This report was refuted by the city police, the territorial recruitment and social support center, as well as the local hospital, where the man was allegedly taken after the beating.
Social media users are spreading the news that on December 27, employees of the Territorial Center for Recruitment and Social Support (Bila Tserkva, Kyiv region) allegedly beat up a man while delivering his drafting papers, as a result of which he died soon after in a local hospital. As evidence, screenshots of the SMS-correspondence reporting this news are being circulated.
Initially, this message was distributed in anonymous Telegram channels. Propaganda resources, such as Ukraina.ru, claim that this is allegedly reported by Ukrainian sources. However, as StopFake journalists managed to find out, one of the first to publish the screenshot was the Russian Telegram channel owned by the famous propagandist Maksym Shikhamiyev.
In fact, the information spread online is false. Its purpose is to discredit the mobilization measures in Ukraine and spread panic among the citizens.
The screenshot, which is spreading online, says that after the man’s death, “loads of police and correspondents” allegedly came to the city hospital of Bila Tserkva. However, there is not a single reliable information about this incident online, neither in the city’s online groups nor in local media. On the contrary, the press service of the Bila Tserkva district police department refuted this report.
“The police did not receive such reports. Representatives of the Territorial Recruitment Centre (TRC) also claim that the aforementioned situation has never occurred. Kyiv Region police officers ask the citizens to verify information and only share reports from official sources,” said police representatives.
In a comment for the Bila Tserkva BCTV television, Oleh Lysenko, acting head of the Bila Tserkva district TRC, also stated that no such incidents took place. The serviceman believes that such narratives are being spread with the aim of discrediting the mobilization process in Ukraine.
In connection with the mass spread of this fake message, the press service of the Bila Tserkva city territorial municipality also contacted the medical director of the Bila Tserkva city hospital No. 2 (Semashka Street) to verify this information. The hospital said that on December 27, not a single man of conscript age with a craniocerebral injury was taken in.
Earlier, StopFake journalists already refuted similar disinformation in the stories Fake: Hot water and Gas Cut off in Ternopil for Failing to Appear in the Drafting Office — Document and Manipulation: Over the Past Year Ukrainian Forces “Lost 90% of Personnel.”
