Russians shooting hoax videos to undermine Ukraine’s military draft campaign
Russian propagandists are now shooting in the temporarily occupied areas of Ukraine videos involving actors posing as Ukrainian conscription officers and other servicemen brawling with civilians to discredit the military draft campaign and sow public unrest in Ukraine.
That’s according to the press service of Ukraine’s Ground Forces, Ukrinform reports.
The Ground Forces noted that such content is designed to go viral on social media as part of Russia’s ongoing psyop targeting average Ukrainians.
"We receive reports that such videos are being shot in the temporarily occupied areas. The features are typical: people sporting Ukrainian uniform alongside those dressed as Ukrainian police officers get into altercations with ‘local residents,’” the report says.
In particular, the videos may involve “military” assaulting civilians, throwing them into vehicles allegedly to take them to draft offices. Producers also make sure certain details are included in the scenes to make them more realistic, such as license plates of different Ukrainian regions. The scenes are shot against a neutral background to make identifying the location as challenging as possible.
Also, videos are shot in poor quality as if they were filmed by random locals on their cellphones. Previously, enemy experts used more professional editing, never achieving the end result, which is public trust.
“The enemy is getting better in this," the Ground Forces recognize.
In addition to hoax “conflict situations”, scenes showing “draft officers” getting intoxicated or getting themselves into other compromising situations are being filmed.
"We emphasize that all real situations that may take place are carefully probed and public is informed in deu manner. However, we jave to report when the respectable status of Army servicemen becomes a subject of manipulation by the enemy," the Ground Forces emphasized.
There, they called for a responsible approach on the part of the genral public to any suspicious videos, to not allow the enemy reaching the ultimate goal of its psyops.
As Ukrinform reported earlier, the Ukrainian Navy refuted Russian claims of allegedly destroying Ukrainian naval vessels in recent days.