A subscriber to the NotaYenota project shared her own exposure of a fraudulent scheme aimed at missing and uncommunicative relatives of the Ukrainian military. The scheme is implemented in chats to search for relatives.

In particular, a person represented by the military is attached to them. She or he can give a name or numbers to a brigade on the basis that no one will check this information. According to legend, this man or woman came to a psycho-neurological dispensary in a certain Ukrainian city (different cities are called) and there they allegedly found a department with shell-shocked Ukrainian soldiers who were being held against their will without access to contact with their relatives. Like, he or she visits these chambers and gives bribes for their dismissal. This is preparing the ground for the fact that people in the chat will have to pay the “military” for the release of relatives.

Further, this person sends the names of the military, whom they allegedly found. People call this person, send photos of their relatives, hoping that they are off the list. In personal conversations, this person does not allow the interlocutor to speak and assures that he or she spoke with the soldiers and that they are in a terrible state. Allegedly, the doctors do not want to tell anything and demand a bribe because of the “order from above”. At the end of the first day, the military man assures that he will not leave this business, because he also has a mother and he does not want her to look for him the same way. After that, he sends a photo of the warriors in the ward. As it turned out, this is a photo taken many years ago in Pskov (Russia).

Further, the military sends new names and states that the chief doctor allegedly called the military prosecutor's office against him, but he will not leave this case unfinished. He subsequently sends a “legend” voicemail that has prison slang in the background. In addition, there are several “accomplices” in the chat who send messages of gratitude to the “military” for “saving” their relatives. And chat participants who have doubts and questions about its activities are encouraged to be removed from the chat.

This is a scam that plays on people's emotions. There is a Russian trace in it and coincidences with the messages of Russian propaganda. It was propagandists who repeatedly tried to discredit the Ukrainian military, deliberately exaggerating the scale of the problem and manipulating their mental state. Like, the authorities are silent about everything, and Ukraine leaves its military to the mercy of fate. Media Detector has already written about Russian fakes about the mental health of the Ukrainian military.