Pro-Russian Telegram channels and public pages are actively spreading a photo allegedly showing that, in one of the schools in Kryvyi Rih, a teacher made a schoolgirl sit at a desk with a sign reading: “I will sit at this desk until my dad returns from AWOL” (unauthorized absence from a military unit). The post is presented as “proof” that Ukrainian schools punish children for having parents who are “draft dodgers”.

This fake was debunked by analysts from the StopFake project.

No Ukrainian media outlet, no local Telegram channel in Kryvyi Rih, and no official source has reported such an incident. Instead, the image is being widely circulated by accounts displaying signs of bot activity, in multiple languages at once: English, Spanish, Italian, Czech, Vietnamese, and others.

The photo itself was generated by artificial intelligence. This is confirmed by three independent services:

The original sources of the “news” were typical propaganda Telegram channels that regularly post fabrications and conspiracy theories. In other words, this is a classic AI-generated fake, created in a matter of minutes and widely disseminated to fuel yet another wave of mockery and hatred.

A photo allegedly showing a veteran of the 72nd Separate Mechanized Brigade, known as “Uncle Tolya”, is being circulated on social media. According to the post’s authors, he was supposedly remobilized after 35 years of service, despite his advanced age and having three children. The post claims that the veteran had repeatedly asked his fellow servicemen to get him a captured Russian T-72 tank, but instead an aerial reconnaissance unit allegedly gave him two new British tank crew suits. This fake was debunked by VoxCheck.

In reality, the story is a photo fake. The authors edited the original post, changing both the text and the publication date. The man in the photo is named Anatolii Bezbah, and he voluntarily joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine back in 2014.

As fact-checkers found, the screenshot shows that the alleged author of the post was Ukrainian serviceman and photographer Mykyta Zavilinskyi. His Facebook page does indeed contain a photo of “Uncle Tolya”, but it was originally published on November 1, 2014. On November 1, 2025, Zavilinskyi merely reposted it as a memory of the first combat missions. The original post stated that the 61-year-old Uncle Tolya had voluntarily joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine and commanded a T-64 tank.

According to Zavilinskyi, the veteran really did joke that he wanted a captured Russian tank. In his post, he quoted Uncle Tolya as saying: “You find it with your little helicopter, then we suddenly attack the checkpoint, they just need to be pinned to the ground with fire for two minutes, I’ll jump in and off we go!” Thus, this episode was described as a joke rather than a real combat plan. At the same time, the fact that soldiers from an aerial reconnaissance unit gave him two British tank crew suits is true.

The story of Anatolii Bezbah – known as Uncle Tolya – has been covered repeatedly by Ukrainian media. He was a native of Crimea who, after the sham referendum in 2014, moved to territory controlled by Ukraine and decided to join the Armed Forces. “I have grandchildren, and I want them to live freely, without knowing or seeing this war,” the tanker explained at the time. After the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, no information about Anatolii Bezbah’s further fate could be found – the last mentions of him date back to 2017.

Fake street interviews are actively spreading on TikTok, allegedly showing ordinary Ukrainians sharing their views on the war, mobilization, or peace talks. Analysts from the Center for Countering Disinformation under Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council have drawn attention to this.

These videos are created using AI, follow an identical style, and feature “respondents” who express only pessimistic narratives.

In the videos, the characters speak out against mobilization, call the war “pointless”, accuse the authorities of “derailing peace”, and promote ideas about the “unnecessity” of returning the occupied territories.

Checks using deepfake detection services confirm that all of the videos are entirely generated by artificial intelligence. This is yet another case of Russia using AI in its information war against Ukraine.

When a person sees dozens of “ordinary Ukrainians” repeating the same messages, they subconsciously perceive it as a social norm (“everyone thinks this way”). The propagandists’ goal is therefore to show that “everyone around” is already tired, no longer believes in victory, and opposes mobilization – creating an illusion of mass pessimism and isolating those who continue to resist.

On social media, particularly on Facebook, AI-generated videos are being actively spread with the aim of undermining the reputation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the police, and the Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Centers (TCCs). These video fakes were identified by fact-checkers from MythDetector.

An anonymous Ukrainian-language Facebook account called “Pravda TV” is posting videos that allegedly show Ukrainian servicemen, police officers, and representatives of Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Centers kissing men.

These videos quickly gained traction, but a detailed analysis showed that they were created using artificial intelligence (AI) to manipulate public opinion.

Fact-checkers from MythDetector analyzed several of the clips using the AI detection tool by InVID and identified a number of indicators pointing to AI-generated content:

In other videos posted on the same account, the Sora watermark is clearly visible. Sora is a text-to-video generation model created by the U.S.-based artificial intelligence research organization OpenAI (the developer of ChatGPT). The Center for Countering Disinformation has previously warned about the spread of video fakes created with Sora that discredit mobilization, circulating across various social media platforms.

The “Pravda TV” account was created on July 4, 2022. According to Facebook’s “Page Transparency” section, it is operated from the territory of the Czech Republic. It is an anonymous profile that regularly publishes content aimed at criticizing the Ukrainian authorities, particularly the Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Centers. Many of the posts include AI-generated videos, indicating a systematic disinformation campaign.

Such accounts are often part of a broader network that spreads propaganda, disregards facts, and manipulates emotions.

A fake video is being spread on social media in which the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Ruslan Stefanchuk, allegedly says that in winter, due to gas and electricity shortages, heating will be provided only to families whose husbands have “paid their debt to Ukraine.”

This was flagged by fact-checkers from the VoxCheck project.

In reality, this is a deepfake. Stefanchuk never made such statements. The video was created using artificial intelligence.

A reverse image search on Google showed that the video was actively distributed by pro-Russian resources. No original video featuring Stefanchuk against this background could be found.

A check using the Deepware service confirmed that the video was generated by a neural network.

Signs that the video was generated by AI include:

The fake portrays Ukraine’s leadership (including the parliamentary speaker) as cynical and indifferent to people. This fuels the narrative that a “Kyiv junta is mocking its own population”, which is then echoed in Russian media and in occupied territories.

The fake also preemptively “explains” future blackouts by suggesting that “it’s not us bombing – it’s your own government punishing you for evading mobilization”. In this way, responsibility is shifted from the aggressor to the victim.

Russian media and social networks claim that Ukraine’s Supreme Court has allegedly issued a ruling allowing citizens to open fire on employees of Territorial Recruitment Centers. Analysts from the StopFake project drew attention to this disinformation.

“The Kyiv regime is the main threat to Ukrainians. Territorial Recruitment Centers hunt people, and the people have the right to armed resistance”, pro-Russian pages claim (for example, on OK.ru).

In reality, this is an outright lie. The official registers of court decisions (reyestr.court.gov.ua) and the website of the Supreme Court of Ukraine (supreme.court.gov.ua) contain no such ruling. The court has no authority to legalize violence or killings.

The use of firearms against any citizen – including employees of Territorial Recruitment Centers (who are military personnel while on duty) – constitutes a serious crime, such as attempted murder or the intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm.

The right to self-defense (Article 36 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) does exist, but it is subject to strict limitations:

The fake focuses on conflicts between citizens and Territorial Recruitment Centers, portraying the state as a “tyrant” and the TCCs as “manhunters”. Its purpose is to sow panic, hatred toward the authorities and the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and to provoke protests or even violence. Russia has long exploited the topic of mobilization to create divisions; similar manipulations about alleged “atrocities by TCCs” have appeared in previous years. The propaganda hopes this will encourage draft evasion, destabilize the home front, and weaken the Ukrainian army.

A new wave of disinformation aimed at undermining trust in the Ukrainian authorities and the mobilization system is spreading on social media. Russian Telegram channels, as well as accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and X, are widely sharing a video featuring the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Ruslan Stefanchuk.

This was reported by Ukrinform.

In the video, Stefanchuk allegedly says that due to the difficult situation in the energy sector, heating will be supplied only to households where men are serving in the Defense Forces of Ukraine. Women whose husbands are “draft dodgers” are supposedly advised to “keep warm from their husbands”.

In reality, this is a fake. The video was entirely generated using artificial intelligence, specifically deepfake technology. According to an analysis by the Hive Moderation service, which detects AI-generated content, the probability that this video is artificially created is 98.6%.

The source of the fake is an anonymous Instagram account that was created only on October 15, 2025. At the time of publication, it contains just three videos.

Another example of disinformation is a fake photo allegedly from the city of Sumy. The image shows a supposed “announcement” from a local Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Center about distributing food packages to women in exchange for reporting draft dodgers.

This information is also false. The Sumy Regional Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Center has not published any such announcements, as confirmed by the institution’s official channels, including its Facebook page. Moreover, the fake poster uses an incorrect abbreviation – “OTCK”, which is not used in official communication with citizens.

The Sumy recruitment center confirmed that no such announcement exists and that the information is yet another example of a hostile information operation.

Both fakes are aimed at discrediting the Ukrainian authorities and the institutions responsible for mobilization, as well as at increasing internal tensions amid the war.

Russian media and pro-Russian Telegram channels have begun spreading screenshots of a fake job advertisement allegedly posted by a Ukrainian territorial recruitment center.

This was reported by Ukrinform.

The posts claim that a vacancy was supposedly published on the Work.ua website by the Zaporizhzhia District Territorial Center for Recruitment and Social Support (TCC and SP). According to the screenshots, the center is allegedly looking for a “candidate relations specialist”, with requirements listed as “attractive appearance”, “experience in the modeling business”, and “exotic dancing”. The circulating posts are accompanied by claims that Ukrainian TCCs are allegedly recruiting sex workers for enlistment purposes.

However, this is fake, created by Russian propagandists. No such job posting has ever appeared on the Work.ua website. In reality, Russian actors falsified existing TCC vacancies – for a paramedic and a clerk – by changing the job titles and adding fabricated requirements.

The title of the fabricated position – “candidate relations specialist” – is a calque of the Russian “spetsialist po rabote s personalom” and was likely created using automatic translation.

In addition, a visual analysis of the screenshot reveals signs of forgery. For example, the column widths in the fake listing exceed the standard layout used on the Work.ua website, and the text describing the candidate requirements is an obvious insertion that is absent from the original vacancies.

This case is yet another example of the information war Russia is waging against Ukraine, using fakes to discredit state institutions and spread distrust among the public.

Russian resources are spreading information that Ukrainian women who have left for European Union countries are allegedly being mobilized to be sent to the front, in order to meet the needs of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

However, Russian propagandists are manipulating the information, as reported by the StopFake project.

In the first half of January 2025, the second group of volunteers from among Ukrainian citizens living abroad signed contracts with the Ukrainian Armed Forces at the recruitment center of the Ukrainian Legion, which operates at the Ukrainian consulate in Lublin. This group included three women who joined the Ukrainian Armed Forces as medics and communications specialists. This news was distorted by Russian propagandists, claiming that the women were allegedly being forcibly mobilized, when in fact they signed contracts with the Ukrainian Armed Forces voluntarily, without any coercion.

Service in the Ukrainian Legion is conducted exclusively on a voluntary basis, with contracts signed by eligible candidates.

In fact, mandatory mobilization of women does not take place in Ukraine (or abroad) as becoming a service woman is only possible on a voluntary basis. The Russians continue to spread disinformation about the Ukrainian army in an effort to discredit the Ukrainian Armed Forces and disrupt the mobilization process.

Russian anonymous Telegram channels are actively spreading disinformation that allegedly 50% of Ukraine's emergency responders from the State Emergency Service (SES) will be sent to the front. However, this is false information aimed at sowing panic among the population and undermining trust in Ukrainian state institutions.

This is reported by the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security. Its experts have clarified that, according to an official statement from the SES, 90% of personnel are already reserved and continue to perform their duties. All key units, including firefighters, rescuers, sapper teams, engineers, and chemists, are reserved. These professionals provide vital assistance in wartime conditions.

Russian propaganda systematically uses fake news to destabilize the situation in Ukraine, undermine the morale of citizens, and create distrust towards the government. Such information attacks are part of a broader strategy of information warfare aimed at weakening Ukrainian society and its resistance.

Russian propaganda Telegram channels are spreading claims that Ukrainians who fail to update their information on the Reserve+ system in time will supposedly receive a 50% discount on fines if they “don’t sue the employees of Military Recruitment And Social Support Centers”. Propagandists suggest that this bill strips Ukrainians of their ability to defend their rights in court against potential violations.

In reality, propagandists are distorting the content of Bill No. 12093, which was passed in the first reading on January 9, 2025. This was reported by the StopFake project.

The text of the bill does indeed state that conscripts who fail to update their information—such as phone numbers, email addresses, or current residence addresses—within the specified timeframe will receive a 50% discount on their fines if they acknowledge the violation and choose not to appeal it in court. Propagandists interpret the last condition—the requirement not to appeal the fine in court—as a refusal of the right to sue Military Recruitment And Social Support Center employees for any wrongdoing. However, such a provision is absent from the bill. It simply states that individuals who accept the fine’s legitimacy and choose not to challenge it in court may pay half the penalty.

Previously, we analyzed a fake video claiming that employees of the Odesa Military Recruitment And Social Support Center were allegedly serving draft notices dressed as Santa Clauses.

Information is circulating on social media claiming that Ukraine will no longer evaluate citizens' fitness for military service. Allegedly, President Volodymyr Zelenskyi has made this decision by disbanding the relevant commissions responsible for such assessments. These claims suggest that the evaluation process for determining military eligibility has been completely abolished.  

“Zelenskyi has abolished medical commissions that assess fitness for military service. Everyone will fight!”, users are writing.

Actually, at the end of 2023, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi actually signed Law No. 12178, which provides for the liquidation of medical and social expert commissions (MSEC) in Ukraine. It was these bodies that established the degree of loss of a person's working capacity (disability). In the case of a positive decision, this made it possible to be released from the obligation to serve in the army. At the same time, the agitprop kept silent that the law signed by the president also provides for the creation of an analogue of MSEC - “expert teams for assessing the daily functioning of a person”, which have already begun their work on January 1, 2025.

The explanatory note to the aforementioned law states that the decision to eliminate the MSEC was related to outdated approaches used by the commissions, and not to the elimination of the ‘service’ as such.

And the final fitness for military service during martial law in Ukraine is determined by the Military Medical Commission, not the MSEC.

Russian propaganda sources are spreading manipulative information about the alleged forced return of Ukrainian refugees in Germany to Ukraine for recruitment into the defense sector. This was allegedly stated by Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal to the German publication Welt. Presidential Advisor for Strategic Affairs Oleksandr Kamyshin emphasized that Germany and Ukraine have already concluded such agreements.

However, the information was manipulated, and this is reported in VoxCheck. Welt did indeed publish a news item with the headline “Prime Minister wants to return Ukrainian refugees”. Denys Shmyhal was quoted in it as saying that he had discussed the technical details of the return of Ukrainians with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz during a visit to Berlin. “We agreed with the German side and our new Minister of National Unity to work together and find a solution on how we can return all Ukrainians as quickly as possible”, the Prime Minister said. However, there was no mention of the forced return of Ukrainian refugees.

The spread of fakes about the deportation of Ukrainians from EU countries is part of a disinformation campaign by Russian propaganda. The European Union is consolidated in its position that they do not deport anyone against their will. According to EU law, all Ukrainians who arrived in the region after the start of a full-scale invasion fall under the Temporary Protection Directive.

Russian propaganda sources are spreading information that draft law No. 10449 on mobilization measures and military training allegedly allows for the possibility of lowering the mobilization age to 18 years.

“18-year-old Ukrainians who have completed basic military training or military service will automatically become eligible for military service and can be sent to the front”, the propagandists write.

However, this is a fake. In April 2024, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted amendments to draft law No. 10449 on mobilization measures and military training. This provides that starting in 2025, Ukrainian universities will introduce mandatory basic military training for men aged 18 to 25. However, there is no mention of lowering the mobilization age.

Previously, Russian propaganda spread messages about “socially unjust mobilization”; the intentions of the Ukrainian authorities to fight until “the last Ukrainian” and the “absence” of a future in the country. For Ukrainians, the topic of involving persons who are not subject to mandatory mobilization is debatable, and just one mention of lowering the mobilization age provokes significant social discourse. But propagandists do not miss the opportunity to incite hostility within the country and sow hatred towards the Ukrainian legislative authority, in particular, by creating such infomercials.

Propagandists stepped up their efforts in December, launching a new disinformation campaign about women's mobilization. This came after the military registration rules were updated, which apply only to voluntary basic training. The Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security wrote about the selection of messages as part of the campaign.

A total mobilization of women is supposedly starting on January 1st

This is a baseless statement. According to the legislation of Ukraine, women can register for military service only if they wish and only if their professions correspond to military specialties. There is no provision for mass mobilization of women. The spread of this message is intended to create panic among women and their families.

Women are allegedly being forcibly mobilized and thrown into the barracks

Hostile propagandists cite stories or videos that are usually staged. Such statements are designed to instill fear of the authorities and military structures, although in reality women in Ukraine can only join the Armed Forces voluntarily.

90% of women supposedly die in the first minutes of combat

This is a false statistic used to discredit the Armed Forces of Ukraine. There is no confirmation or official data indicating such losses among women. On the contrary, women who serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine usually have a high level of training.

Women are allegedly being mobilized through deception

This message is aimed at discrediting state institutions, undermining trust in military commissariats, and creating an atmosphere of fear.

The general goal of such fakes is to undermine public peace, create distrust in the authorities, demoralize society, and create information chaos that is beneficial to Russia.

Propaganda Telegram channels are actively spreading information that in Odesa, employees of the Territorial recruitment and social support center allegedly handed out draft notices in the guise of Santa Claus. However, this is not true.

This is reported by the Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council. Its experts found out that in fact this video has no relation to the work of territorial procurement centers. The recording shows volunteers who organized a charity event for children to congratulate them on the holidays and collect gifts for children from the Kherson region, which suffered from the war.

Such fakes are used to undermine trust in the territorial recruitment and social support centers, create a negative impression of the mobilization, and spread panic among the population. Propagandists often use such manipulative techniques to distort real events and discredit the Ukrainian authorities.

Propagandists are spreading a message on anonymous Telegram channels about a disabled man from Zaporizhzhia who was allegedly captured 10 days after mobilization. However, it is false.

This was reported by the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council. Its experts found that the Zaporizhzhia Territorial Center of Recruitment and Social Support refuted this information. The man was not mobilized by this center and was last registered for military service at the Pokrovsk Territorial recruitment and social support center of Donetsk region back in 2009. He is also not registered at the address provided in the video. The video is a staged creation made as part of an information-psychological operation to discredit mobilization and hinder the formation of Ukraine's Defense Forces.

Russian propagandists are spreading disinformation about mobilization in Ukraine to achieve several important goals. In this way, they create the impression of its supposed chaos and injustice, which undermines trust in Ukrainian state institutions. They also aim to instill fear and uncertainty among those who may be mobilized and their families. One of their goals is also to demoralize soldiers and potential recruits by spreading false information. This is yet another attempt to portray the Ukrainian government in a negative light before the international community.

A video with the logo of the Ukrainian media outlet United24 is being distributed online. It claims that 40 doctors in Ukraine were arrested for allegedly breaking men’s limbs for money. According to this video, the injuries were intentionally severe enough to require over a year of rehabilitation, allowing these men to evade mobilization. Now the Verkhovna Rada is supposedly considering the issue of criminal liability for such doctors and for Ukrainian individuals buying this service.

However, United24 Media has not published any such report. Propagandists falsely attribute the video to United24, but no such content exists on the official website or the media outlet’s social media platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter (X), or YouTube.

The claim also states that police have already arrested 40 doctors involved in this activity. Yet, the National Police of Ukraine has made no such announcements, and there’s no information of this sort in Ukrainian media. This story seems to have first appeared in the Russian Telegram channel Voiennyi Obozrevatel (Military Observer).

Furthermore, the Verkhovna Rada has not registered any draft law proposing criminal liability for doctors allegedly breaking limbs for money or for clients attempting to evade military service through such means.

Russian propaganda claims on social networks and other media that GSC Game World, developers of the game S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, has allegedly been cooperating with Ukrainian authorities to mobilize citizens. According to the propagandists, the game allegedly collects personal data of players, such as IP addresses, names, locations, including without their consent, and then transfers this information to Ukrainian military recruitment centers. This fake was accompanied by the use of the Wired magazine logo, which was supposed to give the information an appearance of authenticity. The propagandists also claim that the game development studio received funding from the Ukrainian government in exchange for such activities. However, this is fake news, as reported by the Centre for Strategic Communication and Information Security.

In fact, the studio GSC Game World raised a significant amount of money ($800,000) in support of the Armed Forces of Ukraine through crowdfunding, and transferred it to the Ukrainian charity foundation “Come Back Alive”. In response, Russia launched a campaign against the game, including releasing statements about the possibility of it being banned in Russia.

This case is another example of the spread of disinformation aimed at discrediting Ukrainian achievements, particularly in the field of video games. It is also a continuation of a campaign similar to the previously recorded disinformation about fake trailers from Netflix, called Matrioshka. The main goal of such fakes is to undermine trust in Ukraine and its initiatives on the world stage.

A fake memo for women on how to “avoid conscription” for military service is being spread on social media. It was allegedly published by the human rights organization La Strada, which deals, in particular, with the prevention of gender-based violence. Among the proposed options are “get pregnant urgently or adopt a child”, “provoke rape and delay the trial”, “break limbs to undergo long-term rehabilitation”, etc.

However, this is a fake, La Strada did not create such material, as it reports on its Facebook page. Despite the meaningless “advice” on how to avoid conscription, there is no forced “mobilization of women” as such in Ukraine. The current law has obliged female doctors and pharmacists to register for military service from October 1, 2023.

However, this still has nothing to do with the repeated narrative of agitprop on the topic of “women’s mobilization”. Since such a law does not mean mobilization or the establishment of restrictions on traveling abroad.

Propaganda Telegram channels are spreading information that when registering for military service at the Territorial recruitment and social support center, young men aged 16-17 allegedly sign an agreement to serve in the military after coming of age.

However, this information is not true. At the request of the Center for Counteracting Disinformation, the Kyiv City Territorial recruitment and social support center provided an explanation:

“All information received from young men when registering for military service is used by the Territorial recruitment and social support center to identify citizens who are potentially ready to receive an education in military educational institutions or for military service in the future”.

In turn, the mobilization of citizens for military service can only be carried out after they reach the age of 25.

Earlier we wrote that propagandists created a fake animated video about the Territorial recruitment and social support center workers.

Russian propaganda sources are distributing a video allegedly from the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW), which states that two out of ten Ukrainians die due to the illegal actions of the Territorial recruitment and social support center workers.

However, this is another fake from the Russians, journalists from the VoxCheck project write. The video distributed by the propagandists is fabricated – it is not on the official ISW website. In addition, statistics about “the death of Ukrainians due to the actions of Territorial recruitment and social support center workers” were not distributed by either reliable Ukrainian or foreign media.

The Russians also made a mistake and translated “territorial recruitment and social support centers” as TRSSCs in the video while in English it is TCR and SS (Territorial Centers of Recruitment and Social Support). And at the end of each of their videos, ISW calls for donations to their organization (the call “Donate today”), while in the fake video there is only a list of social networks instead.

It should be noted that there were indeed cases when Ukrainian men died after visiting the TCR and SS. At the same time, these were not mass, but isolated cases. Also, the guilt of the TCR and SS workers was not proven in all cases.

Earlier we wrote that propagandists created a fake animated video about TCR and SS workers.

Propagandists have created and are distributing an animated video named after the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense. It depicts Cossacks defending Ukraine from attackers who look like the Golden Horde. The action then moves to the present, where modern Ukrainian troops confront soldiers under the DPRK flag. The voiceover says: “We could do it then - we can do it now!”, calling on viewers to join the ranks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. However, this video is not available on the official resources of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense and is published only by Russian and pro-Russian media. This is reported by the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security.

Its specialists also found out that the Russian origin of the video is also indicated by the use of stress, which is typical for Russian pronunciation, falling on the first syllable.

The purpose of spreading such disinformation is to attempt to discredit Ukraine and its military leadership, and to sow doubts among Ukrainian citizens and the international community about the ability and determination of Ukrainian forces to defend the country. Such fakes are aimed at undermining trust in Ukrainian state institutions and ridiculing national values. In addition, the manipulation of historical and national images, such as the Cossacks, seeks to stir up emotions and fuel domestic debate by presenting Ukraine in an absurd light.

A fake information video allegedly authored by the Ukrainska Pravda publication is being distributed in Russian Telegram channels. Against the background of footage from open sources, propagandists write about the readiness of the Verkhovna Rada to make a decision to increase payments to contract servicemen in the Armed Forces of Ukraine aged 19 to 21. The video fragment also recalled the Chairman of the Parliament Ruslan Stefanchuk, who allegedly compared young contract soldiers to Cossacks and noted that such “additional motivation” will allow for an “active and mobile contingent” in the army.

“The amount of remuneration will increase from 200 to 400 thousand hryvnia for men aged 19 to 21 who sign a contract with the Armed Forces of Ukraine”, the propagandists write.

In fact, this bill and Stefanchuk's statement do not exist, just like the video from Ukrainska Pravda, and this is reported in VoxCheck. The size of the one-time cash benefit upon signing the first contract depends on the rank. Age affects only the term of the contract service. After all, it is for conscripts aged 18 to 25 (or in the case of propaganda 19-21), that is, those who are not subject to mobilization in the absence of the status of “military liable”, the term of contract military service during martial law is only one year. Then the contract is terminated and not extended. Starting from 25 years, the mobilization age in Ukraine - the situation is different, namely, the contract is extended.

Previously, Russian propaganda spread messages about “socially unfair mobilization”; the intentions of the Ukrainian authorities to fight to the last Ukrainian and the lack of a future in the country. For Ukrainians, the topic of attracting people not subject to mandatory mobilization is debatable; just one mention of lowering the mobilization age provokes significant social discourse. But propagandists do not miss the opportunity to incite discord within the country and sow hatred towards the Ukrainian legislative power, in particular, by creating such info drives.

A number of propaganda Telegram channels are distributing a manipulative animated video, which illustrates a conversation between a boy and a personified school board and the sun (cartoon characters). The boy asks them why his father was forcibly taken away by the Territorial center of recruitment and social support workers, to which the school board replies that they were doing their duty, and that it was wrong that the boy's father “did not want to go”. After this, the sun joins the conversation and continues to promote manipulative rhetoric.

However, some words and phrases used in the cartoon exposed the propagandists. For example, the video contains the phrase “they don't choose a duty”, which is a tracing of the Russian "they don't choose an obligation". In addition, the cartoon contains a number of other manipulative cliches inherent in Russian propaganda: “either you fulfill your duty, or you are a coward and a traitor”; “if he didn't leave on his own, then they did the right thing by taking him away”.

Also, having taken a screenshot of the video, using the reverse image search function from Google, it was possible to find out that on the YouTube platform there is a training video with a similar background as in the fake cartoon, about how to create animated videos. That is, most likely, the propagandists used this video tutorial to create a fake cartoon about the Territorial center of recruitment and social support workers.

After all, this animated video is being distributed primarily in the pro-Russian segment of the Internet, which gives additional grounds to believe that it is a fake.

Earlier, we recorded a Russian fake about a cartoon “Ukrainian piglets” being shown in EU countries.