In May 2023, Russian media and blogs reported that Ukrainian citizens living in Estonia were summoned to military training, and if they refused, they were threatened with deportation from the country. We decided to check if this is true.
On May 11, reports appeared in Russian Telegram channels that Ukrainian citizens began to receive calls from employees of the country’s embassy in Estonia demanding that they undergo two-week training “in case of hostilities.” If they refused to serve, Ukrainians were allegedly promised to be deported, citing the relevant agreements between Tallinn and Kiev. The media wrote about this, for example, “Constantinople" And "Notebook", and Telegram channels, including "Ukraine.ru"(95,000 views at the time of publication of the analysis) and "New 🅉 Ukraine❗️"(35,000). We wrote about this in “VKontakte"
The earliest publication on Telegram that we were able to find “Verified” was an entry in the Telegram channel “Notepad Russia", posted at 10:50 Moscow time. At the same time, news appeared on website "Notepad". The publication did not provide any confirmation of the published information, nor were there any references to sources. Judging by the publication, messages about military training allegedly came from Ukrainian diplomats who, as Notepad claimed, personally called their fellow citizens.
Ukrainian fact-checking site StopFake on the same day, May 11, appealed For clarification directly contact the Ukrainian Embassy in Tallinn.
The response from the Ukrainian Embassy states the following: “To your letter regarding the information contained in the mentioned articles and disseminated on social networks about the so-called “conscription of Ukrainians in Estonia for two-week military training, personal calls from diplomats of the Ukrainian Embassy in the Republic of Estonia to Ukrainians on this matter with threats of a possible return to their homeland” [we reply that this] is not true and is another example of fake news from the aggressor country.”
In the second part of the letter, the Ukrainian Embassy reminds that issues of military registration, including abroad, are regulated by government decree of December 30, 2022. In this document (clause 52) it is stated that diplomatic missions of Ukraine abroad can: 1) inform citizens who are on temporary consular registration, have reached conscription age and do not have a deferment about the start of conscription for military service; 2) facilitate the return of those liable for military service and reservists to Ukraine during the period of mobilization and during martial law; 3) notify recruitment centers, the SBU or the Foreign Intelligence Service about the registration or deregistration of conscripts, military personnel and reservists; 4) maintain military records of conscripts, those liable for military service and reservists who are temporarily registered with the consulate. Thus, the current regulatory documents of Ukraine do not provide for service or military training in the army of another state.
There is no information about military training and on a special website Kriis.ee, created in Estonia for the needs of refugees from Ukraine. Moreover, in Estonian "Defense Law"(paragraph 47) it is expressly stated that foreign citizens, including refugees, are exempt from responsibilities for maintaining the country's defense capability.
Thus, there is no evidence of information that Ukrainians are allegedly forced to undergo military training in Estonia. In addition, the laws of both Ukraine and Estonia do not provide for this. It is also worth noting that in January 2023, Russian media and blogs distributed similar fakes - that the authorities of Latvia, Lithuania and Great Britain, at the request of Ukrainian diplomats, allegedly began to identify potential conscripts among refugees from Ukraine.
Cover photo: Wikimedia Commons
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