Investigators of the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) will provide a proper legal assessment of the actions of all heads of the 425th separate assault regiment Skelya within the framework of the investigation, and statements from journalists regarding possible unlawful actions will also not remain without attention, SBI Director Oleksiy Sukhachov has said.
In an exclusive interview with the Interfax-Ukraine agency, Sukhachov said that the SBI would appeal to the Prosecutor General's Office to combine the criminal proceedings underway in the Poltava territorial administration of the SBI based on victims' complaints with the proceeding being investigated by the SBI Central Apparatus.
Answering a question whether the SBI, after combining the cases, would consider all the cited facts of non-combat deaths in Skelya as a single scheme, Sukhachov said: "Yes, and we will assess the actions of each commander... the actions of all leaders of the unit."
"In this situation, there may also be a certain silencing. We have positive reviews about the commander of Skelya, but this does not mean that there were no problems in the unit," Sukhachov added.
Speaking about whether the legality of the actions of Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Center (TRC) and MEC (Military Medical Commission) employees who found drug-dependent people or those on substitution therapy fit for service would be determined during the investigation, the SBI director noted that the question is rather not for the TRC, because recruitment centers only refer a person to military medical commissions.
At the same time, Sukhachov emphasized: "We will check for each fact how the diagnoses were determined in the medical documents. At the same time, I will immediately note that it is not always recorded in the medical documents when exactly a person became drug-dependent – before passing the MEC or already after."
Comments on the expression of public threats against a Babel journalist, Sukhachov noted that the SBI had received an official report on this.
"We registered criminal proceedings and will check this information, communicate directly with the media representative, the military, because pressure and threats are unacceptable," the SBI director emphasized.
Sukhachov also noted that he took under personal control the verification of information published by the producer of the British television channel Sky News in Ukraine, Azad Safarov, regarding the shooting at a film crew's car during filming at Skelya.
As reported, in June, the Babel outlet published an investigation into the 425th separate assault regiment Skelya. According to the publication, from the end of 2025 to the spring of 2026, at least 25 people died among the recruits of the 425th separate assault regiment Skelya, and these are deaths not resulting from combat operations. Relatives of some of the deceased claim untimely medical assistance and possible violence.
Immediately after the publication, the SBI reported that it had started a pre-trial investigation into the facts published in the media regarding possible unlawful actions against servicemen of the 425th separate assault regiment Skelya.
SBI investigators entered the relevant data into the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations under Part 5 of Article 426-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – excess of authority or official powers by a military official, committed under martial law, which caused severe consequences.
Later, the General Staff of the AFU informed the Interfax-Ukraine agency that the commander of the 425th separate assault regiment Skelya Yuriy Harkavy had been suspended from his duties for the duration of checks and investigations in connection with the information published in the media.
The head of the civil-military cooperation group of the 425th separate assault regiment Skelya Andriy Suray confirmed the facts of deaths among the recruits and noted that a check is underway regarding each case.
"We can accurately confirm that we had the mentioned servicemen who were allegedly beaten. We confirm that they committed a crime called unauthorized abandonment of the unit. We also confirm the deaths of 25 out of 26, because we were never able to identify one person," he said at an online press conference.
Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrsky called the story published in the media about the deaths of servicemen in the 425th separate assault regiment Skelya shameful and blamed it on individuals whose actions devalue the achievements of both the regiment itself and the assault troops as a whole.
"There must be openness, as far as possible, because such cases cannot be silenced – they must be reacted to immediately in accordance with the law, in a lawful way. On one hand, not to create hysteria around this regiment, because the regiment is a combat one, it has traditions that arose, which were created during the war, it fights in the most difficult areas of the front, servicemen of this regiment have repeatedly shown examples of courage, steadfastness, heroism, bravery in the performance of combat missions. And the combat path of this regiment cannot be distorted as a result of the actions of these individual criminals who cast a shadow on both the regiment and the Land Forces in general, and on the Armed Forces, on the assault troops," Syrsky said in an interview with TSN.
Sky News producer Azad Safarov said on social media that in March 2025, an unknown person shot at point-blank range at a car from the driver's side of the film crew of the British TV channel Sky News, which was located near the command and observation post of the 425th separate assault regiment Skelya in the Dobropillia area of the Donetsk region. There were 12 bullet holes left in the car.
