Soldier: Hunger strike lasted for 2 days, not all soldiers joined in

The message that there was a soldier rebellion in the military unit located not far from Lapichy first appeared on the website Charter’97. An anonymous reader who claimed he was one of the soldier's friend informed that the soldiers had started a hunger strike as a protest against "the improper behaviour of the officership". According to the website, the events happened in the military unit # 44540 in the settlement of Ruchei, Lapichy (Asipovichy district). The material contained no references to the specific sources among the soldiers.

We tried to verify the information, so we found the contact details of the relatives and friends of the soldiers who were serving in that very unit, in the social networks. We called Alena L., whose boyfriend is in the military unit #44540 now.

Alena L.: "I can tell you he didn't go on a hunger strike or anything. Actually, we do not discuss his military service, it's of no interest to me. The only thing I care about is that they let him go on leave warrant".

Several more relatives of the soldiers give no information at all: "They did not tell us anything like this". 

It wasn't difficult to find the contact details of the soldiers either. However, only one of them agreed to talk to Euroradio on the terms of anonymousity. According to him, the command warned the soldiers on the criminal responsibility for giving false evidence.

A soldier of the military unit # 44540: "I could have told you much more but I only have less than 4 months of the military service left. I don't need problems, I have enough. Tomorrow (July 23) a commission from the ministry of Defense arrives, they will interrogate every single person. Now they are trying to find out who wrote all this."

Euroradio: Was there really a hunger strike? Is the information true?

A soldier of the military unit # 44540: "Yes, it lasted for two days - July 20 and 21. Then they started threatening. One of the soldiers concussed. Maybe this was a coincidence. They wrote the truth."

Euroradio: Did the whole join the hunger strike?

A soldier of the military unit # 44540:  "No, just the second and the third periods of the battalion."

Euroradio: What was the reason?

A soldier of the military unit # 44540:  "Most likely, biased attitude and non-manual behaviour of some of the officers, who insulted the soldiers when drunk..."

So, we talked tp a soldier and then tried to contact the officership of the military unit. However, we didn't manage to reach them by phone during Tuesday, July 23.

"It's more than useless to comment on a material published by such totalitarian-liberal website as Charter'97," - Press Secretary of the Ministry of Defense Uladzimir Makarau responds to Euroradio's question. The military official enlists his articles which explain the view why some of the resources cannot publish objective materials.

Euroradio: Did the commission of the Ministry of Defense go to the military unit # 44540?

Uladzimir Makarau: "What commission! The events described by the material are impossible to happen in the first place. All the questions - to the reader whose friend allegedly serves in that military unit, or, which is more appropriate, to the editors of Charter'97. It's a totalitarian informational resourse that could not be objective."

We did not find the 100% proof of the information about the emergency situation in the military unit near Lapichy. If the fact really happened, it's impossible to find out all the objective circumstances in the current conditions - the Belarusian army remains a very restrictive structure so no stranger can penetrate. Nevertheless, such alarms that come out of the military units from time to time show that the perfect discipline does not live everywhere in the Belarusian army. 

A random pic of the soldier of the military unit #44540 (2013). This man has no connections with the published material

In the first photo: soldiers of the military unit #44540 (2011)