Russian propaganda produces fake about military summons in utility bills

Russian propaganda continues its attempts to discredit mobilization in Ukraine

Pro-Kremlin media outlets and pro-war Telegram channels are distributing a video that was allegedly filmed in the city of Smila in Ukraine's central Cherkasy region. In the video, a man shows a utility for natural gas consumption. A summons to the local military recruitment center was allegedly on the reverse side of the "document."

This is a fake video. It was shot by the Russians using a fake "summons-bill" that they printed themselves.

This is not the first time propagandists have used this utility bill to produce fakes. In 2019, three years before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, they used a piece of paper with the same address and billing number but a different name. Even the same amount of 9,901 hryvnias 13 kopecks is indicated in the field "Total Amount Due."

The propagandists also provided wrong information when creating a fake summons on the back of a fake utility bill. In the "place of residence" field, they entered not the address 6 Filatova Street, which was indicated in the fake bill, but 72a Chornovola Street - the actual address of Smilakomunteploenergo, a municipal company that provides heating services in Smila.

This is not the first time that Russian propaganda has created fake materials about mobilization in Ukraine. Ukrinform refuted disinformation that in the Zhytomyr region summonses are issued through the Diia public services app, that in the Chernihiv region the number of a military recruitment center is written in ads for the needy, that in Vinnytsia men are invited to visit military recruitment centers under the guise of a New Year's holiday for children, and that in Kyiv summonses are allegedly handed out near a skating rink.

Russian propaganda earlier spread fakes about Ukraine's alleged plans to blow up the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

Andriy Olenin