Of those who have been mobilized, tens of thousands are said to be insufficiently trained and ill-equipped to survive the conflict in Ukraine.

The conscription efforts themselves have not been much better with students called up to join by accident, alongside reports of war recruiters breaking into homes to summon conscripts.

Even with such seemingly disorganized planning, a report of a man, blind from birth, being ordered to the front line seemed particularly jarring.

The Claim

A tweet posted on October 5, 2022, claimed that 34-year-old Dmitry Klyukvin, who has been “completely blind” from birth was issued a call-up notice from a recruitment office in Moscow to perform military service.

The tweet included a copy of Russian papers which appear to belong to Klyukvin.

The Facts

As with any claim or report sourced from Russian-language social media, getting to the bottom of everything often proves a challenge. The provenance of this story, too, raised some skepticism.

The story appeared to have been shared initially by Russian Telegram channel Mash. Mash, who described Klyukvin as “a diver, a parachutist, a prize-winner in sambo and a master of sports in soccer,” said that he “received a summons for mobilization” even though “he is completely blind.”

Mash, in a sniping report of the erroneous call up, described Klyukvin as “a patriot” and someone who “really wanted to serve (if he could), and that was the main thing [for the conscription officer].”

“So as an honest man, today he will head to the conscription center. With his walking stick, as he always does,” the post concluded.

Reports about a blind Russian athlete named Dmitry Klyukvin, who was both trained in Sambo (a type of combat sport used by the Soviet red army) and an experienced diver, published several years ago, seemed to corroborate claims about his identity, background and disability, as shared by Mash.

Mash also posted a photo of Klyukvin in diving gear (that appears to have been taken from his Facebook page) alongside the photo of ID papers shared on Twitter.

This information alone was not enough to prove that Klyukvin had been conscripted. However, several hours later, Mash posted a follow-up video interview with Klyukvin and a report stating that he was “not mobilized after all.”

Klyukvin told Mash that the conscription office had apologized to him even though “the apology would have been better the day before” and that the database used to vet conscripts seemed to “just send the notices to everyone.”

The video clip also included footage of conversation with conscription staff who said “Currently he is not subject to mobilization. But I can’t say what will happen in the future.”

The Mash post also stated “they apologized to the man, admitted that there was a mistake and promised not to bother him again” (although, somewhat confusingly, they appeared to caveat that, according to the staff, “under some circumstances” he could yet be mobilized in the future).

“Klyukvin had no hard feelings, but he hoped that from now on the military registration and enlistment offices would be more attentive to the documents and their conscripts so that everyone would have less headaches and reasons to apologize,” the post stated.

The Russian government, the Kremlin and the Russian Ministry of Defence have been approached for comment.

The Ruling

Needs Context.

It is true that Dmitry Klyukvin, a Russian athlete who is blind, received a conscription notice as part of his country’s partial military mobilization efforts.

Klyukvin confirmed in an interview that he’d received conscription papers despite his disability. However, he was was ultimately not sent to the frontline and even received an apology for the apparent mistake (but no guarantees that he may not be called up again in the future).

FACT CHECK BY Newsweek’s Fact Check team