Russian media started delivering stories of Ukrainian army "raping and murdering" civilians in Kursk oblast' already in autumn 2024, when it became evident that Ukrainian forces can't be removed quickly as previously promised by Russian military commanders. Russian media used real people's names for added authenticity - for example, they reported from "first-hand witnesses" that some Svetlana Repina from Kozacha Lokna was brutally raped and murdered with "the whole village watching at gunpoint". Ukrainian military administration was therefore able to find Svetlana who indeed lives in the village and interviewed her and her parents. Repina, who was reportedly "raped and murdered", is clearly shaken that a woman she knows personally was able to invent such a violent story with her as the main hero and tell it to Russian TV with a straight face. In the same way Ukrainian investigators were able to get to the bottom of other stories published by Russian media - about "concentration camps" in the village (that none really saw), about a "Russian soldier who was castrated for four hours and screaming" (that nobody really heard), about "children stolen for illegal organ transplants" (but nobody's children are actually missing). Russians did not have any real evidence, like bodies or even videos, which were abundant in the case of their Bucha war crimes, which Russia evidently tried to cover or "balance" with these Sudzha stories. Therefore their stories rely exclusively on hearsay and can be easily proven false.

P.S. as an added bonus you can hear a fantastic mix of local languages in Kursk oblast' - from around 06:00 the women from Repina family are speaking fluent Ukrainian, surzhyk (a mix of Russian and Ukrainian) and fluent Russian.