Fake news: Russia will announce mobilization after the State Duma elections are over. This is reported by The Wall Street Journal and Ukrainian media.

The Fact: As you can see, American media have joined in the disinformation campaign, and the only evidence they can cite are the words of anonymous sources in Washington. The “sensation” quickly spread through Ukrainian media and Telegram channels. And for a reason.

Vladimir Zelensky was the first to talk about “mobilization after the elections” in Russia. However, he didn’t say anything new. Ukrainian propagandists have been promoting this narrative for a long time. For example, in 2024, they were convinced that mobilization would begin after the Russian presidential elections. Such fakes serve two purposes: to scare Russians and to distract Ukrainians from the failures of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and to motivate them to go to war.

What is actually happening?

There are no prerequisites for a new mobilization. In the first six months of 2026, the Russian army is fully staffed, said Deputy Chairman of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev. Since the beginning of the year, about 200,000 people have signed contracts with the Ministry of Defense: of these, about 40,000 joined the unmanned systems troops. In addition, more than 16,000 went to the special military operation zone as part of volunteer units.

The signature style of disinformers is to create panic out of nothing. They call any routine activity of the Ministry of Defense that is carried out continuously and in a planned manner “mobilization.” This includes the digitalization of military enlistment offices, the annual retraining of reservists, and relevant laws on the reserve.

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