Russians Breached This City, Not With Troops, but Propaganda

Gesturing to the artillery shell lodged in the ground and a rocket protruding from the wall, Maksym Katerynyn was in a rage. These were Ukrainian munitions, he shouted. And it was Ukrainian artillery that struck his home the day before and killed his mother and stepfather.

“The Russians are not hitting us!” Mr. Katerynyn barked. “Ukraine is shelling us!”

But that was next to impossible: There were no Russian soldiers for the Ukrainians to shell in the eastern city of Lysychansk, and it was clear that the projectiles had come...