Skelia regiment confirms 25 of 26 cases of non-combat deaths of recruits but says it does not know their circumstances
The 425th Separate Assault Regiment "Skelia" confirms the deaths of 25 recruits.
This was stated during an online conference by Andrii Surai, head of the regiment's civil-military cooperation group, Censor.NET reports.
Confirmed deaths
"We confirm 25 of the 26 deaths, because we were unable to identify one person. One person on this list has nothing to do with our regiment and was never our serviceman, either directly or under our command," he said.
According to the serviceman, another recruit had been seconded from Skelia to the training center of another military unit.
"This person fell ill there, was transferred to a hospital, and died there. Therefore, we can say that, indeed, 24 deaths have been recorded in the Skelia regiment, as stated in the publication (Babel - ed.). These are the facts that we can confirm with 100% certainty. Any value judgments or someone's testimony must be checked. Commissions are working, and proceedings have been opened. I think they will better determine to what extent this corresponded to reality," Surai emphasized.
He also noted that if an investigation establishes facts of Skelia servicemen exceeding their duties, they will face lawful punishment.
Background
- On June 23, Babel reported that from the end of 2025 to spring 2026, at least 26 recruits of the 425th Separate Assault Regiment Skelia had died. The journalists said most of the men who died had not spent even a month in the regiment. The official cause of death in most cases was pneumonia.
- For the article, journalists interviewed more than 30 witnesses. One of them, Oleksandr Zhykin, spoke about the "Kuriatnyk," the informal name of Skelia's distribution point, which is the first location for newly arrived mobilized men. The man ended up there after he was registered as absent without leave when he went to get pills for substitution therapy for drug addiction.
- Another anonymous source spoke about punishment cells where servicemen were sent for refusing to carry out various orders.
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For its part, the Skelia Regiment commented on the non-combat deaths of recruits and assured that it was cooperating with the investigation. Skelia believes that the authors of the article make "generalizations that reduce the history of the unit to individual tragic cases." The regiment claims that 18 of the 26 deaths mentioned in the article occurred in the hospital or on the way there, and that their causes were related to "illnesses or the generally poor health of the mobilized men."
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Earlier, the SBI had already announced that it had launched a check into alleged violations in Skelia, which are being investigated as abuse of authority or official powers committed under martial law and causing grave consequences.
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A monitoring group from the Ombudsman’s Office said it would go to the site to verify information about possible torture of servicemen in the 425th Separate Assault Regiment "Skelia."
