The SBI detained two soldiers from the “Skala” regiment for torturing and unlawfully holding fellow servicemembers

The State Bureau of Investigations has announced suspicion charges against two servicemembers of the medical company of the 425th Separate Assault Regiment “Skala,” who beat and unlawfully detained two of their fellow soldiers in Kirovohrad Oblast.

This was reported by the SBI press service.

According to investigators, in May two soldiers from the regiment were discharged from a hospital for violating its rules and sent to the unit’s medical section. There, the suspects decided to punish them on their own for the breach of order: they inflicted numerous blows on the victims, then locked them in a utility building and continued to abuse them.

One of the victims lost consciousness and was hospitalized with a traumatic brain injury, a broken nasal bone, and other bodily injuries. The second was unlawfully held for nearly another day before also being taken to a hospital — with a traumatic brain injury, numerous bruises, and hematomas.

Both individuals in the case have been detained. They have been served with suspicion notices for torture and violation of statutory rules governing relations between servicemembers, accompanied by beating and abuse of several persons. Each faces up to 10 years in prison. The question of selecting a preventive measure in the form of pre-trial detention is being resolved. The pre-trial investigation is ongoing.

As part of the same proceedings, SBI investigators are separately examining reports of possible mistreatment of servicemembers at distribution and training locations within the regiment.

Earlier, in June, a high-profile journalistic investigation into torture and deaths at “Skala” was published. Journalists subsequently also established that servicemembers in the unit were killed for attempting to go AWOL.