Dmytro Lubinets, the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, reported that he had received information about alleged torture, the establishment of detention facilities, and the driving of active-duty soldiers to suicide in the 425th Separate Assault Regiment “Skelia.” The ombudsman wrote about this on Facebook on Thursday, June 25.
Lubinets emphasized that he is conducting an urgent investigation into possible violations of the rights of service members in the 425th Separate Assault Regiment “Skelia.” According to him, the Military Law Enforcement Service is already working to clarify the circumstances following a working meeting with Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi.
“I am not ignoring this. My position is clear: any human rights violations, especially under martial law, are unacceptable and require an immediate response. Therefore, I have urgently appealed to the State Bureau of Investigations and the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for Defense Matters, demanding a full, objective, and impartial investigation,” the ombudsman emphasized.
In addition, a monitoring group from the Office of the Ombudsman of Ukraine is heading to the site today to conduct an inspection.
Photo: facebook/dmytro.lubinets
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, on June 24, the State Bureau of Investigation entered the information into the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations and launched an investigation following media reports of alleged torture and deaths of conscripts in the “Skelia” assault regiment.
As a reminder, five servicemen from the 425th Separate Assault Regiment “Skelia” in the Ivano-Frankivsk Region died in March 2026 shortly after being mobilized. Some of them had served for less than two weeks, and relatives of several of the deceased reported signs of beatings on the bodies and contacted law enforcement.
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