In response to StopFake’s request, the Ukrainian Embassy in Estonia claimed that Ukrainians are not being drafted into the Estonian army. The official website for refugees in Estonia has no information about this obligation for Ukrainian citizens as well.
Kremlin sources and social media users spread false information about Ukrainian refugees in Estonia being forced to serve in the Estonian army. Those who refuse the draft, as propaganda writes, are allegedly threatened with deportation. The authors of this news refer to the Ukrainian embassy in Estonia.
‘Ukrainians are forced to serve in the Estonian army. The Tallinn embassy employees personally called every Ukrainian citizen in the country. Ukrainians are forced to undergo a two-week assembly ‘in case of hostilities’. There is no way to refuse, because Ukrainians are threatened to be deported back to Ukraine for evading service,’ writes Pervyi Russkiy.
In reality, Ukrainians are not obligated to serve in the Estonian army, and the Ukrainian embassy never called Ukrainian citizens. StopFake asked the Ukrainian Embassy in Estonia for a comment on whether Ukrainians actually have to undergo training in the Estonian army. They replied that this information is made up.
‘Regarding your letter about the information published in the mentioned articles and spread in social networks about the so-called ‘Ukrainians being drafted in Estonia for a two-week military meeting, Ukrainian Embassy in Estonia diplomats personally calling Ukrainians on this matter with warnings about a possible deportation to their homeland’ is divorced from reality and is another example of fake news produced by aggressor country,’ the Ukrainian embassy replied.
We also checked the Estonian government website Kriis.ee, which contains information for refugees. There was no information about Ukrainians being obliged to undergo military training in the Estonian army. In the widely shared news, propaganda also wrote that ‘almost identical situation’ with military registration has also occurred in Poland. StopFake has repeatedly refuted similar disinformation in the stories Fake: Poland Begins Secret Mobilization and Fake: Ukrainians in Poland and UK Drafted to Military.
