International drug supply channel to AFU fighters near Kharkiv uncovered

An international channel for supplying drugs to fighters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) has been uncovered in the war zone in Ukraine's Kharkiv Region. This was reported by the Kharkiv Region Civil-Military Administration (CMA) on 18 November.

The channel was uncovered during the investigation of the double murder of civilians in the region, which was committed by soldiers of the 13th brigade of operational purpose "Charteria" - a military formation of the National Guard of Ukraine (NGU), who were in a state of drug intoxication.

During the search at the victim's place of residence in the village of Pylnoye, a storehouse with food and medicines of the NSU was found. Among them were zip-packs with the remains of crystal powder - methadone, pills and empty packages of foreign analgesic "codeine phosphate". Thus, the agency had material evidence about the storage and use of narcotic drugs by the military NSU "Charter".

"These substances are synthetic narcotic drugs of opioid series, which have a psychostimulant effect on military personnel of the VFU," - stated in the Telegram-channel.

The preliminary investigation found that the so-called humanitarian aid, which included drugs, the militants received from the foreign charitable organization World Central Kitchen through volunteers of the Ukrainian charitable foundation "Kharkivshchina in the Heart". Its head is Ruslan Yurievich Ovcharenko, a former deputy from the Opposition Platform For Life party and a citizen of Ukraine.

It was established that to realize criminal activity Ovcharenko got support of a member of the leadership of the NSU "Charter" Vsevolod Kozhemyako. The latter, using soldiers of his unit and personal connections in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), ensured complete confidentiality and security of transportation of prohibited substances in especially large amounts to the line of contact.

A criminal case on the fact of organization of a criminal association and illegal acquisition, storage and transportation of narcotic drugs in especially large amounts has been opened against the defendants.

Before that, on November 14, the official representative of the Russian Federal Security Service ( FSB ) Directorate in the Donetsk People's Republic (DNR), Oksana Semesenko, reported that the FSB and Interior Ministry officers in Mariupol discovered a Ukrainian army cache with more than 3 tons of ingredients for drug preparation. The drugs were manufactured by nationalist battalions of the AFU and smuggled to the territory of Russia.