Toronto TV: The chief of Staff of the UAV Forces Hladkyi crossed the border of the Russian Federation while serving in the Navy

The OSINT team of "Toronto TV" found in the merged base of the Federal Security Service (FSB) of the Russian Federation "Kordon" data about crossings of the Russian border by the chief of staff of the Command of the UAV Forces Roman Hladkyi in 2014 and 2015, when he, in particular, served in the Command of the Naval Forces.

As they say in "Toronto TV", the base does not have information about specific checkpoints, so he could leave either directly to Russia or to the occupied Crimea. From 2014 to 2015, Roman Hladkyi crossed Russian border points 26 times (there and back).

From February 27, 2015 to January 1, 2016, Roman Hladkyi held the position of head of the surface and underwater forces department of the Navy Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. During this period, he crossed the Russian border eight times.

Hladkyi crossed the border most often (18 times) until February 2015, when he was a student at the National Defense University of Ukraine named after Ivan Chernyakhovsky.

The database also contained data on trips to Russia or the occupied Crimea by his wife Olena Hladka — 22 border crossings between October 25, 2014 and November 30, 2015.

What preceded

Hladkyi held the position of chief of staff of the UAV Forces for almost a month — he was appointed by order of the Minister of Defense dated July 25, 2024. Since July 2016, Hladkyi held the position of chief of staff and first deputy commander of the Naval Armed Forces. In 2018, he was fired due to "improper performance of official duties."

Officially, the press service of the Navy of the Ukrainian Armed Forces reported at the time that he was "enrolled at the disposal of the Minister of Defense of Ukraine to determine his further official position." And Hladkyʼs dismissal is connected with "identified deficiencies in official activity as a result of the inspection of one of the military units by the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine."

Low-level media, in particular Ukrinform, wrote that his wife supposedly has Russian citizenship and lives in occupied Crimea, and her daughter participated in swimming competitions for the Central Sports Club of the Russian Army.

• The Command of the Unmanned Systems Forces stated that Hladkyi passed the SBU check before being appointed. However, SBU reported that it did not conduct checks on Roman Hladkyi prior to his appointment to this position, as the procedure does not provide for this. After that, the head of the Armed Forces Oleksandr Syrskyi initiated a special inspection of Hladkyi. At the beginning of September, he was removed from his duties during the inspection by SBU.