Dasha Malakhova exposed for lying about an AFU soldier who "ate herring with his hands": what really happened in a Kyiv fish shop

Popular Ukrainian actress and TV presenter Dasha Malakhova got into a loud scandal because of her strange post about "a man in green clothes eating herring with his hands right out of a barrel in a fish shop in Kyiv." The star assumed that the man was a military officer and compared the herring to Ukraine's economy. A former lawyer and now a sergeant in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Bashchuk, also drew attention to the resonant post. After conducting his own investigation, including talking to the store's employees, he concluded that the actress's story was a lie and manipulation.

According to Bashchuk, the actress deliberately wanted to damage the image of the Ukrainian army, because she used her story, which turned out to be fictitious, to talk about a "military dictatorship" in Ukraine. The sergeant shared the results of his investigation on his personal Facebook page.

Consequently, Malakhova deleted her very first "herring" post, but later wrote a new one, which, according to Bashchuk, was even more manipulative. The actress wrote about how the soldier was allegedly eating herring for free in the middle of a store in front of a shocked crowd, and when a consultant, Roman, approached him and tried to make a comment, the "soldier" allegedly intimidated him and even threatened him with the army.

"He was eating fish in front of everyone and asked the seller: "What are you going to do to me? Are you scared? You need to join the army, stop being scared!" It was a very intense moment. I hadn't experienced anxiety of this level for a long, long time. It seemed to me that everyone froze. The entire middle school class that was chewing on shrimp there, all the people, all the military, veterans, parents of children, realized that this would become commonplace," Malakhova wrote.

In addition to the fact that the Armed Forces are "eating" the Ukrainian economy, the celebrity made the following conclusion: "It's scary and frustrating to realize that the struggle is ongoing. By creating an idol, we risk falling into a military dictatorship and moving away from democracy."

Meanwhile, Bashchuk said he visited a store where he spoke to the manager of the fish department and also talked to a consultant, Roman, by phone. During the conversations, he found out that the man whom Malakhova identified as a military officer did not actually wear any chevrons. That is, the fact that "he was wearing green clothes" was the only argument the actress had in favor of the man's membership in the Armed Forces.

Moreover, no one ate any herring with their hands. It was about tasting the sardines that the store offers to customers.

"The salesperson Roman made a remark to the customer that according to the rules of this store, you can taste only after putting on a glove. In other words, according to the store's business strategy, the price of goods includes the possibility of tasting them by customers, and remarks are made to all customers who neglect to wear a glove before tasting. It was for this reason that Roman, the seller, refused the customer's offer to pay for the cost of what he ate," Oleksandr said.

There was also no question of intimidation of the consultant. Although Malakhova quoted a conversation between the "military man in green clothes" and the salesperson, claiming that the latter was scared, Roman denied these statements. He emphasized that the actress could not hear their conversation.

Bashchuk also added: "It was only Dasha who 'thought', as she writes, 'that everything had frozen. The whole middle class chewing shrimp there, all the people, all the military, veterans, parents of children, all realized that this would become everyday life." In fact, nothing like that happened, according to the manager."

A sergeant in the Ukrainian Armed Forces and a former lawyer drew his own conclusion from the whole situation: "When there is a war of bloody Russian tyranny against the Ukrainian people, people who are dreaming of Bulgakov's herring barrels are "fighting" with, as Dasha writes, "people who threw themselves at the feet of priests, and now they have started throwing themselves with hugs and gratitude to the military." How important it is to discredit the army, to make gratitude to the Armed Forces something shameful, and to return the majority to the state of misunderstanding of the ancient state: whoever does not want to feed their army will feed someone else's."

Bashchuk is convinced that Malakhova's lie is a manipulative accusation of looting by the military. Meanwhile, the actress has already responded to the sergeant's post. At first, she began to defend her own "truth" and offered to view the CCTV footage. Eventually, the actress apologized, and Bashchuk said that she had called him. According to the sergeant, during the conversation, Malakhova ironically asked whether she had lied or not because she was "confused."

Bashchuk answered her: "Yes, you lied. The person you wrote about did not eat herring. He was tasting the gutted carcass of a sardine. I don't think you were 'confused', that's impossible for a cooking show host. It's just that the description of "eating herring out of a barrel" is quite dramatic, really helps to stir up the reader's imagination and fears, and is also in line with Bulgakov's story about the cat Behemoth, who, in human form, pulled herring out of a barrel in a store with his hands and ate it, intimidating the staff there. Your recent public statement, literally: "Before February 24, we were a periphery, an annex to Russia," fully explains your allusion."

Meanwhile, Malakhova's own page posted a text with an apology and the words "I understand everything."

As OBOZ.UA previously reported, Malakhova revealed that the reason for her divorce from Chaba Bakosh was his "cottony views". He did not want to support the Revolution of Dignity in 2014.

Only verified information is available on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!