Russian propagandists took the quote of Justice Minister Denys Malyuska out of context and distorted its meaning.
Propaganda telegram channels and the media are spreading a statement that Ukraine has proposed to mobilize 50,000 prisoners and send them into battle «with shovels» if they can not be trusted with weapons. This idea is attributed to Ukraine’s Justice Minister Denys Malyuska.
In fact, the meaning of Malyuska’s statement was distorted to discredit the mobilization measures in Ukraine. This becomes obvious if you listen to his statement made on the air of the telethon in its entirety. Firstly, 50,000 is the total number of people who have a criminal record but are not behind bars. Denys Malyuska emphasizes that in the case of mobilization of this category of Ukrainians, a background check is necessary to determine the seriousness of a crime committed and the probability of a repeat offense. This will allow people with criminal records who have the ability and desire to defend the country to exercise this right. According to him, there is absolutely no question of mobilizing criminal authorities, as Russia does — such a draft law should primarily concern those accused of violating traffic rules, etc.
Secondly, the proposal to «give shovels to convicts» does not mean that unarmed people will be sent into direct hostilities. On the contrary, Malyuska emphasized that the Armed Forces need not only front-line fighters, but also those who ensure the army’s combat capability: «The army is not only firing artillery, there is a lot of economic work to be done here. They can begin routine work using shovels and other tools. Provisioning, cooking, transporting goods — there are many tasks in the army that can be performed without weapons. Why not involve them?» — commented the Justice Minister.
However, for the sake of another loud headline about the «horrors of mobilization» in Ukraine, Russian propagandists completely omitted the context of Denys Malyusyka’s statement. Read the debunking of another fake on the topic of mobilization in the article Fake: Ivano-Frankivsk Offers Women Money to Switch on Those Evading Military Service.
