The document being circulated online purported to be a Ukrainian draft notice is a fake. This document does not bear any similarity to an official Ukrainian draft notice, it contains the wrong category names and does not contain pertinent information that is part of a genuine draft notice. The term military commissariat is repeatedly used in the fake document. However, as of 2021 Ukrainian enlistment centers are called Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Centers. An analysis of the seal used in the document in question also shows that it was doctored and is not the seal of the Bila Tserkva Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Center.
Russian propagandist Evgeny Lisitsin along with pro-Kremlin Telegram channels and publications such as Ukraina.ru are disseminating a photograph of an alleged “draft summons” issued for a 16 year old boy. According to the fake summons, the young man was born in 2006.
“It’s time for mothers and the everyone who has remained to go to the Maidan, like we did in 2014, and overthrow this Ukrainian junta, otherwise children will be returned to their families in plastic bags. Zelensky will fight to the last Ukrainian, including women, I’m sure of this” (punctuation preserved – editor’s note), Lisitsin writes on his Telegram channel.
Screenshot – news-kiev.ru
According to the photograph of the document, this summons was allegedly issued on January 8, 2023 to Oleh Stepanenko, born in 2006, who lives in Bila Tserkva. A closer analysis of this document indicates that we are dealing with a fake.
First, the so-called summons in the photograph is not at all like the official Ukrainian summonses. In accordance with a parliamentary decision of December 30, 2022, new rules for military registration were introduced, including a new summons form, which has been in use ever since.
The form being circulated has fields to be filled in that do not correspond to the information required on an actual draft summons form. Some required information is absent, such as a list of document which the conscript must present at a draft center. All inaccuracies are highlighted in yellow in the photo below.
The draft summons used in this fake does not even match the form used before the introduction of the new forms on December 30, 2022.
The term “military commissariat” is constantly used in the fake summons form. However, as of 2021 military registration and enlistment offices have been called Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Centers. Military commissars are no longer called commissars, since 2021 they are referred to as Territorial Recruitment and Social Support supervisors. The fake form features the name Bila Tserkva City Military Commissariat, a name that the Bila Tserkva enlistment center has never used.
The stamp featured on the fake document includes a numerical code – 09620951, this is a unique identification number of a legal entity listed in Ukraine’s Unified State Register of Enterprises and Organizations. The number listed on this document belongs to the Kirovohrad Unified City Military Commissariat. Kirovohrad was renamed Kropyvnyckyi in 2016.
This is not the first time that Russian propagandists have spread disinformation about Ukrainian authorities allegedly preparing the mobilization of minors. You can read more about this in the following StopFake stories: Fake: Ukraine wants to introduce a law on conscription from the age of 16, Fake: Ukraine will arm schoolchildren, Fake: The Ministry of Education collects information about military-age school graduates.
