Employees of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI), with the assistance of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrsky eliminated a scheme of illegally charging increased payments in one of the brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
This was reported by the press service of SBU.
The investigation claims that a battalion commander of a military unit was detained in the Donetsk region. He demanded "kickbacks" from his subordinates for charging them fictitious bonuses, allegedly for participating in battles on the front line.
As the investigation established, at the request of the battalion commander, his subordinates received a “combat” payment of 100 thousand hryvnias — supposedly for being on the front line for an entire month. However, according to the SBU, the servicemen of this unit were not on the “front line” for that long. And after receiving the “combat” payment, each of them was supposed to transfer 40 thousand hryvnias to the commander.
SBU says that if the soldier refused to pay the "tribute," the detained battalion commander threatened to send him "to zero point". In this way, he received 920 000 hryvnias in March 2025 alone.
According to the investigation, the battalion commander hoped to receive another such amount in April. But he didnʼt have time — he was caught red-handed while handing him a bribe.
The detainee was informed of suspicion of receiving unlawful benefit, combined with extortion. He is currently in custody with the option of bail of 49 million hryvnias. He faces up to 10 years in prison with confiscation of property.
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