A “document” purporting to be an order for the mobilization of Ukraine’s nuclear plant workers is being disseminated online. The document is a fake as evidenced by the many errors in the text of the letter. Furthermore, some of the “signers” of this “document” are no longer members of Ukraine’s parliament. Mobilization preparation and management is not the responsibility of Ukraine’s legislative body.
The Kremlin propaganda machine continues spreading disinformation about mobilization activities in Ukraine. This time, one Volodymyr Rogov, a collaborator and representative of the Russian occupation “authority” in the Zaporizhzhia region, published a “document” on his Telegram channel, which he claims confirms Ukraine’s intentions to mobilize nuclear power plant employees.
The “document” purports to be a request from members of Ukraine’s parliament to the leadership of Enerhoatom, Uraine’s state enterprise which operates the country’s nuclear power plants, to provide lists of employees who can be mobilized. “Zelensky’s regime is preparing to drive even nuclear power plant workers to slaughter,” Rogov declares on Telegram.
An analysis of this “document” indicates that we are dealing with a fake. Incorrect sentence construction as well as countless punctuation errors, indicate that this letter cannot be an official document. Commas and periods are omitted, document names are incorrectly quoted, and the name of the Enerhoatom company is misspelled, using the Russian letter Э instead of the Ukrainian Е. The first name initials of two of the MPs who allegedly signed the letter are written in Russian, Alexander instead of Oleksandr and Elena, instead of Olena.
Furthermore, two of the signatories of this document are no longer members of Ukraine’s parliament. The fake letter lists the signatories’ place on the Servant of the People electoral party list, Tkachenko #9, Shuliak #13 and Venediktova #3. Oleksandr Tkachenko resigned his parliamentary post in 2020 to become Culture Minister, Venediktova resigned her seat to be Prosecutor General. Since November 17, 2022 Venediktova has been Ukraine’s ambassador to Switzerland.
It also appears that both the Tkachenko and Shulyak signatures were signed by the same person, as shown by the marked similarity of the handwriting.
The structure of this fake letter also differs from the usual Ukrainian official government letters. While there are no legislative requirement dictating the form and style of parliamentary inquiries, traditionally such missives are clearly marked as a parliamentary inquiry or request, they are dated and issued with an official registration number, all of which are missing from this “document”. Parliamentary stationery features the address of Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada – Hrushevsky Street 5, as well as parliamentary committee offices, as shown in these official letters.
According to Ukrainian law, employees of companies, institutions and organizations that are deemed critical to the functioning of Ukraine’s economy are not to be mobilized into the military. Enerhoatom is one of the enterprises listed as being of strategic importance for the economy and security of Ukraine and whose employees are not subject to mobilization.
In addition, according to legislation outlining conscription, the Ukrainian parliament is not involved in the organization and mobilization of the military, this is the purview of the executive branch of the government, the Cabinet of Ministers, with the Ukrainian Armed Forces leadership bearing the direct responsibility for mobilization and training.
StopFake has debunked other countless fakes regarding the Ukrainian military and mobilization, such as the fake claiming that surrendering Russian soldiers are to be executed.
