UP: Godson of the brigade commander of the 211th Pontoon-Bridge Brigade physically abused the battalionʼs soldiers and demanded money

In the 211th Pontoon-Bridge Brigade, which was created in April 2022, Colonel Oleh Poberezhnyuk became the commander. His wife worked at the Kamyanets-Podilskyi TRC, and people from Poberezhnyukʼs entourage began to appear en masse in the unit. In particular, his godfather Valeriy Pastukh became the deputy brigade commander, and his son Vladyslav, Poberezhnyukʼs godson, was appointed commander of one of the platoons in the first battalion of the brigade — as it turned out later, he physically abused the brigadeʼs fighters and demanded money from them. Poberezhnyuk himself sent four fighters to the Khmelnytskyi region to build him a house. No one has been punished yet.

This is stated in the investigation of "Ukrainska Pravda" (UP).

Composition of the brigade

This brigade is considered desirable for all military personnel — there are fewer chances here than in stormtroopers or infantrymen of being "zeroed out" or injured, because the unitʼs fighters are engaged only in engineering work, for example, building pontoon crossings or setting up defensive positions.

“People from Kamyanets-Podilskyi joined the regiment, many of them graduated from the local military engineering institute. Poberezhnyuk is one of the graduates of this university. That is, a circle of people who had long-standing friendly or family relations or served together was formed,” says an anonymous source.

Another source for the Ukrainian Police confirms that the brigade included "husbands and wives, fathers and sons, godparents, distant relatives, mistresses, friends, classmates, neighbours, and everyone else who could be drawn from their environment."

According to him, this is no coincidence.

"People donʼt mobilize into a specific brigade from a specific village. They get there somehow, under someoneʼs watchful eye," another officer added in an anonymous conversation with UP.

The publication obtained the staffing list of the 211th Pontoon-Bridge Brigade and claims that there are indeed many families among the personnel of the military unit — almost a dozen were verified. But mostly all relatives serve in different units of the 211th Pontoon-Bridge Brigade to avoid conflicts of interest.

Extortion and physical abuse

In the spring of 2024, employees of the Ternopil Military Law Enforcement Service (MLES) requested information from the 211th Pontoon-Bridge Brigade about administrative protocols for soldiers who used alcohol or drugs during 2023.

After that, they began an official check — in the second battalion, protocols were not drawn up for some soldiers who were in a state of alcoholic intoxication, although their condition was recorded during medical examinations.

At that time, the battalion commander was Lieutenant Colonel Valeriy Pastukh. In May 2024, in the midst of service checks, he was promoted to chief of staff — deputy brigade commander. He still holds this position.

Ostafiychuk, an officer in the psychological support department for personnel, who then served in the 211th brigade and was involved in internal audits, says that the serviceman had to pay from 5 to 20 thousand hryvnias to the person who discovered the violation so that a report would not be drawn up against him.

"I also established many illegal facts, including the beating of soldiers if they drank alcohol but did not pay money. The son of the chief of staff, Pastukh, and the godson of Brigadier General Poberezhnyuk, who was a senior lieutenant at that time and now a captain Vladyslav Pastukh, who was the commander of one of the platoons in the first battalion, was mainly involved in the abuse of the soldiers,” he says.

Another sergeant says that Vladyslav Pastukh threatened to use the influence of his father and godson, who could transfer the fighters to the infantry, so the fighters paid him money to avoid punishment.

According to five former officers and sergeants of the brigade, Vladyslav Pastukh also abused servicemen during trips to build fortifications in the Donetsk, Kharkiv, and Dnipropetrovsk regions. In the combat zone, he had access to servicemen from various battalions, including the second, and it was these soldiers who complained about the abuse. Although Vladyslav was a platoon leader in the first battalion.

"I, [...], while on rotation in the Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions, consumed alcoholic beverages, for which I was repeatedly punished financially and physically by Senior Lieutenant Pastukh Vladyslav Valeriyovych, using brute physical force against me. I was also tied to a wooden cross and physically abused...", one of the complaints states.

After this incident became public in the unit, Pastukh Jr. was transferred to serve in another unit. And his father paid the money to the injured soldiers, who wrote reports and proved the money transfers with receipts.

The interlocutors of the Ukrainian Military Police among the officers and sergeants claim that due to the bullying of the military, neither the prosecutorʼs office nor the State Bureau of Investigation opened criminal proceedings.

Instead, the prosecutorʼs office investigated the case of failure to draw up administrative protocols for military personnel.

On September 10, 2024, the Husyatynsky District Court of the Ternopil region found Pastukh Sr. guilty of negligent service during martial law. He paid the maximum fine of 34 000 hryvnias. And at the stage of the pre-trial investigation, he compensated the state for damages in the amount of almost 140 000 hryvnias — bonuses received by servicemen who did not draw up protocols for drinking alcohol.

Unit reaction

Olha Adamovych, an officer in the brigadeʼs communications department, commented on the situation. She stated that the protocols were not drawn up "due to the separation of personnel at a separate location". And Pastukh bore responsibility for this.

The spokesperson also stated that Vladyslav Pastukh, who mocked the military and extorted money from them, is an adult who is independently responsible for his actions. Therefore, the father is not involved, because his son was never directly subordinate to him.

The brigadeʼs press service, on behalf of Brigadier General Poberezhnyuk, did not comment on the case of failure to draw up protocols, nor on the extortion of money and abuse of servicemen by Vladyslav Pastukh.

House in the Khmelnytskyi region for a brigade commander

In the fall of 2023, one of the brigadeʼs senior sergeants noticed a serviceman from a repair company who was seconded to the Kherson region on the territory of a unit in the Ternopil region.

"From October to December 2023, four servicemen were sent on a business trip to the Katran Marine Corps Group, whose commander at the time was Lieutenant General Yuriy Sodol, to carry out tasks. In fact, they were not there," he says.

After that, it was found out that these soldiers, who were allegedly sent to the Kherson region, were building a house in the Khmelnytskyi region for Brigadier General Poberezhnyuk.

At the same time, they received a bonus of 100 thousand hryvnias for each day spent at ground zero.

"The investigation into this fact is ongoing, so we cannot provide any comments. You can contact the relevant authorities to clarify the information," said the brigadeʼs spokesperson Adamovych.

The Specialized Prosecutorʼs Office for Defense of the Western Region of the Ukrainian Autonomous Republic confirmed that a pre-trial investigation is ongoing into the construction of a house in the Khmelnytskyi region by servicemen of the 211th Pontoon-Bridge Brigade while they were deployed to perform combat missions.

Suspicions in this case have not yet been declared. According to UP, this will be done "in the coming weeks."

Yulia Shevchenko, a spokeswoman for the Specialized Prosecutorʼs Office for Defense in the Western region, says that they are currently collecting evidence and awaiting the results of an economic examination to determine the damages, and are checking the involvement of other people in the crime.

According to her, the status of brigade commander Colonel Poberezhnyuk in the case is currently being established.

At the same time, on November 1, 2024, he received the Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, 3rd degree, from the President — "for personal courage shown in protecting the state sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, selfless performance of military duty".

In the eleven months of 2024, fighters sent 3 807 appeals about violations of their rights, of which approximately a third were complaints against military units. That is, these are not isolated cases, but a system.

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