Verification within Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program
Russian Telegram channels, citing the newspaper Berliner Zeitung, are spreading the claim that Kyiv is “seriously discussing” the mobilization of women. The authorities are allegedly being pushed to this decision by heavy losses and “mass desertion”. The newspaper illustrates this claim with statements by former Minister of Justice Denys Maliuska, MP Mariana Bezuhla, and volunteer Mariia Berlinskа on the mobilization of women.
This is manipulation. Currently, no decisions on lowering the mobilization age or mobilizing women are foreseen. The position of the people quoted in the article does not equal the position of the state.
Screenshot of the post
The screenshot shows a real article from the German newspaper Berliner Zeitung dated June 10, 2025. It states that the acute shortage of soldiers “forces Kyiv to consider mobilizing women“. It cites veteran and volunteer Mariia Berlinskа, who, in an interview with LB.ua on May 27, 2025, said: “We are at the point where both women and people from the age of 18 must prepare. The entire adult population, without exception“.
Berliner Zeitung is a daily German newspaper from Berlin. Founded in 194, immediately after the end of World War II, it became one of the first newspapers in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany, initially serving as the mouthpiece of the occupation administration, and later of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany. Since 1990, the newspaper has at various times been owned by several media companies (Gruner + Jahr, Holtzbrinck, Mecom, DuMont), and in 2019 it passed into the ownership of German businessman Holger Friedrich.
The claim is illustrated by a statement from former Minister of Justice Denys Maliuska, who in 2024 suggested the possibility of mobilizing imprisoned women. MP Mariana Bezuhla, who called for more active involvement of women in logistics and the defense industry, is also mentioned.
However, Denys Maliuska is a former minister and does not represent the current opinion of the authorities on this issue. Mariana Bezuhla indeed advocates for the mobilization of women, but this is her personal position, not the official position of the state.
Currently, the provision of the Law “On Military Duty and Military Service” remains unchanged: women can only be mobilized voluntarily on a contractual basis. In the public space, there is no talk of any changes so far.
At the end of 2023, Volodymyr Zelenskyi stated that he would not sign a provision allowing the mobilization of women. On April 12, 2025, Deputy Head of the Office of the President Pavlo Palisa commented on this topic in an interview with Bihus.Info: “I think women’s mobilization is more about scarce specialities, such as medicine. At present, this issue is not acute. It is more of a voluntary matter. But in the future, I think it would make sense to consider the Israeli experience of deploying the armed forces (in Israel, women undergo mandatory conscription — ed.).”
However, already on April 15, Secretary of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security Roman Kostenko stated that the committee had not considered the issue of mobilizing women. Commenting on Palisa’s words, he stressed that “this was the opinion and vision of one representative of the Office of the President“.
It is also worth noting Berliner Zeitung’s ambiguous reputation. Previously, the newspaper was accused of spreading narratives resonant with Russian propaganda and of giving a platform to anti-vaxxers. The newspaper’s owner, Holger Friedrich, was a signatory of the so-called “peace manifesto“, which called for stopping German arms supplies to Ukraine. However, according to the Financial Times, Friedrich has also made critical statements toward Russia. At the same time, the primary source of his statements is not precisely known.
Nikolas Butilin, the author of the article, was born in Germany, studied Russian studies in Moscow and Potsdam, and after the start of the full-scale invasion, supported the slogan “Putin is not Russia”. In an article from April 2025, Butilin wrote that direct negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv should begin immediately, as “the window of opportunity for potential peace is still open“. At the same time, he recognizes and condemns Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Previously, we have repeatedly refuted fakes about the mobilization of women in Ukraine.
