Pavel Shurmei (call sign “Dziadka”) has stepped down as commander of the Kalinouski Regiment, a post he had held since July 2024. The duties are currently being performed by the Council of Commanders. He disclosed this in an interview with Zerkalo.
According to Shurmei, there were several reasons for his departure, including family circumstances that he did not wish to discuss.
“It happened that at some point the time came when I had to terminate my contract, and for various reasons — we will not discuss them all now. Maybe some of them are very delicate. There were certain rumors and gossip being spread that ‘Dziadka’ allegedly failed a detector, a polygraph — I can talk about that, so to speak.
Let the person who claims this present it, give some facts about it. Otherwise it is, as always, empty talk. (…) It was clear that this was not an easy step, so we spent a long time discussing it with the commanders of the combat units, with the Council of Commanders, and made the decision that is now the most optimal, the most effective,” he said.
Shurmei is now working on the political representation of the Kalinouski Regiment.
“I did not go anywhere. I started working in another area, which even the Council of Commanders considers perhaps no less important than the combat work they do. This is to represent the entire Kalinouski movement. And, if necessary, to do so politically,” he said.
He added that the Council of Commanders is responsible for public, administrative and logistical matters, including the distribution of resources among the units.
“The Council of Commanders includes all commanders of the combat units. Some of them are veterans who have been fighting from the very beginning, since 2022. It existed before but has now chosen to speak more openly about itself, so to speak. We will not disclose the number of people, but these are all the commanders of combat units who handle combat tasks. I am not formally part of the Council, but I, so to speak, carry out all decisions of the Council of Commanders — the decisions of those who fight,” he said.
Shurmei is a Belarusian rower who competed in two Olympic Games. He is one of the Belarusian volunteers of the Kastus Kalinouski Regiment. In March 2023, it became known that Belarus had opened an in-absentia criminal case against Shurmei. In June, it was reported that Russia had put him on a wanted list. His information appeared in the Russian Interior Ministry’s database. Russia opened a criminal case against him for serving in the Kalinouski Regiment.