FACT CHECK: Does This Video Show A Ukrainian Citizen Avoiding Conscription?

A video shared on Instagram claims to show a Ukrainian citizen running away from authorities attempting to hand him a mobilization notice.

Verdict: False

The video was filmed in Russia in 2020. It is unrelated to the current conflict in Ukraine.

Fact Check:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ordered a general mobilization and the conscription of all males aged between 18 and 60 in response to the recent Russian invasion, according to DW News. Males between the ages of conscription were also banned from leaving the country, the outlet reported.

The Instagram video allegedly shows a Ukrainian man running in a courtyard while avoiding several men dressed in military uniforms. “Trying to serve to a Ukrainian a mobilization notice, None of them wanna do military service to Zelensky,” reads the video’s caption.

The footage predates the current hostilities in Ukraine. A reverse image search found that a similar video first appeared on YouTube in May 2020 with a Russian-language title that translates to,”‘Krasava!’: In Sochi, the inhabitants of the observatories, out of boredom, practice ‘catching up’ with law enforcement officers.”
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“In Sochi, inhabitants of observatories, languishing with boredom, almost daily become figures in the news from hotels in the Imeretinskaya lowland,” reads a translation of the YouTube video’s description, which includes a link to a May 2020 SochiNews.io article that states the man was a resident of a Sochi observatory who was in quarantine at the time.

This is not the first time an old video has been misattributed to the war in Ukraine. Check Your Fact recently debunked a video claiming to show the aftermath of a missile attack on Moscow Airport but actually showed a plane crash in 2019.

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