Abuse in the 211th Brigade: Complaints have been received since September, according to the Ombudsman.

The Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, commented on the scandal surrounding the events in the 211th Brigade of the Support Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on December 17 in Kharkiv.

“The legal reaction on my part has already been made public, including publicly. Urgent legal response acts have been sent, that is, documents from me to the military law enforcement service, to the law enforcement sector, and to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, where I demand an urgent transparent investigation and, in case of confirmation of these facts, bringing to criminal responsibility. I personally observed the response of the spokesperson of the Ministry of Defense yesterday. In my opinion, the facts... As I have learned, there were appeals as early as September of this year regarding this situation. We are currently verifying not only the fact that has come to our attention, but also what the reaction was to previous reports,” Lubinets stated at a briefing in Kharkiv, as reported by the correspondent of MG “Obektiv.”

Additionally, the ombudsman informed that this year there has been a significant number of appeals from active servicemen regarding violations of their rights.

“About 4000. And for each issue, we provided a legal response. The most common concerns violations of leave rights, violations related to the payment of one-time assistance associated with injuries. There were also appeals regarding illegal actions by commanders,” Lubinets listed.

It is worth noting that on December 16, the Ternopil Specialized Prosecutor's Office in the field of defense opened a criminal case against the command of the 211th pontoon-bridge brigade of the Support Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Officers of the brigade are suspected of exceeding their official powers, including the use of physical violence and extorting money from subordinates. The brigade commander has separately been notified of suspicion of abuse of office.

“It has been established that in the fall of 2023, he involved four subordinates in the construction of his house in Khmelnytskyi region, instead of their service in combat zones. The soldiers were officially included in the order for deployment to Mykolaiv region, where they supposedly fulfilled their duties, but in reality, they were not present there. At the same time, they received salaries and combat payments totaling about one million hryvnias,” the press service of the Prosecutor General's Office reported.

A major investigation into non-statutory relationships in the brigade was published by the publication “Ukrainian Truth”. In particular, journalists reported instances of tying soldiers to a cross, beatings for refusing to pay bribes, and using soldiers for personal purposes by the leadership.

“By the decision of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, a commission from the Military Law Enforcement Service of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has been sent to the military unit to verify the information provided. During the investigation, the commander of the military unit has been suspended from performing official duties,” — responded to numerous media reports the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

They also noted that a service check regarding certain facts related to the situation in the 211th brigade was already conducted in September. The materials collected during this check were forwarded to the "competent authorities," where a criminal case was initiated.