Russian authorities are increasingly pursuing corruption cases against regional and military officials, legal maneuverings that are putting the elite on guard and in some cases, may be aimed at quelling public anger about battlefield failures.

Government officials in three of the five Russian regions bordering Ukraine have been arrested and accused by prosecutors in recent months of embezzling funds that Moscow had earmarked for border fortifications, cases brought after successful Ukrainian cross-border attacks.

Last year, Russia also began a rare, high-level purge of top military generals and defense ministry leaders through corruption cases. Around the same time, President Vladimir V. Putin transferred his longtime defense chief, Sergei K. Shoigu, to a more nebulous job running the Russian national security council.

As a rule, Mr. Putin does not admit battlefield errors or publicly blame loyal aides for lapses. Criticism of the military in Russia is outlawed. So the anti-corruption cases have become a convenient option, allowing Moscow to appease the public without admitting a failure by the central apparatus.

“The government has declined to connect these investigations with something you might call treason or betrayal,” said David Szakonyi, a political scientist at George Washington University, who studies corruption in Russia. “It has allowed the public to connect it in their own minds.”

Moscow cannot accuse the officials of wartime failures, because that would force leaders “to acknowledge that the campaign has not gone according to plan, which they are very unwilling to do, because that affects morale and recruitment,” Mr. Szakonyi said.