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This article was first published by Truthmeter.mk (North Macedonia), within the framework of Western Balkans Anti-Disinformation Project.

To increase mobilization at the front, Ukrainian authorities have been gradually amending laws and tightening criteria. Russian officials and propagandists often talk about Kyiv’s problems with mobilization, often spreading false content on this topic, as is the case with the post we are reviewing

We are reviewing a post on the social network Facebook that reads:

The family of a Ukrainian soldier wrote “ILLEGALLY MOBILIZED” on his tombstone!
The Ukrainian court ordered the removal of the “offensive text within 5 days from the tombstone.” They have until April 7, 2025 to change the inscription on the tombstone. WHY OFFENSIVE TEXT FOR THE UKRAINIAN COURT???

As Delfi fact-checkers write, referring to the same photo from the post we are reviewing with a tombstone and the inscription “illegally mobilized” on it, this photo first appeared on pro-Kremlin Telegram channels, along with another photo (an alleged court ruling in which “the boy’s mother is ordered to remove the inscription that the boy was illegally mobilized”) which you can see below.

The Forensics photo-checking tool showed that the inscriptions on the monument had been added using a photo editor. The fake document also states that the “verdict” was issued by the Brovary District Court in Kyiv Oblast on March 31, 2025. Using the YouControl service, “Stop Fake” checked all court decisions for this date and, as expected, did not find such a verdict, the Ukrainian fact-checkers write.

Another indicator that the post we are reviewing is untrue is that the verdict lists as the alleged “plaintiff” the municipal enterprise “Brovary Ritual Service,” which allegedly “sued the mother for the inscription on the tombstone that her son was illegally mobilized.”

The company, contacted by “Stop Fake,” confirmed that it was disinformation.

We did not bury such a soldier. The photo does not show our cemetery and we are not suing anyone, the company’s legal advisor told “Stop Fake.”

According to Ukrainian fact-checkers, this disinformation was fabricated to discredit the mobilization campaign in Ukraine and divide Ukrainian society.

The chairman of the Brovary City Council, Igor Sapozhko, wrote on his Facebook page that a soldier named Grigory Olejnik (like the name on the tombstone in the photo) is neither on the list of the deceased nor among those buried in the Alley of Glory in Brovary. There is no soldier with that name and date of death in the databases of deceased Ukrainian soldiers.

The photo of the alleged tombstone of a deceased Ukrainian soldier went viral on April 2. The stone is engraved with a portrait of a man, the name Grigory Vyacheslavovich Olejnik, the dates of birth and death, and the signature “illegally mobilized” in Ukrainian.

To increase mobilization at the front, Ukrainian authorities have been gradually amending laws and tightening criteria. Russian officials and propagandists often talk about Kyiv’s problems with mobilization, often spreading false content on this topic, as is the case with the post we are reviewing.

The existence of a tombstone for a deceased Ukrainian soldier with the inscription “Illegally mobilized,” as well as the court proceedings resulting from it, is not supported by data from authoritative and credible sources, Delfi writes.

The text of the court decision contains numerous errors and inaccuracies, the document is not publicly available on the court decisions page, and the company that is the alleged “plaintiff” in the unreliable document denies participating in the legal process.

Due to all the above facts, we assess the post we are reviewing as untrue.