official who requested anonymity to brief reporters about sensitive security information. “And this is compounding the existing dysfunction within the Russian invasion force.” …

The Ukrainian counteroffensive, which had moved far more slowly in the south compared to the lightning push through the northeast Kharkiv region in September, has suddenly picked up speed, with Russian units retreating in recent days from a large swath of territory along the west bank of the Dnieper River.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the momentum has become so significant that Putin’s mobilization will prove too little, too late:

The rapid advance of Ukrainian forces into Russian-occupied territories in recent weeks is outpacing Russia’s efforts to expedite training for newly mobilized troops to reinforce its front lines, according to Ukrainian and Western officials.

As Kyiv threatens Russia’s hold on key Ukrainian towns, Western officials say Russia is struggling to deal with the logistics and sheer scale of a recruitment drive that Moscow says should bring 300,000 new soldiers into its army. Any realistic benefit from what Russia calls its partial mobilization would take weeks to materialize, they say, and those draftees already in Ukraine lack the training and equipment to be effective against motivated Ukrainian troops moving fast to capitalize on their momentum before winter sets in.

“The outlook for this military campaign is obvious: More and more occupiers are fleeing, the enemy army is suffering more and more losses, and the sense that Russia made a grave error in launching a war against Ukraine is growing,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a late-night video address on Monday.

Ukraine has advanced substantially all along the Kherson theater line of late, ISW reports. They published their latest maps overnight, and also corroborated the Washington Post report this morning about the advance from Lyman into the Luhansk Oblast, toward the key strategic town of Kreminna:

NEW: Ukrainian forces have made substantial gains around #Lyman and in northern #Kherson Oblast over the last 24 hours. The Russian units defeated on these fronts were previously considered to be among #Russia’s premier conventional fighting forces.https://t.co/qCfwrJolCF pic.twitter.com/GwXQBzxI0S

— ISW (@TheStudyofWar) October 4, 2022

Combat footage geolocated by @TheStudyofWar corroborates claims from Russian military figures that Ukrainian troops are continuing their advancement east of #Lyman, apparently gearing up for a fight over the town of #Kreminna. https://t.co/2Oeos2fEJr

— ISW (@TheStudyofWar) October 4, 2022

As I pointed out yesterday, Kreminna is strategic in and of itself for its control of rail lines. Russian military communications take place mainly on rail lines, a necessity in that region of the world where roads are only seasonally reliable. Taking Kreminna would cut off lines of communication to parts of Luhansk and Donetsk, plus it would cut off relief to even more strategically important places like Lysychansk and the city of Donetsk. It also would allow Ukrainian forces to get closer to Svatove and the major rail hub that would all but eliminate a point of controlled egress for Russian troops about to get squeezed into pockets of destruction in the eastern theater.

The trap is not entirely set yet — it will take a lot more fighting to flank Luhansk and Donetsk — but Russians are losing the ability to stop it. Annexing these territories is sheer fantasy, which is all Russia appears to have left … except nuclear weapons, of course, but even those won’t do Putin any good with the military in its current condition. And it might touch off a coup by oligarchs who will at some point want to salvage what little remains of the military as well as their own fortunes, and their own necks come the next revolution.