To someone following Western media summaries of Russian public diplomacy and state-supported media, it appears that they are putting out both obviously false claims and mutually inconsistent ones, e.g.

• Both "the attack was a false flag operation, it wasn't us" and "it was a valid military target." (Kremenchuk)
• "This is just an exercise, not preparations for an invasion." (Deployments in Belarus before the attack)

How can such a messaging strategy make sense?