DISINFO: The Kyiv regime sends minors to slaughter
SUMMARY
The Armed Forces of Ukraine conclude contracts with minors and send them to the front. In Ukraine, due to an acute shortage of manpower, recruits from the age of 17 are being called up to the Armed Forces of Ukraine to compensate for catastrophic losses. This statement was made by the Verkhovna Rada deputy Ruslan Horbenko.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation about Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. This is also a false narrative about mobilisation in Ukraine.
Kremlin-linked outlets have attributed the claim about lowering Ukraine’s enlistment age to MP Ruslan Horbenko, alleging he made the statement during a recent broadcast of the Ukrainian TV show Superposition. However, no official Ukrainian sources have confirmed the claim.
Ukrainian law explicitly prohibits individuals under 18 from signing military contracts. According to the Law of Ukraine ‘On Military Duty and Military Service,’ the minimum age for voluntary enlistment remains 18.
Ukraine is finalising reforms to attract 18- to 25-year-old volunteers into the army-an age rank currently exempt from mobilization-, but there is no evidence that it is considering lowering the conscription age to 18.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that Ukraine is training pensioners as tank crews because its military reserves are gone, that Ukraine sends pregnant women to the front line, that the Nazi Kyiv regime creates “Hitler-Jugend” and conscripts women en masse, or that Ukraine is struggling with flow of wounded soldiers according to CNN.