After journalistic investigations into the abuse of mobilized personnel, the assault regiments of the Land Forces suspended the recruitment of new recruits into their units. This applies in particular to the "Skelya" regiment.
Ukrainian Pravda (UP) was the first to write about this, and the information was confirmed in a comment to Babel by the presiding officer of the "Skelya" regiment Oleksiy Bratushchak.
UP, citing sources, writes that the assault regiments received an order from Commander-in-Chief Mykhailo Drapaty from July 26 to stop supplying people to the assault troops.
According to Bratuschak, "Skelya" suspended recruiting new recruits three days ago.
"We understand why this happened. The General Staff has begun checking the manning of military units and the fairness of the distribution of people in the Armed Forces in general. We welcome such an initiative and are ready, for our part, to comprehensively assist and respond to the challenges facing the army at the current stage," says Bratuschak.
At the same time, Babelʼs interlocutors in the General Staff claim that they did not give any official orders to stop the replenishment of assault regiments.
Our interlocutor also added that the General Staff and the Commander-in-Chief are now carefully checking journalistsʼ information about the abuse of military personnel.
"Investigation procedures have been initiated, there is no tolerance for crimes and violence against military personnel," noted Babelʼs interlocutor.
What preceded
On June 23, Babel published a major investigation into torture in 425 Skelya military training camp and 25 deaths of mobilized personnel over the past six months. After that, inspections began in the regiment, and commander Yuriy Harkavy was suspended from duty. Later, we counted at least 7 more such deaths, more details about their circumstances in the news.
After the Babel material, the State Bureau of Investigation launched a pre-trial investigation. The regiment is staffed by 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. On June 24, the commander of the 425th regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Yuriy Harkavy, was suspended from duty for the duration of the inspection.
And a month later, on July 30, Texts published an investigation into the situation in the 225th separate assault regiment. The mediaʼs interlocutors spoke about systematic beatings, torture, and barricade detachments in the regiment.
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