26-Year-Old Boy From Hrodna Region Dies Of Cancer That Developed In Army

He was diagnosed with cancer only at the fourth stage.

There's a tragedy in the Kunevich family from the village of Troshchytsy, Karelichy district: last Saturday, July 20, their son, 26-year-old Misha, died, nn.by writes. He died of stomach cancer. He was comissioned when the disease was already at the fatal stage. Most likely, the guy was enlisted in the army already with cancer. And he served with oncology - no one paid attention to the pain and vomiting he had, the guy was fed with primitive pills. Why is this happening?

The family claims that the Karelichy military registration and enlistment office deliberately turned a blind eye to the bad blood tests of the conscript and sent him to serve. In the army, Misha spent most of his time taking primitive pills in hospital and being labeled as "draft dodger", until, eventually, he was diagnosed with cancer with multiple metastases in Minsk. Fourth stage already!

After that, he was commissioned, and the guy lived for a few more months - nothing else could be done.

"Misha was a young guy, but he had certain health problems," - his mother, Volha Kunevich, tells us. - Before the army, he complained sometimes: he had a stomach ache and no appetite. But somehow they didn`t pay much attention to it, and he didn`t pay much attention to it himself. He was in our hospital, ESR jumped three times higher the norm! But something was done symptomatically, it was declining. Then, some year before the army, maybe, the wounds were no longer healing well. For example, he could shave and cut a bit his cheek with a blade - and the cheek would fester immediately, did not heal well. We even went to the doctor with this cut cheek, asking to heal it. And then the conscription time and the military registration and enlistment office said his analyses were perfect! At that time, I went to Zarubaika [then the commissar of the Karelichy district] myself, asking that at least he should be examined well, and I said that he was sick. He went to the commission in Hrodna, but nothing was checked there - Zarubaika took the files of the conscripts, went to the commission himself, they signed them there agreeing with the verdict of our commissariat - that's all. And the conscripts did not say anything. There were many of them. Our son told us this, but others can confirm it as well.

According to the woman, Mikhail's condition became worse in the army - he served in Minsk, in military unit 20170.

"He even took an oath in the hospital! He called me and said: "Mom, I'm dying. And to him: "You're dodging!" - and they gave him darotaverin and alumag [spasmolytics and antiulcer - Ed.] He did not undergo any in-depth examination. He was in a hospital in the bootcamp in Pechy, was in a hospital in Slonim, where they were not searching for anything. As he told me, once he drank water in front of the doctor and immediately vomited over him with it. And then they probably believed that maybe he was not dodging and sent him to Minsk. They found the oncology in Minsk and immediately commissioned him. But there was the fourth stage, he came home, lived a little and that's all. Nothing helps there..." - the woman cries.

"The military discharge record says that the disease appeared during the service. But this is fantastic! We went to Barauliany afterwards. The doctors say that this does not happen in one year, out of nothing into the fourth stage. And the military have it own way. We filed a complaint with the prosecutor's office, and they agree with the military: "A disease which appeared during the service," - Volha Kunevich said.

Did the guy really have bad results of the tests before he was sent to the army? The family suggests that they could have been concealed or replaced by "clean" ones.

The journalists have found the lab assistant at the polyclinic in Mir, where Mikhail had samples taken.

The lab assistant's name is Danuta Khvasko. She remembers that the tests were not really good.

"He never had good tests. He was in our hospital even before the army, and they were all bad. I don't remember anything about SOE, but I remember that there were too many white blood cells. My colleague, there were two of us, and I were discussing what that could be. Well, we're not doctors, we thought it might be because of an angina or something. And then what? They were sent to undergo testing by the military registration and enlistment office, and we give the results back to them, and they themselves go to the registration and enlistment office with the papers, and there the doctors make a decision. I exclude that some tests could have been changed: do I want to go to prison? I am a mother myself, I would never play along with any commissioner in such a case, let them beg me on their knees. These are questions for the commission," - Danuta Khvasko told us.

Karelichy commissar Kanstantsin Zarubaika, who was in charge of Mikhail Kunevich's conscription, heard the journalists' question and slammed the phone, saying that he would not speak.

Mikhail's friends say that Zarubaika was categorically telling him: "Whatever you do, you will go to serve".

Friends attribute such adherence to principle to the fact that Mikhail had already been drafted in the army in 2017, but he stayed there for a short time, since he married a woman who had a small child.

Thus, he became a foster father and received the right to a deferment. And when the child turned three years old, Mikhail was subject to call-up again.