Pro-Kremlin media are ablaze with fakes declaring Ukraine’s autumn recruitment campaign is a complete failure. Citing the Ukrainian military’s Facebook page, they claim there is a 70 percent no show rate. Although there have been some snags in the campaign, the Ukrainian military press service says the latest recruitment drive has been overwhelmingly successful.
Russian site Tsargrad TV declares that “Ukrainian recruits have died out”, “Couch army. Ukrainians massively evading recruitment” RIA Novosti hail, while Pravda writes ironically “the strongest army in the world can’t find 70 percent of its recruits”. Many declared the recruitment drive an utter failure before it even ended. Russian Defense Ministry television channel Zvezda eagerly followed suit, as did Vesti, Politnews, Voyennoye obozrenye, Versia, Channel five and many others.
Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers reports that the latest recruitment drive aimed to attract 12,460 persons for contractual military service, 2,000 more than in previous drives. According to the Ukrainian Land Forces press service, recruitment centers throughout the country report that goal has been met with 8,360 recruits going into the Ukrainian army, 3,500 into the National Guard and 600 into a specialized military transport service. Contrary to reports of problems, snags and washouts in the Russian media, the recruitment drive went very as far as the Ukrainian military is concerned.
