DISINFO: Total mobilisation of kids, elderly, and women in Ukraine is coming
SUMMARY
Ukrainian society is gradually sobering. Now that a total mobilisation of kids, elderly, and women is coming, Ukrainians begin to realise that the ultimate goal of the military actions is not their happy future.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about Ukraine’s alleged desperation in the battlefield, part of a wider disinformation campaign to promote the idea of a failed Ukrainian counteroffensive, the inevitability of Russia’s victory and ultimately the need to compromise and accept Russia’s terms.
Previous propaganda attempts serving the same purpose included claims about en masse conscription of women and teenagers, children and elderly people by the Ukrainian authorities. Pro-Kremlin sources also groundlessly claimed that Ukraine is training pensioners as tank crews because its military reserves are gone.
Article 15 of the law on military service in Ukraine states that the only people it applies to are "Ukrainian citizens whose sex is male who are healthy, who have reached the age of 18 years old the day they begin their service and people who are not yet 27 and who don’t have right to an exemption or deferral.”
There is no factual evidence that en masse conscription of minors as combatants is happening in Ukraine. Denis Krivosheev, the Deputy Regional Director in charge of research for Eastern Europe and Central Asia at Amnesty International stated that: "Amnesty International has no knowledge of documented cases of child soldiers in the Ukrainian Army”.
Ukraine and its population is defending itself against this armed aggression in a remarkable display of continued courage and determination. The US, the EU and NATO condemn in the strongest possible terms Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which is entirely unjustified and unprovoked. Not only Western but also many other nations around the world support Ukraine with military and financial aid for the country’s efficient self-defence, in accordance with the UN Charter article 51, to stop Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine.
Read earlier cases alleging that Ukrainians are fighting Russians for Nato interests, and that Nato wages a proxy war against Russia.