On August 12th, 2024, the Ukrainian Armed Forces announced they had crossed the border with Russia and taken control of several settlements in the Kursk region. The Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed that fighting was taking place there.
Konstantin Prydybaylo, a correspondent for “Russia Today”, the pro-government media outlet, called out the Ukrainian TV channel TSN, for broadcasting a fake news segment on August 14, 2024. Prydybaylo alleged that a recent TSN report covering events in Sudzha following its capture by the Ukrainian Armed Forces was actually filmed in the Ukrainian city of Sumy, exposing a discrepancy between the reported and actual locations. The same day, Prydybaylo shared this discovery on his Telegram channel.
“The story by the Ukrainian channel about Sudzha was filmed in the city of Sumy, which is still part of Ukraine.
The journalist's broadcast location was at the Memorial of Eternal Glory, which is quite appropriate. A monument to the city's liberators from the Nazi forefathers of today’s Ukro-fighters,” Pridybaylo posted, supporting his claim with the following photos of the memorial from the footage and a map of Sumy.
While the storyline does indicate that it's set in the Kursk region, the reporter, Natalya Nagornaya, was introduced by the anchor as being “back from the Kursk region and now in touch live.”
Then Nagornaya tells about what she saw in Kursk during a live broadcast, while pre-recorded video footage from the region is shown on screen.
In another live segment, Nagornaya explains why she’s not in Sudzha:
“Hello again. First of all, I'd like to clarify why we're broadcasting from Sumy. Unfortunately, communication is not working in the Kursk region yet. Even the civilians who remained there said that the Russian troops, when they fled, did not inform them that they were staying, that there should be some evacuation, and they were left, even without communication. And we also had to return to Sumy to transmit the footage and prepare it for broadcast.”