On Sept. 1, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Russian forces had captured Sviatohirsk, a town anchoring the northern flank of Ukraine’s Sloviansk-Kramatorsk fortress belt. Six days later, Brig. Gen. Andrii Biletskyi stood in the town and filmed himself speaking calmly. Even a Kremlin-affiliated military blogger conceded it proved Ukrainian control. A pro-war channel that had posted two “liberation” clips later admitted a neural network produced them.

The lie lasted less than a week. But Sviatohirsk was not an isolated blunder. It was one of at least 35 videos that the Institute for the Study of War suspects were AI-altered between June 1 and Aug. 30. Washington should read the pattern correctly, because it is not about fooling the public. It is about making the truth expensive.