The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrsky commented on the Babel investigation into deaths and torture in the 425th Assault Regiment "Skelya".
In an interview with TSN, he called the situation a "shameful story" that should not exist in the army of a country at war.
The commander-in-chief said that the cases mentioned in the Babel investigation were investigated in the regiment this winter. The checks were then carried out by the Military Law and Order Service, the Military Ombudsman, and various commissions.
According to Syrsky, several criminal cases have already been opened against the "Skelya" regiment, which are currently under investigation. The command then believed that after the inspections, the "negative phenomena" in "Skelya" had been eliminated — the regiment commander reported that conclusions had been drawn, measures had been taken against the violators, and people who discredited the unit or were undesirable in the regiment were transferred to other units.
After new materials about violence and death appeared in "Skelya", a comprehensive commission was sent to the regiment, which included officers from various structures of the General Staff and the Military Law Enforcement Service.
The commission is headed by one of the deputy chiefs of the General Staff, Brigadier General Oleksandr Shevchenko, whom Syrsky called an experienced officer.
He added that the commission was given specific tasks: to check all possible places where violations could have occurred, inspect the landfills, and also establish the real whereabouts of people who had previously committed offenses.
"We will do everything to ensure that all these cases are exposed and all violators, depending on what violations they committed, are punished," the commander-in-chief emphasized.
According to him, if it concerns criminal offenses, the perpetrators should be held criminally liable. If it concerns disciplinary violations, appropriate disciplinary measures should be applied.
Legal decisions regarding the regimentʼs leadership will be made after the commissions complete their work.
Deaths and torture in the "Skelya" regiment
On June 23, Babel published a major investigation into the situation in the 425th Assault Regiment "Skelya", which is unofficially also called the "Syrsky Regiment" — it is not part of any corps, but directly subordinates to the higher command.
Journalist Kateryna Lykhohliad interviewed more than 30 witnesses, mostly relatives of those mobilized to "Skel", as well as a dozen soldiers from the regiment who escaped or are still serving there.
The journalist counted 25 deaths in the regimentʼs training centers over the past six months, the official cause of most of which was pneumonia, and also described cases of torture and abuse of those undergoing training.
After the publication of the material, the State Bureau of Investigation began an inspection of the regiment. A mission of the Ombudsmanʼs Office and a comprehensive commission headed by the Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are also working there. For the duration of the inspections, the commander of "Skelya", Lieutenant Colonel Yuriy Harkavy, was suspended from duty.
Meanwhile, a soldier of the “Skelya” regiment Mykola “Kyianyn” Kharkhan recorded a video threatening Babel. He called the journalist who prepared the investigation into the deaths and torture in the regiment a “journalist whore”, and the publication Babel a “Russian-style publication” working for [Russian] money.
The “Skelya” communications officer Oleksiy Bratushchak said that threats against journalists were unacceptable, but that servicemen also had the right to freedom of speech.
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