German citizens sent fake letters offering money to join Ukraine’s Foreign Legion
Fake letters part of ‘campaign to discredit Ukrainian diplomacy’ (Photo:Christian Lue/Unsplash)
German citizens have started receiving fake letters with an offer to join the Ukrainian Foreign Legion to fight against Russia in exchange for money, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said on Facebook on Dec. 9.
The letters are made to look like they are sent from the Consulate General of Ukraine in Dusseldorf.
"These letters are fake. The Ukrainian consular office has not sent any such messages," Nikolenko said.
He added that the consuls have already asked the German police to investigate.
The Foreign Ministry considers the distribution of the fake letters to be part of a Russian disinformation campaign. The goal is to discredit Ukrainian diplomacy, Nikolenko said.
"We consider the distribution of fake letters as part of the enemy's disinformation campaign, which aims to discredit Ukrainian diplomacy, to undermine support for Ukraine by Germany and its citizens," the Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
At the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a Foreign Legion unit was formed within Ukraine’s Territorial Defense military branch. It is open to foreign citizens – experienced veterans and volunteers with combat experience – who want to help Ukrainians defend their freedom. At the same time, the salary of the Foreign Legion military does not differ from that of the Ukrainian service members in the Armed Forces.
The incident with the fake letters is the latest one involving Ukrainian diplomats abroad. In late November, a large-scale terror campaign against Ukrainian diplomats was launched in dozens of countries around the world. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called it "unprecedented in its scale."
On Nov. 30, there was an explosion at the Ukrainian Embassy in Madrid, one person was injured. Ukrainian Ambassador to Spain Serhiy Pohoreltsev said that a parcel addressed to him exploded.
After that, a number of embassies and consulates of Ukraine received blood-stained parcels with animal eyes, unknown persons broke into the ambassador's house in the Vatican and smeared the building with excrement, and the embassy in Kazakhstan received a false bomb threat.
Currently, 31 cases of threats to Ukrainian diplomatic missions in 15 countries are known.
Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Google News
