The Hedgehog case

The Case

Oleksandr Chekmaz "Hedgehog" has been at war since 2014. Knight of the Order "For Courage" III degree, former commander of the anti-tank platoon of the 25th separate motorized infantry battalion "Kyivska Rus". On the eve of a full-scale invasion, he trained fighters in his training center, who became the basis newly created of the first in Ukraine DFTG Brovarska MTG No. 1 — more than 600 volunteers under his coordination defended brewery direction.

Combat commander Oleksandr Chekmaz (Izhak) is charged with part 5 of Art. 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine — misappropriation of someone else's property by abusing an official's official position in particularly large amounts. We are talking about body armor that Chekmaz received from Polish volunteers and apparently wanted to use for personal gain. 300 bulletproof vests, 98 are mentioned later in the case, were handed over by the Poles without passports and quality certificates, which is why he could not register them in May 2022.

There are no facts of sale or conversion of protective equipment to one's own benefit. Even when the brigade refused to accept these bulletproof vests for storage after Chekmaz was dismissed from the post of commander, he did not abandon them. According to his agreement, the warehouse allocated a place for their storage for some time in case there are still fighters willing to receive such body armor. Not a single bulletproof vest was lost, lost or disintegrated in the rain.

The essence of the entire accusation is that Oleksandr Chekmaz thanked the Polish volunteers from the military unit. Therefore, investigators believe that this property belongs to a military unit, but it was not registered.

In fact, there is a clear procedure for accepting property for registration according to instruction 440. In short, to register body armor (and it is not just underwear or a uniform) you need to have:

— a bill of lading indicating the name, quantity and cost (goods and transport if the items were moved by transport);

— quality certificate;

— a passport for each body armor;

— packing list.

Polish volunteers did not provide any of these documents. Accordingly, the accounting department would not be able to register the property without these accompanying documents.

In the midst of the fight against corruption, law enforcement agencies are trying to achieve "indicators" and demonstrate their effectiveness. For almost a year now, the criminal case against the combat commander has been "pulled by the ears" instead of engaging in real investigations into abuses in the field of arms procurement, rear support, scandalous UAH 17 eggs and dubious tender offers.

The fabricated case is a mockery and humiliation of a war veteran who devoted 10 years of his life to the defense of Ukraine. It remains only to guess and assume why the founder of the first Voluntary formation of the territorial community became the object of persecution by law enforcement agencies.