KYIV. Feb 1 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Presidential candidate and Ukraine's ex-Ecology Minister Ihor Shevchenko has said the episode involving "blue hats" during his stay at the Davos Economic Forum was a joke and partially invented. He asked journalists not to twist the information.

"I wrote a comic post and I just made up the part about the security guard, saying that you can take only one cap, in order to make the Facebook post more entertaining. I wrote it simply for my friends. And the next day there was a buzz. They said I stole hats and had miraculously escaped arrest," Shevchenko said at a press conference at the Kyiv-based Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

Shevchenko said what happened at Davous was spontaneous.

The presidential candidate said that he would not give the five hats he brought from Davos to any of his friends. Instead, he promised to auction them off for charity and donate the proceeds to help treat sick children.

Shevchenko also announced the creation of the "Movement of Blue Hats" nationwide anti-corruption campaign.