Spilnota Detector Media

Fake In Ukraine, teenagers are handed draft notices

This is the message propagandists share on telegram channels broadcasting pro-Russian rhetoric. It says that the draft notices allegedly began to be handed over even to teenagers, because all the reserves of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have already been exhausted. Like, they are “still children” who Ukraine transfers to the front. The authors of the message add to the publication a likely draft notice, supposedly issued by one of the territorial recruitment and social support centers. However, this is not true.

As the StopFake fact checkers explain, the draft notice spread by the propagandists is actually fake. First of all, the “document” does not correspond to the official model: it has the wrong column names, and some information is completely missing from it. Also, the name of the “military commissariat” is constantly used in the fake draft notice, however, starting from 2021, military registration and enlistment offices in Ukraine are called “territorial recruitment and social support centers”. Fact checkers are sure that the so-called document was created using special editors.

By spreading such messages, propagandists are once again trying to promote the narrative that there is no one left to fight in Ukraine, so even children allegedly have to be mobilized.

Fake In Ukraine, Slovaks are to be mobilized

Slovak social media circulated reports that allegedly the district administration in Banská Bystrica (probably other district administrations) was given the task of conducting “comprehensive exercises to carry out tasks after the declaration of martial law and orders to mobilize the armed forces of the Slovak Republic”. In particular, such a message was published by the Bádatel resource. This is manipulation.

According to Infopost.Media, the Slovak police denied the information. Usually, mobilization exercises are organized twice a year to test the defense capability of Slovakia. They have nothing to do with the war in Ukraine.

According to the police, the fake news about the mobilization in Slovakia is being spread by Russian propaganda as they are trying to cause panic in countries that support Ukraine with the alleged threat of being drawn into the war. Also, these fakes are spread in order to create a general information chaos and distrust of law enforcement agencies among the population.

In Ukraine, propagandists systematically manipulate the topic of mobilization, in particular, they talk about the forced mobilization of women, children, and even dogs.

Fake In Ukraine, dogs are being mobilized

Russian media and pro-Russian telegram channels spread the news that allegedly “after the mobilization of women” in Ukraine, they began to mobilize dogs. Allegedly, dog owners must put them on military registration from February 1, 2023. This applies to Shepherds, Labradors, Boxers, Rottweilers and other “big, strong” dogs. In case of violation of this requirement, the alleged owner of the dog will be punished. It's fake.

In the Law of Ukraine “On mobilization training and mobilization” there is not a word about the mobilization of animals. One of the sources of the fake is the telegram channel of the Zaporizhzhia collaborator Rohov. He writes that “dog draft notices” are allegedly carried by “dogs of the Zelenskyi regime”. Rohov also distributed a photo of the announcement, which was allegedly sent to him from the South of Ukraine. The Kharkiv Anti-Corruption Center checked these reports. On fake leaflets, the abbreviation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was used in Russian language, not in Ukrainian. The phones given there are used by the National Police Department in the Transcarpathian and Rivne regions, although leaflets are allegedly distributed in the South. These contacts are freely available.

Obviously, such fakes are spread primarily through the occupant telegram channels (list is  here) in order to convince the residents of the temporarily occupied territories of the “hopeless” situation in Ukraine. Also, Russian propaganda is trying to ridicule the “absurdity” of the orders of the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and once again parasitizes on the topic of mobilization.

Manipulation The office of the President began to mobilize more

A number of telegram channels, operating under the control of Russian intelligence, began to distribute photos of documents glued on various houses in the capital. This is a printout of the order for mobilization, signed by the head of the Holosiyivskyi territorial center for recruitment and social support (TTsKSP). The document states what people who have received the draft notices, people who have not yet registered, and people who are going to change their place of residence should do during the general mobilization. All photos of the documents were taken in the Holosiyivskyi district of Kyiv.

The photos are real. Telegram channels of the GRU network write that these documents indicate that “The President's Office is stepping up mobilization”. This is manipulation.

Firstly, even though the president signs the mobilization order, all mobilization activities are under the jurisdiction of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Secondly, the general mobilization has been carried out in Ukraine since February 24, did not stop and was last extended in November 2022 until February 18, 2023. Thirdly, as reported in the Kyiv City State Administration, such announcements are the usual informing of the population. “TTsKSP have the right to bring information about planned events to citizens. This is the usual work of the TTsKSP. Such announcements should not be taken in a different context”, and they also add that the announcement at the entrances of houses is “informing the population that the mobilization process in the country continues and a reminder for those who have already been given draft notices to come to the military registration and enlistment office”. The Kyiv state city administration did not explain why it was about these announcements that they appeared only in one district of the capital.

Earlier, Kremlin propaganda has repeatedly spread fakes about mobilization in Ukraine.

Fake In Ukraine, there are certain places where draft notice will be handed out by regions

Telegram channels massively disseminate information that there is a list of places where draft notices will be handed out in each of the regions. Like, from January 11, 2023, draft notices will be handed out anywhere in Ukraine, because the law does not regulate the place of their delivery. Anyone can view the list of places where this will take place in order to avoid serving the draft notices.

In fact, information about clearly defined territories where draft notices will be handed out is fake. Local recruitment and social support centers did not report this either on their official pages in social networks or on official websites. So, there is no reason to believe this information. As the fact-checkers of the “Brekhunets” (Liar) project, the message about the delivery of draft notices dated January 11, is also not true. In Ukraine, mobilization has been going on for 10 months, starting on February 24, 2022. Every man of military age can get a draft notice.

According to fact-checkers, public administrators on social networks disseminate such messages deliberately, realizing that they are manipulating socially important information. Such manipulations help the authors of telegram channels to increase their audience. In addition, such messages also shake the situation in society.

Fake Women and children should prepare to be conscripted

Social networks and enemy telegram channels spread information about Ukraine's preparations for the mobilization of women and children. Like, advertising with a call to join the territorial defense units contains hints that they will mobilize “everyone in a row”: both women and children. However, this is not true.

In fact, this is an unfounded statement. Such ads do exist and feature a crying baby and the slogan “Protect your children”. The advertising banner also featured the hotline number of the command of the Territorial Defense Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Actually, volunteers from 18 to 60 years old, both women and men, can join the territorial defense. Everything happens on a voluntary basis. We are not even talking about general mobilization.

Message In Ukraine there is a "war to the last Ukrainian", even the unborn

Such a message is spread by pro-Russian telegram channels. Like, both the President and the Armed Forces of Ukraine are ready to send absolutely everyone to the front, even unborn children. In the messages, the propagandists manipulate the words of the President about the readiness of Ukrainians to defend their country and a video in which a pregnant Ukrainian woman talks about receiving a draft notice. Allegedly, the President's message has just such an embodiment.

The mobilization of women in Ukraine is voluntary. Military registration is required only for workers in the medical field. Pregnant women and women on maternity leave (to care for a child before the child reaches the age of three or in some cases the age of six) are exempted from mobilization in accordance with the law. Obviously, the woman received the draft notice by mistake.

The propagandists used the emotional video to promote several disinformation narratives at once: the mobilization of women in Ukraine, the incompetence of the Ukrainian authorities, and the weakness of the Ukrainian army.

Message In liberated Kherson, all men of military age are to be conscripted

Since November 11, such messages have been distributed by anonymous telegram channels. They say that with the arrival of Ukraine in Kherson, mass mobilization will begin, all men of military age, despite their state of health, will be taken into the Ukrainian army.

Such information does not correspond to reality, since conscription activities throughout Ukraine are carried out according to the same algorithm.

Currently, Ukraine does not intend to carry out additional conscription. Considering that a war is going on in Ukraine, the course of mobilization will depend solely on the situation at the front, explained Anna Maliar, Deputy defense minister.

Russian propagandists are inciting fear among civilians in the Kherson region that mobilization is one of the methods of “reprisal” and “cleaning” for the fact that people lived under Russian occupation. Like, those who allegedly collaborated with the Russians should wait for filtration, and, accordingly, torture, and all other men of military age should expect conscription.

Such messages are intended to sow doubts about the legality of the general mobilization, to cause distrust in the authorities of Ukraine and the Ukrainian army in the liberated territory, and to show that life was better under Russian occupation in the Kherson region and there were no dangers to the civilian population.

Fake None of the Ukrainian deputies "exchanged warm offices for trenches"

Pro-Russian blogger-propagandist Yehor Myslyvets reproached this. Some Russian deputies allegedly unlike Ukrainian people's deputies, decided to go to the front.

For six months, none of the officials has gone to protect their country, and does not explain why they are not doing it. It is not true.

As reported by Stop Fake fact-checkers, several current and former people's deputies personally went to defend the country both as part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and in the ranks of territorial defense.

Moreover, the Ukrainian mass media repeatedly wrote about such examples. Among those who defend Ukraine from the Russian army are deputies from the faction of the "Holos" party Roman Kostenko and Roman Lozynskyi, people's deputies from the faction "European Solidarity" Mykhailo Zabrodskyi, Volodymyr Vyatrovych, and Andriy Parubiy.

The former parliament speaker Oleksandr Turchynov and the general prosecutor and ex-deputy of the Verkhovna Rada Yuriy Lutsenko became soldiers. 

Disclosure The Russian mass media received a manual on how to cover "partial" mobilization

It was prepared in the administration of the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, reports the publication "Meduza", which received such a method from its sources.

According to "Meduza", the document states that Russia won wars "only in the whole world" and only when Russians believed in "people's war".

The mass media should convey the main thesis that "the people of Russia should unite before the threat of NATO." The Kremlin claims that the alliance intends to "dismember and rob" Russia. Therefore, it is forbidden to "put the entire burden of responsibility on the contractors and the people's militia of Donbas."

The manuals contain information that Russia is supposedly at war not with Ukraine, but with NATO. Therefore, by conveying such theses to ordinary Russians, it is planned to reduce the level of dissatisfaction with mobilization.

Obviously, the methods didn`t work. According to British intelligence, Putin's quick recognition of mobilization problems in Russia shows its ineffectiveness.

Fake Partial mobilization of students is carried out in the Vinnytsia region

Such a statement is spread by propagandists along with a fabricated document. It says that the head of the Vinnytsia regional police department allegedly announces a so-called partial mobilization for students. Like, students of secondary and higher professional educational institutions fall under the mobilization. However, this is not true.

According to the Bukvy publication they received a message from a Russian who distributed the so-called document. However, such a document does not really exist.

Adviser to the head of the Office of the President Mykhailo Podoliak said earlier that Ukraine does not plan to announce additional mobilization against the backdrop of Russian fake "referendums" and the so-called partial mobilization in Russia. “We have already created reserves through the territorial defense system and actively use these reserves. We do not plan to announce additional mobilization today. We have everything and we are ready for more Russian military”, Podoliak said.

Manipulation There are no rallies in Ukraine because all the participants would have been given draft notices

Such messages are distributed in pro-Russian telegram channels. In particular, this was stated by propagandist Anatolii Sharii whose party is banned in Ukraine. This is manipulation.

Sharii noted that on the video of the rallies in Russia, he did not see a single person falling under the announced mobilization. In his opinion, there are no such rallies in Ukraine, otherwise all those present would have been given draft notices randomly.

In fact, since the 21st of September, just in Russia at rallies against mobilization the police disperse and beat the protesters and shoot. Already on the first day of protests in different cities of Russia at least 1,176 people were detained. The detainees are handed draft notices to the military enlistment office, the Russian service of the BBC reports.

There are many women among the protesters, they come out with posters “No to war!” and “Our children are not fertilizer!”.

In addition, military registration and enlistment offices were set on fire in several regions of Russia. In the military registration and enlistment office of the Irkutsk region of the Russian Federation, the head of the draft commission was shot.

At the same time, rallies were also held in different cities of Ukraine, at which participants demanded the return of prisoners of war who had not yet been released from Russian prisons. No arrests were recorded at rallies in Ukraine, there is no evidence that any of the protesters were handed draft notices.

Fake In Kharkiv, women are "conscripted" into the ranks of the Armed Forces

Propaganda channels in social networks disseminate information that “draft notices” are issued to women because “there are no men left in the city.” The head of the Main Directorate of the National Police in the Kharkiv region, Volodymyr Timoshko, called it nonsense on the air of the telethon.

Since the beginning of the summer of 2022, Russian propaganda through social networks has been promoting the thesis of agendas for women. In the Mykolaiv region, even forged documents were distributed to argue the lie.

It should be noted that the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine has developed a bill to reduce the list of women's specialties subject to military registration from October 1. The initiative has already been submitted to the Verkhovna Rada, and now the relevant committee is working on it.

The Ministry explained that now there is no urgent need for the mobilization of women. At the same time, the Armed Forces of Ukraine still need specialists in medicine, radio engineering, and food technology.

Women with minor children under 18 years of age are not subject to conscription due to mobilization. Note that registration is not mobilization.

In wartime, women can be recruited for military service and in the military reserve only under contract and on a voluntary basis. All female employees do so voluntarily and/or under contract.

Message Gays are recruited into the Ukrainian army because there is no one to serve anymore

The Russian media repeatedly manipulates the topic of LGBT military personnel. This time, messages are being spread that there is no one to fight in Ukraine anymore, so gays, lesbians, and transgender people are being recruited. Russian society is characterized by intolerance and homophobia, considering representatives of the LGBT community to be "perverts", people not worthy of respect. LGBT people in Russia are often discriminated against, for which the perpetrators, according to the law, cannot be brought to justice. When talking about LGBT people, propagandists pay attention exclusively to their sexual orientation, erasing the fact that homosexual people can be specialists in various fields just like heterosexuals. In particular, in the military.

LGBT people have been serving in the Ukrainian army for a long time and, in particular, have been defending the borders of Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war, in 2014. The Constitution of Ukraine stipulates that "all people are free and equal in their dignity and rights. Human rights and freedoms are inalienable and inviolable". During the draft, the military commissions do not ask about sexual orientation, because people are not selected for the army based on it. On the contrary, the fact that additional attention will be paid to it can be considered discrimination.

In Ukrainian society, as well as in the army, there are still certain problems with bullying or intolerance towards LGBT people. Despite this, Ukrainian LGBT soldiers fulfill their duty to protect the state. Manipulations of Russian propaganda about the fact that in Ukraine "there is no one to serve" is a wish that is passed off as reality.

The fake about Ukrainian "gays in the army" is not new. Earlier, Russian propagandist Olga Skabeyeva voiced on the air of her program that the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr ZeZelenskyon the orders of US President Joe Biden, sent "columns of Ukrainian homosexuals" to Donbas.

"Media Detector" previously refuted the myths about the LGBT+ community, which are widespread in the Ukrainian media and society, and also told how LGBT activists oppose Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Fake An updated list of diseases that are not accepted into the army

An updated list of diseases with which conscripts are deemed unfit for service is being circulated on social networks. The fact-checkers of the "Brekhunets" project noted that the specific laws in this regard have not changed since April, and the changes made do not concern the list of diseases. In particular, on March 18, changes were made to the Regulation of military medical examination in the Armed Forces. The modifications introduced on April 21 to the law "On mobilization training and mobilization" were related to the separation of powers between central executive bodies regarding state policy in civil protection.

The list of citizens who are not subject to conscription is defined in Art. 23 of the Law of Ukraine "On Mobilization Training and Mobilization." The regulation on military medical examination in the Armed Forces specifies a list of diseases in which conscripts may be temporarily or not recruited into the army in peacetime and/or wartime.