Riumshyn charged with 630 cases of AWOL, although most of time he was on training courses and business trips, - lawyer
The former commander of the 155th Brigade, Dmytro Riumshin, is accused of failing to report facts of military crimes to the State Bureau of Investigation.
This was revealed in an interview with Censor.NET by the colonel's lawyer, Andrii Yosypov.
"When he was notified of the charges on 20 January this year, 630 such facts were listed. These cases were taken from the entire period of his tenure, from February to December 2024. Two-thirds of this time he was on business trips to Poland and France, as well as studying at university. When going on a business trip, the commander of a military unit issues an order appointing a temporary acting commander. At different times, these were different people: once it was Mr Kosovskyi, another time it was Mr Zinoviev. Accordingly, these individuals are granted powers to respond to offences, i.e. to report to the State Bureau of Investigations on cases of unauthorised leaving of the military unit," explained the defence lawyer.
According to Yosypov, of all 630 cases of AWOL during the period when the unit was headed by acting officials, 449 cases were recorded. And only 161 occurred while Riumshyn himself was in office.
"In order to classify a crime as a crime under Article 426, there must be intent. A person must be clearly aware of why he or she is doing it and that his or her actions are illegal. And when we talk about direct intent, the motive and purpose of the crime must be established. What exactly prompted the person to commit such actions, and what goals did he or she pursue in doing so? And now, when we return to the 161 cases that occurred while Riumshyn was directly in command of the unit, in order to call each of them a crime, all these components must be established - separately for each of them. After all, if in the case of a military serviceman, for example, Petrenko, Fedorchenko or anyone else, the motive, purpose and, accordingly, intent are not established, then it is no longer possible to speak of a crime. And then the number decreases to zero. If there is no intent, there is no crime. The same story applies to significant damage," the defence lawyer emphasised.
The investigation claims, the lawyer noted, that Riumshyn failed to fulfil his duty to send such reports to the State Bureau of Investigation while acting as acting head.
"Yesterday (11 September - Ed.) at the court hearing, I quoted the provisions of the Charter on sole authority, etc. Who is the senior commander of the acting commander? Not the commander who is on a business trip, but the command of the "West" OC. So whose responsibility was it to monitor this?!" he says.
If we are talking about the duty that Riumshyn should have performed, it must be stipulated either in the Statute or in some other job descriptions. But not in individual acts of action - orders, directives, instructions, etc., explained the defence lawyer.
"Why? We have a separate article in the Administrative Code that provides for liability for failure to comply with a lawful request or order from a commander. That is, if you say that we did not comply with an order in some respect, then what exactly? What document imposed on us the duty to monitor the acting commander so that he would send a notification to the SBI? Show us the provision of the Statute, the instructions, or any other document that obliges Riumshyn, after or during his time in France, to pick up the phone and ask: ‘Kosovskyi, report, have you sent a notification to the SBI?’ There is no such document that would impose such an obligation on him. Accordingly, in principle, there is no need to answer the following questions: whether he had a real opportunity to do so, what the consequences would be, and so on," the defence lawyer concluded.
Read the full text of the interview with former commander of the 155th Brigade Dmytro Riumshyn and his lawyer Andrii Yosypov at the link.
The situation in the 155th Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the case against its commander, Colonel Riumshyn
As a reminder, on 1 January 2025, Censor.NET editor-in-chief Yurii Butusov outlined a number of facts about the circumstances of the formation and functioning of the 155th mechanised brigade "Anna Kyivska", which entered the battle near Pokrovsk and suffered significant losses there.
According to him, the 155th Brigade faced a number of problems: 1,700 soldiers left the brigade without permission before the first battle, the brigade commander was fired immediately after the battle, and one of the brigade's leaders died of a heart attack.
Butusov conducted a lengthy investigation to find out what exactly led to the significant losses of brigade personnel and equipment and massive AWOL.
In October, the 155th Brigade left for training in France. 1924 servicemen were sent there, of whom only 51 had more than a year of military service experience, 459 had up to a year of experience, and the majority, 1414, had just enlisted and served for less than 2 months, about 150 were sent to France even without undergoing the BGMT. About 50 military brigades fled to France.
The editor-in-chief of Censor.NET also reports that the brigade was not provided with the necessary weapons. In particular, the brigade has not received a single drone from the state to carry out combat missions. Also, according to Butusov, there were no electronic warfare equipment. The brigade was supplied by volunteers. In addition, all the 120 mm mortar shells produced by the Ministry of Strategic Industries that were given to the brigade were defective.
On 2 January, it became known that the State Bureau of Investigation had launched an investigation into the massive AWOL in the 155th "Anna Kyivska" Brigade following media reports. In turn, the French Ministry of Defence did not comment on the information that the 155th "Anna Kyivska" Brigade, trained by the French Armed Forces, was the subject of an investigation in Ukraine.
Also in early January, the results of a meeting of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief's Staff regarding the 155th Brigade "Anna Kyivska" became known.
On 5 January, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Syrskyi, promised to increase the capabilities of the 155th Brigade and admitted that there were problems that needed to be addressed.
The editor-in-chief of Censor.NET, Yurii Butusov, said that the formation of new brigades without their support was a gross mistake that was costly for the country.
On 20 January 2025, the former commander of the 155th Brigade, Riumshyn, was detained by the SSU. And on 22 January, the Pecherskyi District Court of Kyiv imposed a bail of UAH 90 million on him.
On 6 February, the Kyiv Court of Appeal left Riumshyn in custody. The court refused to release him on bail, instead reducing the bail from UAH 90 million to UAH 50 million.
On 11 June, the court remanded Riumshyn in custody until 20 July and reduced his bail to UAH 27 million.
On 4 September, the Pecherskyi District Court of Kyiv reduced the bail for the former commander of the 155th Brigade, Dmytro Riumshyn, from UAH 22.7 million to UAH 14.9 million.
On 11 September, the court reduced the bail to 10 million hryvnias, leaving Riumshin in custody.
