Did the Ukrainian embassy in Prague recruit Czech fighters with the help of leaflets displayed in public places such as bus stops? No, that's not true: The embassy said in a statement published on its social media accounts that such flyers were forged.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on TikTok on March 25, 2024. The title above the photo of the fake recruitment flyer said (translated from Czech to English by Lead Stories staff):
On bus stops
The text on the flyer, which features headshots of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Czech President Petr Pavel, read (as translated):
The Embassy of Ukraine in the Czech Republic
Are you of full legal age? Do you like adventure? Become a mercenary in the Ukrainian army. Come to defend interests of the American dollar, capital, 'democracy and freedom'. Just like American heroes have graves in Vietnam you can have yours in Ukraine. The reward is USD 2,000 to 3,000 a month. Glory to Ukraine!
https://czechia.mfa.gov.ua
This is what the post looked like at TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Tue Mar 26 10:59:17 2024 UTC)
In a statement on its Facebook account, the Ukrainian embassy called the flyers "Russian propaganda" and invited the public to "carefully approach" and "thoroughly verify" all information. On the authenticity of the flyer in the TikTok post, the embassy wrote:
We want to emphasize that the embassy does not and can't have any connection with the leaflets that were distributed in some public spaces, and can't support such activity.
This is what the embassy's post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Tue Mar 26 14:44:22 2024 UTC)
A reverse image search conducted on March 26, 2024 (archived here), showed that the photo initially appeared in a post on the Facebook page of Petr Viktoryn, a far-right pro-Russian regional politician.
Currently a deputy chairman (archived here) of the fringe far-right PRO party's regional office in the Czech Republic's northeast, Viktoryn was also the top candidate of the far-right Trikolora party in the 2020 regional government election (archived here) and he was involved in establishing a consulate of the internationally unrecognized Donetsk People's Republic in Ukraine in the Czech city of Ostrava in 2016 (archived here).
This is what Viktoryn's post on Facebook looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Wed Mar 27 13:39:21 2024 UTC)
The PRO party's review panel chairwoman Ivana Turkova also shared (archived here) the post.
Non-Ukrainian fighters can join the International Legion of the Territorial Defense of Ukraine (archived here). According to news reports (archived here), several Czechs are in the legion. According to the Ministry of Defense, Czech citizens can legally fight on behalf of other countries if they receive the Czech president's permission (archived here).
