The former commander of the Kharkiv Operational Tactical Group (OTG) Yuriy Halushkin was taken into custody without bail.
This was reported by Suspilne from the courtroom.
The investigation noted that during the defense of the Lypetsk community in the Kharkiv region, Halushkin misjudged the enemyʼs potential and the situation and, through his actions, contributed to the unauthorized abandonment of the battlefield by soldiers of the 125th separate brigade of the Ukrainian Defense Army.
Investigators found that the commander ignored intelligence, assessed the Russian offensive as “unlikely”, and gave orders that did not reflect the real situation on the front. As a result, almost 100 Ukrainian soldiers were wounded, killed, or missing during the first day of the Russian offensive.
SBI claims that due to miscalculations in the command and the unauthorized withdrawal of fighters and certain units of the 125th Brigade of the Ukrainian Defense Forces from their occupied positions, the troops lost the strategic initiative. As a result, the Russians were able to penetrate the brigadeʼs defense zone to a distance of up to 10 km, which allowed them to again shell Kharkiv with artillery.
At the same time, Halushkin is one of three senior military officials suspected of negligence in the defense of the Kharkiv region. On January 22, he was released from pre-trial detention center on bail of 5 million hryvnias, but was detained on his way out.
Halushkin himself noted that the fierce fighting along the entire front line and the losses — both in people and territory — were not because “the soldiers lacked courage or the commanders lacked professionalism”, but because the Russians were oblivious to their own losses. He said that he was ready to go to war as an ordinary soldier.
What preceded
On January 20, law enforcement officers detained three military personnel suspected of negligence in organizing the defense of the Kharkiv region in 2024. We are talking about:
- former commander of the Operational-Tactical Group "Kharkiv", General Yuriy Halushkin;
- former commander of the 125th Separate Territorial Defense Brigade, General Artur Horbenko;
- former commander of the 415th separate rifle battalion of the 23rd separate mechanized brigade, Colonel Illya Lapin.
On January 21 , the court remanded Halushkin and Lapin in custody, and on the 22nd, Artur Horbenko. Already on January 22, bail of 5 million hryvnias was posted for Halushkin, but he was detained again on the same day.
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