Serviceman Oleksandr Shyrshyn has said drugs were planted on him. In a Facebook post on 28 August, he said they were found during a police check.
He believes it was planned. Shyrshyn is currently waiting for his lawyer to arrive.
“They planted weed on me. Everything is very interesting and planned,” the serviceman said.
He added that when he was stopped, there were other people there besides the police, who were passing information about him. Journalist Anna Kalyuzhna noted that there was a large quantity of drugs.
“The police were lying in wait at a specific place and were indicating exactly what needed to be opened. It was planted earlier. Judging by preliminary information, they tampered with the alarm,” she suggested.
In a comment to Babel, Shyrshyn said law enforcement officers stopped his car in Kharkiv as he was driving past the scene of a road accident. They searched his car and found drugs there. Shyrshyn said they had been planted.
He also said that before the search the police officers told him they had information that he was “on something”.
“I say: ‘Well, if I’m on something, then blow into the breathalyser.’ He says: ‘No, we’ll go to a medical facility.’ I say: ‘Fine, let’s go to a medical facility.’ He says: ‘But first let’s take a look at your car. Open the boot,’” he told Babel.
According to the serviceman, they found nothing prohibited in the boot, after which law enforcement officers asked to inspect the cabin and repeatedly asked whether he had anything prohibited. After inspecting the cabin and his personal belongings, they asked to check the armrest.
“I don’t use that armrest because it’s the back seat. I open the armrest and there’s some kind of packet. I take it out, and he says: ‘What’s that?’ I say: ‘I don’t know.’ I unwrap it, and there’s weed with scales. And a pile of little bags,” he said.
He suggested he could be accused of dealing narcotic substances. Shyrshyn is waiting for his lawyer and the investigative task force to arrive.
Oleksandr Shyrshyn is one of the servicemen who has publicly spoken about the loss of fighters and violent methods in certain assault units of the Defence Forces.
Previously, Oleksandr Shyrshyn led a battalion in the 47th Brigade. Last year he publicly criticised command decisions during operations on Russian territory. Shyrshyn pointed out that some tasks led to heavy losses among defenders. After his post, the General Staff promised to look into it. Oleksandr Syrskyi, commenting on the post, said that Shyrshyn “clearly wants attention or fulfilment, I don’t know; I don’t really understand solving problems via Facebook”, Sledstvo Info reported.
Later, a review described Shyrshyn as “undisciplined”: “Captain Shyrshyn turned out to be undisciplined, which resulted in the dissemination of official information on social media and warrants a reprimand.” A court overturned the finding that he was undisciplined this month.