Two Russian state news agencies published alerts on Monday saying Moscow was moving troops to "more favorable positions" east of the Dnipro River in Ukraine, only to withdraw the information minutes later.
The highly unusual incident suggested disarray in Russia's military establishment and state media over how to report the battlefield situation in southern Ukraine.
In other news, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the country must brace itself for more attacks on national infrastructure as winter approaches.
"We are almost halfway through November and we must be prepared for the possibility that the enemy may increase the number of drone or missile strikes against our infrastructure," Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Sunday.
Russia pummelled Ukrainian energy infrastructure last winter, putting pressure on much of the civilian population by depriving them of heating and power. The Kyiv School of Economics estimated last January that damage to the country's energy sector had already totaled $6.8 billion.