Translated by Ollie Richardson & Angelina Siard

12:50:47
29/05/2017

timer-odessa.net

In the investigation into the mysterious disappearance of the Colonel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Dmitry Shpak, in 2014, heading the police in the city of Rubezhnoye of the Lugansk region there a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel began to emerge.

As a reminder, Dmitry Shpak went missing during the period from July 9th to July 10th in 2014. According to the official information published by the Ukrainian law enforcement authorities, the chief of police of Rubezhnoye was kidnapped “by people armed with an automatic weapon dressed in camouflage clothes” who rushed into the premises of the city department of the police. The Ukrainian authorities later laid the blame for Shpak’s kidnapping on the Cossack ataman Dremov, who fought on the side of the unrecognized DPR Army.

The LPR, on the contrary, pinned the blame for Shpak’s disappearance on government troops — in particular, the military personnel of the special battalion “Aidar”. The press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the LPR published information that the policeman was carrying a large sum of money, and that the murder allegedly involved the previously convicted resident of the village of Pokrovka in the Starobelsk region Aleksandr Gorenov, who served in “Aidar”.

At the end of April, 2017,  Dmitry Shpak’s body was found in the neighborhood of the village of Parnevoye between Evsug and Belovodsky, to the East from Starobelsk. In July, 2014, these settlements were controlled by government troops. From the moment the body of Shpak was found, the military prosecutor’s office of the anti-terrorist operation forces began an active investigation into the circumstances of his death, and managed to discover many facts shedding light on the last hours of the life of the chief of police of Rubezhnoye.

Investigators established that in the interval between 21:00 to 23:00 on July 10th, 2014, fighters of the 15th company of the 128th separate mountain infantry Transcarpathian brigade left Shpak and his driver at an outpost in the village of Trekhizbenka in the Slavyanoserbsk region. They, together in a State VAZ-2107 car, were transferred to the chief of investigation, and on the morning of July 11th the detainees were brought to the road near the village Evsug, where they were transferred to the intelligence officer of sector “A” of a Lieutenant-Colonel’s rank. The brigade’s police intelligence chief decided to leave the car for the needs of the unit.

The aforementioned Lieutenant-Colonel of intelligence reported that he interrogated the men brought to him, and established that they have no relation to separatists, and personally brought them to the bus-stop in the village of Chmyrovka at around 21:00 on July 11th, where he said goodbye to Shpak and his driver, the fate of which from this point he doesn’t know anything about.

However, the investigation managed to establish that the testimony of the Lieutenant-Colonel of intelligence, most likely, does not quite correspond to reality. Thus, it is established that Shpak’s body was taken away later from the territory of the military camp near the village Evstug by two servicemen of the 8th regiment of special troops from Khmelnytsky. In the case there is also a testimony of witnesses who saw how the military personnel buried the killed policeman.

Investigators came to the conclusion that the final hours of Shpak’s life were at the disposal of the above-mentioned Lieutenant-Colonel of intelligence, his chief with the Colonel’s rank, and also the subordinated to both of them military personnel of the 3rd battalion of the 8th regiment of special troops, who, most likely, are responsible for the death of the policeman. TIMER staff haven’t yet found information in the case materials about what specifically happened to Shpak just before his death.

The investigation continues.

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