That’s probably right. It just sounds so outlandish to make up a lie to make yourself look bad.
Maybe there’s something about Russian military culture that the rest of us don’t understand, where being killed by the enemy is a much bigger loss of face than killing yourself.
Their current war is based on the propaganda of Russian superiority over Ukrainians, military superiority specifically since Russians built their whole modern ideology on winning WWII. Admitting that Ukrainians are capable of anything is therefore undercutting this foundational national idea.
Maybe there’s something about Russian military culture that the rest of us don’t understand, where being killed by the enemy is a much bigger loss of face than killing yourself.