“Youʼll have to throw up money.” A military from “Skelya” recorded a video with threats to Babel. The regiment commented

A serviceman of the 425th separate assault regiment “Skelya” Mykola “Kyianyn” Kharkhan recorded a video with threats to Babel. He calls the Babel journalist who prepared an investigation into the deaths and torture in “Skelya” a “journalist whore”, calls Babel an “office-Russian publication” that works for [Russian] cash, and says that the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine can defend themselves and “will have to throw up money”. He explains the attention to “Skelya” by the fact that the regiment destroys enemies of the Ukrainian nation.

The "Skelya" communications officer Oleksiy Bratuschak said that threats to journalists are unacceptable, but servicemen also have the right to freedom of speech.

His words from the press conference are quoted by Detector Media.

According to Bratuschak, Harkhan is a blogger and can communicate with the audience as he sees fit. He joined "Skelya" recently. As for the threats, Bratuschak emphasized that they are unacceptable:

"When we discussed the reaction to the Babel material, the commander and I clearly stated (and it was voiced at the meeting) that there should be no action against the authors of this or that investigation. Fighting journalists is not our business.

Once we talked with the commanders, we came to this thesis that describes our position: we are fighting for the freedom to speak the truth. We are fighting for you to be able to work, to have freedom of speech. Whether we like it or not, we want to live in such a country. In addition to being a military man, he is also a blogger, and no one has abolished freedom of speech in our country," said Bratuschak.

Later, in comments on Facebook, Bratuschak wrote that he had not listened to (or read) what Harkhan had published. However, he called his actions "freedom of speech".

• On June 23, Babel published a major investigation into the situation in the 425th Assault Regiment “Skelya”. We interviewed more than 30 witnesses, mostly relatives of those mobilized to “Skelya”, as well as a dozen soldiers from the regiment who escaped or are still serving there.
• Babel counted 26 deaths in the regiment’s training centers over the past six months, and also described cases of torture and abuse of those undergoing training.
• On June 24, the State Bureau of Investigation reported that it had launched an investigation following the Babel material, and Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets stated that a monitoring group from the Ombudsmanʼs Office was going to the site to conduct an investigation.
• On June 25, it became known that the commander of "Skelya", Lieutenant Colonel Yuriy Harkavy, had been suspended from duty for the duration of the investigation. Also, by decision of Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrsky, a comprehensive commission headed by the Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is working in "Skelya".

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