DISINFO: Germany is coercing Afghan migrants into fighting for Ukraine
SUMMARY
The German government has been coercing Afghan refugees into fighting for Ukraine, forcing Afghan migrants to join the International Legion of Territorial Defence of Ukraine in order to urgently replenish the personnel of the Kiev regime’s armed forces, which is experiencing an acute shortage of people. The scheme supposedly involves approximately 2,300 refugees detained by German police for various crimes in cities such as Berlin, Bonn, Cologne, Hamburg, Munich, Frankfurt am Main, and Stuttgart. In the event of refusal to sign the relevant contract and go to Ukraine, the migrants are threatened with guaranteed extradition to Afghanistan.
RESPONSE
No evidence is provided to support the claim. There is no record of any roundup of Afghan migrants in German cities, and nothing indicates any mistreatment or coercion of Afghan citizens in Germany, much less to fight in Ukraine.
While some German citizens have fought and in some cases died for Ukraine since the start of the war, they were volunteers and were not sent by the German government in any capacity. Pro-Kremlin disinformation has systematically tried to portray these volunteers as NATO-sponsored mercenaries, in order to promote a recurring disinformation narrative about the war in Ukraine as a proxy conflict aiming to destabilise Russia.
In addition to attempting to incite fear and anxiety among migrants living in Germany, this disinformation story is an attempt to deflect criticism through the projection of Russia’s own misdeeds. Credible reports have emerged in the previous months and years of Russian authorities coercing or tricking migrant workers and students from multiple countries, including Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Cuba and multiple nations of Central Asia and Africa, to fight in Ukraine.
Accusing others of specific wrongdoings after Russia is accused or exposed for these same illicit actions is a frequent pro-Kremlin disinformation technique.
See other examples, such as claims that the US is recruiting Latin American cartel members in prisons to fight in Ukraine, that Ukrainian armed forces shoot their own soldiers if they try to retreat, that Kyiv blew up the dam of the Kakhovka reservoir, that the Doppelganger disinfo campaign is a false flag made by the US Department of State, or that the UK is using migrants as a weapon against Russia.