Fake draft-office recruitment ads target schoolchildren in Russia and Ukraine A report claiming the Belgorod military enlistment office was recruiting schoolchildren was debunked as fake by fact-checking website Provereno. The announcement featured an AI-generated image, and a similar fake recruitment ad had previously appeared in Ukraine. Meduza has apologized for republishing the unverified announcement.

• A report about the Belgorod military enlistment office recruiting schoolchildren was found to be fake.
• Fact-checking website Provereno found no official mention of the recruitment drive.
• The photograph used in the announcement was assessed to have a 92% probability of being AI-generated and contained a Google AI watermark.
• A similar fake announcement targeted Ukrainian schoolchildren a week earlier.
• The Cherkasy regional police issued a denial for the Ukrainian announcement.
• The human rights project Idite Lesom, which first published the Belgorod image, received it through a Telegram feedback bot.
• Several major outlets, including Meduza, republished the unverified Belgorod announcement.
• Meduza apologized to readers for publishing the unverified announcement.