But as a team of Washington Post journalists passed through the checkpoint on Wednesday, Ukrainian soldiers ordered them to quickly leave the town, warning of incoming Russian rockets or artillery. Minutes later, reporters heard the sound of shells falling. Black plumes of smoke rose over the houses. Soon more blasts followed.

Makariv remains a contested front line.

“The military doesn’t control all of Makariv, only partially,” said Mayor Vadim Tokar, standing on the town’s outskirts shortly after the shells landed. “It’s 100 percent no-go for civilians to return.”

What happened here is emblematic of the two different yet intertwined wars unfolding in Ukraine, one taking place on the battlefield, the other in the realm of propaganda to shape public perceptions and bolster morale and support. Russia has been by far the more aggressive source of wildly inaccurate information — starting with Vladimir Putin’s false and historically inaccurate justifications for the invasion. But, as the Makariv situation illustrates, Ukrainian officials have also sometimes spread overly rosy information about the war.