Russian fake about mobilization of men aged 19-21 and promised payments of UAH 400K

Russian foreign-language media outlets have been spreading reports to foreign audiences that the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is supposedly going to pass a bill that would provide a payment of 400,000 hryvnias to men between the ages of 19 and 21 who sign a contract with the Armed Forces. This would allegedly double the payment for signing a contract from 200,000 UAH.

To support the narrative, pro-war Telegram channels began circulating a video with the logo of the Ukrayinska Pravda online publication about this “bill”. In addition to information about the increase in contract payments, the video allegedly quotes Verkhovna Rada Chairman Ruslan Stefanchuk. In it, he draws a parallel between young contract soldiers and the Cossacks, saying that by creating additional motivation for young men, Ukraine will “get an active and mobile contingent”. After all, these reports claims, men in this age group are “the backbone of the Cossack strength”.

This is a fake. The Verkhovna Rada has not adopted such a bill, and none of the subjects of the legislative initiative has even submitted it for consideration.

Moreover, Ukrainska Pravda did not publish this new report on its website or social media accounts. To create this fake, the initial video was edited with graphics used by Ukrainska Pravda for YouTube shorts.

Thus, the Russians created this “news story” by editing a video with the logo of the well-known Ukrainian online publication to confirm its “authenticity”.

Traditionally, the Russian Federation has used available photos and videos from the internet to fake news releases from world publications. In particular, the photo of Ruslan Stefanchuk was taken from the speaker’s speech in the European Parliament, and the original photo of the military belongs to the Russian propaganda news agency TASS. The photo shows Ukrainian prisoners captured by the Russians in the first days of the invasion.

Such fakes aim to spread the narrative that the Ukrainian government is allegedly trying to mobilize all men in Ukraine, especially those aged 19-21.

In addition, Russia often spreads fakes about the alleged mobilization not only of “yesterday’s” schoolchildren and first-year students, but also of underage orphans, pensioners and women.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, the Russian propaganda created a fake claiming that Ukraine was encouraging pensioners to serve in the army with in exchange for sanatorium vouchers and TVs.

Andriy Olenin