Skelia Regiment comes under operational command of Azov Corps – spokesperson Bratushchak
The 425th Separate Assault Regiment Skelia is coming under the operational command of the Azov Corps.
Oleksii Bratushchak, spokesperson and head of the communications section of the 425th Separate Assault Regiment Skelia, announced this during journalist Iryna Romaliiska’s broadcast on the Butusov Plus channel, Censor.NET reports.
Carrying out missions under Azov’s command
"Judging by what we are seeing now, the aim is to bring together all our scattered battalions, the so-called company tactical groups and composite detachments, so that we can subsequently carry out missions in a single sector of the front. As of now, we are carrying out a combat order under the operational command of the Azov Corps. Not all our units have yet been placed under the operational command of this corps," Bratushchak said.
He noted that this concerned operational subordination rather than incorporation into the Azov Corps.
"We are not becoming part of Azov’s structure, but the Azov Corps will exercise operational command," Bratushchak added.
Allegations against "Skelia"
- 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."
- The 425th Separate Assault Regiment Skelia confirms the deaths of 25 recruits.
- Information about two thousand drug-addicted servicemen in the 425th Separate Assault Regiment Skelia is untrue.
- Skelia also commented on the new information from the Babel publication about seven more of its servicemen who died during basic military training. The command emphasized that they are trying to "reduce to zero" non-combat losses.
