On January 27, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced the "liberation of the village of Nikolaevo-Darino in the Sudzhansky district of the Kursk region" near the Ukrainian border, the BBC recalls.
On the same day, the "Rossiya" TV channel showed material about the supposedly liberated village. "Nikolayevo-Darino has been practically wiped off the face of the earth", VGTRK correspondent Stanislav Nazarov told viewers. "The village was an important logistical point for supplying the enemy with ammunition and provisions." An unnamed military man told Nazarov that after the liberation of Nikolaevo-Darino, the group of Ukrainian armed forces in the Kursk region would no longer be able to replenish itself with new servicemen. The story was accompanied by footage allegedly filmed in a liberated village.
However, that same evening, residents of the Kursk region began to claim in thematic chats and Telegram posts that the story shown on VGTRK was not filmed in Nikolaevo-Darino at all, but in the village of Olgovka in the Korenevsky district of the Kursk region. Olgovka is located about 20 kilometers north of Nikolaevo-Darino, and the Russian army recaptured this village in late October 2024. Local residents also argue that it is at least premature to talk about the liberation of Nikolayev-Darino.
The BBC Russian Service compared the VGTRK story about the liberated Nikolayev-Darino with several Channel One stories from three months ago about the battles for Olgovka and concluded that yesterday's VGTRK story actually used footage shot in Olgovka.