Is it true that at the American University of debtor students are recruited to the war in Ukraine?

In early August 2023, a photograph of announcements on the recruitment of students from the United States to the Ukrainian international legion appeared on the Web. We decided to check if this is true.

A photograph from the Board of Ads from the American University, at which he allegedly hung a poster with an appeal to sign up for the international legion, began to spread on social networks on August 1. In this picture, the young man dropped his head, and the text below reads: “How to pay student debts? Join the international defense legion of Ukraine. International volunteer status, medical insurance, monthly payments. ” At the very bottom of the poster - the phone number. Many popular Telegram channels wrote about this announcement, including the Channel of the VGTRK correspondent Evgeny Poddubny "Poddubny | z | about | v | Edition"(283,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), as well as"What happened?"(104,000) and"Ukraine.ru"(89,000). Two days later, on August 3, they told about the posts in the program "News»In the plot about Ukrainian losses at the front.

The background on which the announcement hangs is really similar to the student board. On two posters, the emblem is distinguishable University of County Colombia In Washington. But all these ads are quite long and date back to different periods. The left upper poster appeared on the Twitter account of the university in September 2022, upper right - in February 2023, lower left - in October 2022, lower right - in March 2023. Perhaps this is a real board of ads, but anyone can create a similar board by printing images from Twitter. There are no data that is clearly indicating that it hangs in the premises of an American university in the photo. 

In the poster itself, who allegedly calls students to sign up for the international legion, there are obvious inconsistencies. Firstly, the spelling of the word "defense" is noteworthy. On the poster it looks like Defense, while American norm - Defense.

In addition, the phone number at the very bottom of the poster also looks doubtful. In old official documents, he really Designated as a number belonging to the Embassy of Ukraine in Washington, but on Official website He is not indicated by the diplomatic mission. There is also an inaccuracy that is common in such fakes: in the phone number written on the poster supposedly hanging in Washington, at the very beginning the numbers necessary for calls from abroad were added, and from a stationary phone.

The foreign legion, which is mentioned in the announcement, really exists. February 27, 2022, three days after the start of a full -scale Russian invasion, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky Turned For help from foreign citizens who want to support his country. He urged them to enter into the international legion of the territorial defense of Ukraine.

The legion has its own site where described in detail Conditions of entry: the age of candidates should be from 18 to 60 years, a lack of criminal past and chronic diseases is required. There is not a word about the international status of a volunteer on the site, also there indicated Contact phones are not Washington, but Kyiv.

Finally, the design of the poster, as well as the text on it (including the phone number), fully repeats the poster, which was Allegedly placed In New York in April 2023. Then information about the recruitment of American homeless refuted And the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine, and the Legion itself, and Ukrainian Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security.

Thus, the analysis of technical details and the lack of official confirmation from the Ukrainian authorities and the American University allow us to conclude that the poster is fake.

Photo on the cover: social networks

Fake

What do our verdicts mean?