Court has ordered detention without bail of two soldiers from "Skelia" regiment who are suspected of torturing their fellow soldiers

Two soldiers from the medical unit of the "Skelia" Regiment were taken into custody

A court in Kropyvnytskyi has remanded two soldiers from the medical company of the "Skelia" regiment into custody for 60 days without the right to bail; the State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) suspects them of torturing and cruelly mistreating their fellow soldiers.

According to Censor.NET, citing Ukrinform, this was reported by Olha Protsenko, spokesperson for the Mykolaiv Territorial Office of the State Bureau of Investigations.

"The Fortechnyi District Court of Kropyvnytskyi ordered that both suspects be held in custody for 60 days without the right to post bail," Protsenko said.

Charges against "Skelya"

On 23 June, the publication ‘Babel’ reported that between the end of 2025 and the spring of 2026, at least 26 recruits from the 425th Separate Assault Regiment ‘Skelia’ had died. Journalists reported that most of the men who died had not even spent a month in the regiment. The official cause of death in most cases was pneumonia.
For this report, the journalists interviewed over 30 witnesses. One of them, Oleksandr Zhykin, spoke about ‘The Chicken Coop’ — the informal name for ‘Skelia’s’ sorting centre, which is the first location for newly arrived conscripts. He ended up there after being issued with an AWOL whilst he was out collecting tablets for substitution therapy for drug addiction.
Another anonymous interviewee spoke of the punishment cells to which soldiers were sent for refusing to carry out various orders.
For its part, the "Skelia" regiment commented on the non-combat deaths of recruits and assured its cooperation with the investigation. "Skelia" believes that the authors of the article are making "generalisations that reduce the unit’s history to isolated tragic incidents". The regiment maintains that 18 of the 26 deaths mentioned in the report occurred in hospital or en route to hospital, and that the causes were linked to "illnesses or the generally poor state of health of the conscripts".
Previously, the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) had already announced that it had launched an inquiry into alleged violations within ‘Skelia’, which are being investigated as abuses of power or official authority committed under martial law, resulting in serious consequences.
A monitoring group from the Ombudsman’s Office has stated that it will travel to the site to verify information regarding the possible torture of servicemen in the 425th Separate Assault Regiment "Skelia".
The 425th Separate Assault Regiment ‘Skelia’ has confirmed that 25 recruits have died.
Reports of 2,000 drug-addicted servicemen in the 425th Separate Assault Regiment "Skelia" are untrue.
"Skelia" has also commented on new information published by "Babel" regarding a further seven of its servicemen who died during basic general military training. The command emphasised that it is striving to "reduce to zero" non-combat casualties.