The commander of the 425th Separate Assault Regiment Skala of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has been suspended for the duration of an investigation launched after reports of torture within the unit and numerous deaths among soldiers unrelated to combat. The Ukrainian General Staff announced this on June 25.
Skala is described as the largest assault regiment in the Ukrainian military, with about 13,000 personnel. The unit is not part of any corps and reports directly to the top military command. It has repeatedly fought in some of the hardest sectors of the front, including the areas of Izium, Bakhmut, Avdiivka, and Pokrovsk.
The investigation followed a report published by the outlet Babel on June 23. Citing current and former service members as well as relatives of the dead, it said that from late 2025 through the spring of 2026, at least 25 recruits in the regiment died from officially non-combat causes. Official records listed pneumonia and cardiovascular disease as the causes of death for the men, who were between 31 and 53 years old.
Relatives of the dead said some bodies showed signs of beatings and that medical assistance was provided too late. According to the report, families sometimes learned of the deaths only after the fact, while the circumstances remained unclear or contradictory. Babel’s sources also alleged systematic beatings and humiliating punishments used inside the regiment as a means of enforcing discipline.
The report further said that soldiers’ movement was restricted and that the perimeter around tent camps and dugouts at training centers had been mined. It also alleged that people with drug addiction and mental illnesses were actively recruited for service, while not receiving needed medical care.
The regiment rejected the accusations, saying that 18 of the deaths mentioned had occurred not inside the unit but in hospitals or on the way there, and were “actually connected with illnesses or the generally poor health of mobilized men.”
Skala representative Andriy Surai told Radio Liberty that two of the deaths described by Babel are indeed under investigation, and that one suspect is in custody. Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation has opened a pre-trial inquiry, while the Ground Forces command said it is keeping the matter under control. Military ombudswoman Olha Reshetylova said her office had identified a group of Skala instructors abusing soldiers at training grounds as early as June 2025, but the investigation into them has still produced no concrete results.