Ukraine has not asked Interpol to help track down Ukrainians who are evading mobilization. There is a more compelling reason for Ukraine to work with Interpol: to bring suspected collaborators who fled Ukraine to justice.
Russian media and pro-Kremlin social media users are spreading false information claiming that the Kharkiv police will share information with Interpol about Ukrainian citizens who “fled mobilization” to European Union countries, alleging that the Kharkiv National Police Investigation Department chief Serhiy Bolvinov announced this on Facebook.
“We will be the first in Ukraine to test a way to prevent traitors… from settling down and hiding in the civilized world,” Russian media quote Bolvinov as saying.
StopFake fact checkers checked the message referenced by Russian propagandists, and discovered that the police officer’s words were taken completely out of context.
In a July 14 post on his Facebook page Bolvinov did indeed write that law enforcement officers had begun to cooperate with Interpol on issues related to Ukrainian citizens. However, the reason for this cooperation is not mobilization evasion, but criminal offenses. According to Bolvinov, this is how Ukrainian law enforcement wants to bring suspected collaborators who fled Ukraine to justice.
“For collaborators, the peaceful life in EU countries is coming to an end – we have begun cooperating with Interpol. We are the first in Ukraine to test a project to prevent traitors and occupation accomplices from “settling down” and hiding in civilized countries…. Everyone who cooperated with the Russians during the occupation is entered into a database and an application to Interpor is submitted. We inform our foreign colleagues that these people are not war victims or political refugees, as they pretend to be, but are suspected of crimes in Ukraine,” he wrote.
As is patently clear, Bolvinov’s statement has nothing to do with using Interpol to help in tracking down those who “fled mobilization”.
Some Kremlin media outlets also wrote about Ukraine’s cooperation with Interpol without mentioning the main reason for this cooperation, claiming rather that Ukraine considers those who left Ukraine to be “traitors” and will therefore add them to the Interpol database.
Earlier, StopFake refuted Russian fakes claiming that EU countries would “extradite” Ukrainian men subject to mobilization.
