More than 20 non-combat deaths among recruits have been recorded in ’Skelia’ regiment over past six months, - media
Between late 2025 and spring 2026, at least 26 recruits from the 425th Separate Assault Regiment ‘Skelia’ died.
According to Censor.NET, this is reported in an article published by "Babel".
Details
According to media reports, the regiment is quite large, with up to 13,000 soldiers.
Journalists reported that most of the men who died had not been with the regiment for even a month. The official cause of death was, in most cases, pneumonia.
At the same time, the families of the deceased have spoken of delays in receiving medical care and possible acts of violence.
The journalists also provide a list of those who have died: Volodymyr Tsukanov, aged 32; Dmytro Koval, aged 50; Vitalii Saltan, aged 34; Oleksandr Semenov, aged 35; Maksym Skipa, aged 37; Oleksandr Isaiev, aged 42; Serhii Chernoivan, aged 36; Serhii Tabatskyi, aged 38; Vadym Polivanyi, aged 49; Dmytro Shkoliarskyi, aged 34; Serhii Holubov, aged 41; Andrii Cherednichenko; Oleksandr Kovalenko, aged 32; Viacheslav Hekalo, aged 37; Dmytro Ivanchenko, aged 42; Roman Kozharko, aged 45; Denis Bagriy-Shakhmatov, aged 38; Vitalii Karat, aged 38; Vasyl Voychuk, aged 52; Vasyl Tsyrko, aged 41; Yaroslav Mokriy, aged 53; Petro Danyltsiv, aged 52; Vyacheslav Borisov, aged 31; Vitalii Batura, aged 43; Ivan Terentiiev, aged 46; Volodymyr Belas, aged 47.
What are people saying in the regiment?
Andriy Suray, head of the ‘Skelia’ civil-military cooperation group, does not deny that incidents of violence do occur within the regiment, but insists that this is not systemic: "Is there a problem where people who need to carry out a task and ensure it is completed by someone who is unwilling to do so resort to methods that are not in accordance with regulations? Well, of course there is. It happens everywhere. Are we tackling it? Yes, of course. That said, no one has ever set anyone the task of [beating people up]."
Statement by the Office of the Military Ombudsman
Widespread complaints about ‘The Rock’ began to emerge in late 2025.
In early 2025, the 425th Separate Assault Battalion was expanded to regimental strength.
"However, ‘The Rock’ is now considerably larger than a regiment. Citing its large size, they claim that the 26 deaths recorded by ‘Babel’ are not many. However, this figure is merely what the editorial team managed to gather; the regiment does not disclose its actual losses at the training grounds. Meanwhile, the Office of the Military Ombudsman states that there have been more deaths in the regiment. When comparing ‘Skelia’ with other units, the 425th Special Forces Regiment also tops the list," the article states.
In terms of the number of complaints from military personnel – of which there are currently over 9,000 at the Office – ‘Skelia’ also tops the list, accounting for 5.1 per cent of complaints. However, this does not relate solely to the training centres, but to the regiment as a whole.
Military Ombudswoman Olga Reshetilova says that there are many capable officers in ‘Skelia’.
"And whilst there is a barrage of hate directed at ‘The Rock’ on social media — very often deserved — these people are carrying out extremely complex tasks across nine different areas today. That is the truth," she noted.
In her view, the commander-in-chief’s idea of setting up assault units is the right one; they carry out critically important tasks:
"The only problem is that we simply won’t be able to keep them under control on such a scale, especially if we set up a separate branch of the armed forces. The Military Ombudsman’s Office certainly won’t be enough. We’re already living there, in the assault regiments."
Reshetilova believes that such units should be set up in every corps so that the corps commander can monitor what is happening there and take responsibility for it.
