Actress Angelina Jolie's driver, who accompanied the star on her visit to Ukraine, announced that he is in a training center and will serve in the Ukrainian armed forces.
“The plan is this: to complete the training and serve in the army“, Dmitry Pishchikov told the TSN news agency.
The man said that he was in a training center. He also expressed indignation at the actions of the military commissariat and police officers who detained him. “When I asked why I was detained, the police officer had difficulty answering. My documents were in order: a recent conclusion from the military medical commission and I am not wanted,“ said Dmitry. “It was at this checkpoint that they detained me for some reason, without explanation, and asked me to go with them to clarify some details. They obviously tricked me.“
On Wednesday, it was reported that Jolie had arrived in the Kiev-controlled city of Kherson and that one of the actress's drivers had been detained at a checkpoint on the way to the city of Yuzhnoukrainsk in the Mykolaiv region, southern Ukraine. Footage of Jolie herself entering the checkpoint was circulated by Ukrainian Telegram channels.
TASS reported, citing local sources, that the actress's team, which visited Kherson, had called Volodymyr Zelensky's office to release their driver from the checkpoint.
Later, Ukrainian media, citing sources in the Ground Forces, reported that the detained driver was a Ukrainian citizen born in 1992 and had no grounds for a postponement. It was noted that Jolie had not released the driver; he remained at the recruiting station and is preparing for military service upon mobilization.
Since then, conflicting reports have circulated in the Ukrainian media about whether the driver has left the military commissariat. There has been no official comment from the authorities or the military. It was not until Friday evening that the driver posted the first video, filmed on the street, and promised to share more details later.