achieve: https://ghostarchive.org/archive/GGvo1

Translation:

"Commanders, attention. Regarding friendlies, let me remind you — there are no friendlies. The only thing that exists is a specific radio request: 'permission to move.' Everything else is the enemy. Anyone moving is the enemy. Anyone running from their positions is a deserter — they're also the enemy. Follow this rule. As for friendlies, anyone fleeing without authorization... And, damn it, hold your lines, because otherwise you can keep retreating all the way to Kyiv. So: cancel any retreat, damn it."

Author: Anna Kaliuzhna, specially for Texty.org.ua. Editor: Inna Hadzynska.

In this audio recording, a person whose voice matches that of Major Oleh Shyriaiev, commander of the 225th Separate Assault Regiment (225th SAR), instructs his subordinates to open fire on Ukrainian servicemembers retreating from their positions without orders.

In response to the author's inquiry, Shyriaiev explained the order as follows: "It concerned the rules for the movement of personnel from different units and methods of coordination to identify friendly forces. During the war, the enemy often disguises itself in Ukrainian uniforms and impersonates members of the Defense Forces." The regiment's full response regarding the events described in this article is provided below.

Our sources allege that:

personnel in the 225th SAR are threatened with execution and, in some cases, fired upon by their own side;

between assaults, soldiers are held under prison-like conditions;

those deemed to have "committed offenses" are thrown into "pits," tied to the "tree of truth," and severely beaten.

Throughout 2025 and 2026, while all of this was allegedly taking place, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi continued to strengthen the regiment's position by assigning more and more units under its command.

The author spent six months gathering material for this investigation and decided to publish it after exhausting all acceptable non-public avenues for bringing these issues to the attention of law enforcement and oversight authorities on behalf of the victims.

The investigation is based on interviews with several dozen people: current soldiers of the 225th SAR, former soldiers currently absent without leave and in hiding, personnel from neighboring and attached units, and relatives of missing servicemembers.

We hope that the new Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and the acting Minister of Defense will not leave this issue without attention.

The author has reported from nearly every major frontline hotspot since February 24, 2022, and emphasizes that this kind of treatment of personnel has only been documented in certain individual units and is not standard practice in the Ukrainian military. About the 225th Regiment and its commander

The 225th Separate Assault Regiment is an assault regiment of the Ukrainian Ground Forces, expanded on the initiative and with the support of Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi.

It began as a company within the separate battalion of the 127th Kharkiv Territorial Defense Brigade, where it fought during the early stages of the full-scale invasion in 2022.

In 2023, the unit fought near Bakhmut. Major Oleh Shyriaiev, now its commander, was appointed battalion commander. The regiment later fought near Makiivka, Avdiivka, and Chasiv Yar. Alongside airborne brigades, it participated in crossing the Russian border during the Kursk operation. Following that campaign, Shyriaiev was awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine.

After the Kursk operation concluded, the 225th became the primary unit leading offensive operations into Russia's Belgorod region. It is currently holding positions near Huliaipole in Zaporizhzhia Oblast.

According to Babel, the 225th Regiment ranks second only to the Skelia Regiment in the number of complaints submitted to the Office of the Military Ombudsman, accounting for 3.1% of the 9,000 complaints received by the office.

Before the full-scale war, Oleh Shyriaiev, callsign "Sirko," headed the NGO Eastern Corps, which later became the basis for an Interior Ministry special-purpose company and subsequently the Kharkiv branch of the Azov Civil Corps. Eastern Corps participated in the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO), including in Mariupol.

In 2018, Shyriaiev was suspected of organizing the armed takeover of a grain elevator in Kharkiv Oblast. The case is currently pending before the court.

He later became an associate of pro-Russian OPZZh MP Illia Kyva and headed the party's security wing, the Patriots – For Life organization.

He returned to military service in 2022. "Pits," beatings, and death threats

Autumn 2025 – Winter 2026, Huliaipole

Roman Bedei was mobilized in the summer of 2025 despite being legally exempt because he was caring for his seriously ill mother. He completed basic military training in Germany. From the distribution center, he was assigned to the 225th Regiment. He says he asked a Marine recruiter about the unit he had hoped to join.

"He silently waved his hand in a gesture that basically meant 'you're done for.' That really crushed me," the soldier recalls.

Roman says that even the cooks at the distribution center, after learning his unit number, advised him to run away. He refused, although other newly mobilized men did flee.

In the autumn of 2025, after a week of unit integration training, Bedei was deployed to Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Syrskyi urgently redeployed the regiment there to stabilize the situation around Huliaipole.

Within weeks, Roman's group repelled several assaults. He was wounded in the arm. Two of his comrades were also wounded. Despite this, while evacuating they still managed to capture a Russian prisoner.

Roman was sent for treatment, and his mother received a certificate honoring her son's bravery from Valentyn Manko, then head of the Assault Units Directorate.

"For your son, who displayed courage, fortitude, and unwavering determination under the most difficult combat conditions... Your son is a Hero," the certificate reads.

Roman continued his treatment at a hospital near his home. He was discharged as "improved," not "recovered." He says the treatment was incomplete, as numbness and pain in his arm remained.

The regiment demanded that he immediately return to the front in eastern Ukraine, but he refused, unsuccessfully seeking rehabilitation and combat pay. Two weeks after leaving the hospital, he was detained by the Military Law Enforcement Service for unauthorized absence without leave and was prepared for transfer back east.

"I said I wasn't refusing to serve in my brigade. I was refusing to become an AWOL soldier and an unpaid fighter," Roman says.

He was sent back to the 225th Regiment.

He recalls that one of the men traveling with him on the bus begged to be assigned to any other brigade.

"When they told him we were being taken to the 225th, he dropped to his knees on the bus and started crying. He begged them to call the SBI and sentence him to 15 years in prison — anywhere but there. The others told him to be a man. He replied, 'Shut up. You have no idea what goes on there. They rape people with a stick.' I never saw anything like that myself, but it still made me worried."

The escorts promised they would send them to another brigade simply to calm them down.

They were first taken to a holding location in Kharkiv. Around 40 people were crammed into a basement designed for 20. There was no room to sit or lie down and no toilet. Everything had to be done in plastic bags.

"There was even a female service member with us. Even prisons separate men and women," Roman says.

That same evening they were taken to the regiment's main base in eastern Ukraine, where new recruits are trained and undergo unit integration.

According to soldiers from the unit, the base is surrounded by barbed wire, guarded by security posts with dogs. If someone escapes, "internal security" or "rapid response" teams on ATVs with dogs are sent to track them down.

Soldiers do not have free access to their phones. Based on multiple accounts, the conditions are similar to those described at the Skelia training ground.

Those who have been there describe an oppressive atmosphere.

"A soldier bursts into the dugout with his hands cuffed behind his back, falls to the ground, and other masked soldiers drag him away by the shoulders while carrying batons. When you see something like that in your very first hour there, you immediately understand where you've ended up," another soldier from the 225th Regiment says on condition of anonymity.

At this base, Roman and several other AWOL detainees were forced to sign statements saying they were "unaware that bank cards, money, and phones were confiscated in the 225th." In reality, at the very least, phones are confiscated.

They were then handcuffed again. Roman says that when he asked one of the escorts to be careful with his injured arm, the man deliberately pressed harder on the wound.

On the regiment's base, Roman was placed in a "pit." This is the informal name for a confined holding area where soldiers who had allegedly committed offenses were kept. Sometimes it was literally a pit with a cage; other times, it was a basement. According to our information, similar facilities exist at other regiment locations in Sumy and Zaporizhzhia oblasts. Other soldiers and their relatives provided similar accounts.

The commander of the 225th Separate Assault Regiment denies that such "pits" exist at the regiment's bases.

The "pit" where Roman and another soldier were held was a filthy room with traces of human waste. They arrived in the evening, and the following day everyone being held there was severely beaten.

"The door opened and three big men in masks burst in. They took the guy who was with me first. They handcuffed his hands behind his back, put a sack over his head, and took him into the woods. We could hear him screaming. They brought him back beaten, then took someone else. I was the third: sack over my head, hands behind my back," Roman recalls.

He says he accepts that soldiers can be punished for misconduct—even physically—but this went far beyond a simple beating.

"They were wearing combat boots. They kicked me while I was lying on the ground, pulled me up, I'd fall down, then they'd beat me again. My legs were so wrecked that I literally couldn't walk."

Afterward, Roman and two other men from his "pit" were taken to the front in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, where the unit was deployed.

Although Roman had never been convicted of any crime, after being charged with unauthorized absence he was assigned to the 225th Regiment's "Shkval" Battalion. According to our information, this is how the regiment treats so-called "penalty" personnel.

He says that in Zaporizhzhia the same commanders brutally beat another eight men who were about to be sent to the front. They were told it was punishment for leaving their positions without orders.

"There were these wooden beams, and they beat them so hard they broke one over a man's head," he recalls. "Those guys had already been beaten before—they were standing there with blue, swollen faces."

Roman says he asked the commanders why he had suddenly become "the enemy." He was outraged that they treated their own men more harshly than his group had treated Russian prisoners captured during an earlier mission.

Before a nighttime deployment to positions south of Huliaipole, the beaten soldiers were given painkillers. Roman says they did not help.

They were then issued equipment and sent to the front line.

Their vehicle came under fire immediately after reaching the drop-off point. Baron—the soldier whom, according to Roman, had a wooden beam broken over his head—and another serviceman stepped only a few paces before hitting mines. Baron was killed instantly. The second soldier was wounded and evacuated in an armored vehicle.

The rest continued toward their positions, although moving after the beatings was extremely difficult.

"My legs had been beaten so badly I couldn't step over the concertina wire. The guide, callsign Liutyi, was shouting from behind: 'Move! Keep moving! I've got orders to shoot anyone who doesn't keep going.'"

Roman says he heard death threats three times during the approach to the positions—from the guide and over the radio. He does not know the callsigns of those issuing the threats from the command post.

"All we ever heard from that command was swearing and threats. They pushed people into complete psychological paralysis... 'You fing idiot, if you don't make it there, we'll kill you ourselves, for f's sake.'"

The threats were directed over the radio at the commander of their group, callsign Boxer, while he was trying to contact the command post for navigation assistance.

By the time they were about half a kilometer from their positions, after coming under fire, four members of the group had already been killed. Everyone else, including Roman, was wounded.

"If they hadn't beaten me like that, maybe I wouldn't have been wounded—I could've stepped where I needed to. And if those other men hadn't been beaten, maybe they'd still be alive. We weren't moving carefully because they were rushing us," he says.

When command finally authorized what remained of the group to withdraw, Roman stayed in a trench with a wounded comrade who could not walk so they could wait for evacuation. Later, another wounded soldier from the next group—which had also been hit along the same route—joined them. The three men spent a week in that trench among the bodies of dead Russian soldiers.

"The neighboring unit gave us food and water—whatever they had. They also had two Russian prisoners. The prisoners ate the same food we did. I even said, 'Guys, you're being treated better than my own side treated me.'"

Roman says the neighboring soldiers were shocked that fellow Ukrainian troops had beaten them so severely. He asked to be evacuated by the neighboring brigade because he "was afraid that lawlessness would happen again. I kept one grenade for myself. Honestly, if they had pulled the same kind of lawlessness again... I don't know how it would have ended."

However, there was no room for them in the neighboring unit's evacuation vehicle, so the soldiers of the 225th Regiment had to make their way out on foot nearly a month after entering the position.

In total, they covered about 20 kilometers.

The healthier soldiers carried the one who could no longer walk. He later had both legs amputated in hospital.

An armored Kozak vehicle was waiting for them at the evacuation point.

"They filmed all of us on camera, recording everyone's injuries. I had to take off my pants to show that my leg had been torn apart. Everyone had to do it," Roman says.

After that, ambulances took them all to the hospital.

An officer from the 39th Marine Battalion, Boris (name changed), who fought in Sumy Oblast under the command of the 225th Regiment, also anonymously described the practice of making wounded soldiers undress and filming them.

According to him, this means the regiment's command—not medical personnel, as is standard elsewhere—decides who will be evacuated and who is expected to continue fighting.

He also alleged that the Shkval Battalion handled the evacuation of wounded personnel negligently.

"When our unit requested an evacuation, they said we cared too much about our people."

The day before he was due to be discharged from the hospital, Roman learned that members of his unit would come to take him back. Fearing he would be brutally beaten again, he fled the hospital and has now been absent without leave for more than three months.

After the beatings, his wounds, and frostbite suffered at the front, his legs began to go numb and swell. He says that once he recovers, he is willing to return to military service—but not to the "pit," and not to the 225th Regiment. Bohdan Lohvynenko's story

At roughly the same time and on the same front near Huliaipole, Bohdan Lohvynenko was also deployed to the front line. He says he was brutally beaten there as well. He served in the regiment for about a year and a half. He is currently in hiding, so the author was only able to speak with his relatives, who also published the following social media post.

This is what his buttocks looked like after what they describe as "disciplinary measures" in the 225th Regiment.

The photo was posted on social media by Bohdan's sister at the request of their mother, Oksana. She says her son fled the unit after the beating, when he was sent back to the front in that condition.

Bohdan's mother says they lost contact with him for a long time. He later called and sent her the photo, after which communication was lost again. His sister then published the image online.

His mother says she called and messaged his commanders, asking why they had done this to her son.

"One of them told me, basically, 'He came to fight straight out of prison. You should be thanking us for getting him out of there. He got to see the outside world. As for the beating—that was preventive discipline so he wouldn't want to run away again.'"

Bohdan served in the Shkval Battalion. Before joining the military, he had been imprisoned for multiple theft convictions. He was released in 2024 after signing a contract with the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

According to his mother and sister, he was allegedly beaten because he had previously gone absent without leave. He fled after he and several comrades accidentally damaged their company commander's vehicle. When the commander found out, he reportedly told them, "You're all fucked," and the men feared they would be killed over it.

His relatives say he was also held in the same "pit" at the regiment's forest base and beaten with a plastic pipe.

Multiple sources within the regiment say instructors warned former prisoners early in their service that beatings were used as punishment for theft, alcohol, or drug use. In practice, they say, soldiers were also beaten for going AWOL, using mobile phones without authorization (phones were supposed to be available only to commanders), concealing information about others' misconduct, refusing to carry out orders, and even arguing or refusing to contribute large sums of money to the unit's shared fund.

According to multiple sources, the regiment's "dirty work" is carried out by servicemen known by the callsigns Rulia and YuYu. They reportedly lead the "internal security" group, which, according to preliminary information, is formally assigned to the guard company. The size of this group has reportedly continued to grow. It is allegedly responsible for tracking down and punishing soldiers identified by the command.

When describing beatings, witnesses also frequently mention one of the Shkval Battalion's commanders, known by the callsign Sumrak.

The author contacted Sumrak via WhatsApp to ask about these allegations. The serviceman, who confirmed he was Sumrak and used a profile picture of himself, replied that he "no longer serves in the unit, was discharged in 2024 after being wounded, and isn't interested in discussing the matter."

However, the author's sources within the regiment and neighboring units maintain that Sumrak was still serving as one of Shkval's commanders during 2025.

While reporting with the 225th Regiment on the Kursk front, the author noticed that many soldiers appeared particularly afraid of Regiment Commander Shyriaiev. At the time, a common phrase among them was, "The commander will finish you." Back then, however, the soldiers complained to the journalist only that they were not being granted leave. "The Tree of Truth"

This is a screenshot from a video on the phone of one of the missing servicemen from the 225th Regiment, which the article author obtained access to. While gathering information, she spoke with his wife, who provided the opportunity to view this photo in the phone gallery. The serviceman’s further fate is unknown.

In addition to the "pits" and beatings, according to witness testimony, there is another method of torture in the unit — the "tree of truth." Soldiers are tied to a tree, sometimes stripped, and beaten with plastic pipes or sticks until their skin cracks open (as we saw in the photo of Bohdan Lohvynenko’s buttocks).

At least six unrelated people mention the "tree of truth": there are soldiers who say they personally saw tied-up men being beaten on different front sectors, and there are relatives of servicemen from this unit — both killed and missing.

Several witnesses came to the author claiming they had seen cases in which such beatings led to severe consequences. More about this is on the article author’s YouTube channel. At least one fact of beating was publicly confirmed by the 225th Regiment command in its statement.

According to one of our sources, during a routine SBU counterintelligence inspection, beaten men who had been held in "pits" at the same 225th Regiment base were taken away in the vehicle of one of his comrades. That was still before the publication of the "Skelia" investigation. And after the scandal, sources say, "everything was cleaned out from the base."

In addition, relatives of 225th Regiment servicemen who are absent without leave testify that members of the regiment’s "internal security" come to their homes looking for them.

We asked 225th Regiment commander Oleh Shyriaiev to comment on the testimony described.

The unit acknowledged that tying people to trees and beating them did happen: "This situation involving a serious violation of military discipline did take place. And it is known to us. An internal investigation into this incident has already been conducted, and the servicemen involved in such violations have been removed and handed over to the Military Law Enforcement Service for further determination of their fate and the level of violations."

Read the command’s full response to this and other questions below.

We note that, in response to our request, the unit command initially published only a shortened version of its reply in a post on its official page, limiting commenting.

"...A mindset like you're some kind of scum"

Spring 2025, Belgorod direction

Servicemen from units that at different times were transferred under the command of the 225th Regiment also encountered the methods Roman Bedei described as practiced there.

The events on the Belgorod direction in spring 2025 were witnessed firsthand by the author, and she also discussed them with seven interlocutors. One of them was Vitalii Kozhukhar, the senior sergeant of the fire support company of a battalion in the 39th Marine Brigade.

In March 2025, the Russians had nearly pushed our forces out of Russian territory in Kursk Oblast. But the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Syrskyi, insisted that the Ukrainian army should remain on Russian territory. Part of the grouping regrouped and began an offensive into Belgorod Oblast.

For this purpose, the 225th Separate Assault Regiment, a reserve unit under Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi, was moved to the border with Russia.

At least three more battalion tactical groups (BTGs) were placed under regiment commander Oleh Shyriaiev’s command: airborne troops, technical personnel from the Air Force, and a battalion from the 39th Coastal Defense Brigade of the Marine Corps (former Territorial Defense fighters). The latter were urgently redeployed from the islands on the left bank of Kherson Oblast.

Vitalii Kozhukhar was then the senior sergeant of the fire support company of the 39th Brigade battalion and now serves in another unit. Before Sumy Oblast and the Belgorod direction, his battalion — made up mostly of volunteers — had fought in Kherson Oblast, in the toughest areas: on the Dnipro islands between Kherson and the occupied left bank, including Krynky.

In spring 2025, they were attached to the "Shkval" battalion, staffed with convicts who had been released early after signing contracts with the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It turned out that the Shkval commanders were commanding volunteers.

“We were going there, and they told us, ‘Guys, you’re fucked there. Because everyone knew what the 225th and the 425th ‘Skelia’ were like. We thought, well, maybe it’s just a hard mission, but we have experience,’” the sergeant recalls.

Even after that warning, only one out of several hundred servicemen from their unit went absent without leave.

The battalion chief of staff was removed before the redeployment to Belgorod Oblast because he stressed that the unit was understaffed and argued for at least time for integration training.

“On that direction it was total hell, even compared to Krynky,” Vitalii recalls. “Everything we were taught — about battle planning, logistics — was treated there like fantasy, like an American movie. The difference was like comparing a concentration camp and normal life. The attitude was like you were some kind of scum.

…In one village there was a school, and they called it a ‘basement.’ There really was a basement there; they [the 225th assault troops — ed.] lived there, and their phones were taken away. Our guys were brought there too. There was an armed guard at the entrance. When I drove in to pick up our guy, there were up to 40 people in the basement.”

According to information obtained from several sources, this was a school in the village of Myropilske on the border with Russia. At the time, various reports said it held anywhere from several dozen to 70 servicemen.

“When they were given tasks, a PBV would arrive there (a Swedish tracked armored personnel carrier), the ones going out on mission would come out, receive weapons and gear. The rest of the time they sat in the basement,” Vitalii says. He recalls that commanders and guards spoke to them exclusively in Russian and with profanity, treating them “like livestock, like what they show in videos with the Russians.”

After several weeks of heavy fighting, the commander of the attached battalion managed to get his men out of the basement. They were allowed to live in houses.

Over the month and a half of the operation, according to one of our sources, a significant part of the battalion’s soldiers were killed or went missing. Many people went absent without leave after their first trips to the positions. In the end, the attached troops who remained were transferred to another battalion, where, after completing missions, they no longer had to sit in basements under guard.

Vitalii, like Roman, also says he personally heard death threats from commanders directed at the 225th Regiment soldiers:

“You’re shit, you’re nobody. If you don’t do it, they’ll either shoot you there, or they’ll shoot you on the way back.”

Oleksandr Shyrshyn, former commander of a battalion in the 47th Mechanized Brigade, mentioned in his interview with Babel a conversation with one of the 225th Regiment battalion commanders, which also confirms the use of unlawful practices:

“When I approached one battalion commander about this situation, saying I couldn’t get my men in. I said: ‘Well, help me. Your people somehow get in.’ ‘What?’, he says, ‘Do you expect me to lead them in at gunpoint?’ Taking into account the information I have, these people use such methods.”

At the end of April, according to our data, after the Belgorod operation ended, on the statement of a serviceman from one of the units attached to the assault regiment, the State Bureau of Investigation opened a criminal case under the article “Exceeding military authority or official powers by a military official,” with the wording “systematic commission against subordinates of actions exceeding their authority.” But it led nowhere: four months later, the case was closed. "Drop it on Chuks"

January 2025. Kursk direction

A serviceman named Ivan (name changed), who fought on several fronts with the 225th Regiment, claims that the unit did in fact fire on its own soldiers.

According to him, the regiment was then stationed in the village of Nikolayevo-Daryino in Sudzha District, Kursk Oblast.

Six assault troops were ordered to advance on foot to their positions through the nearby Ukrainian villages of Basivka and Novenke.

"Chuks was part of that group," our source says. "He was the senior man, had the radio, and was responsible for leading the others in. They had to cross an open snow-covered field, and the enemy knew our troops were there. They immediately came under FPV drone attacks and bomb drops. Chuks refused to go any farther. By then they'd already moved about two kilometers from the tree line. Two of them were killed almost immediately, and the remaining four started falling back."

He says Chuks and another soldier took cover from the shelling in a small foxhole among some bushes, while the other two returned to the drone pilots' position in the village they had departed from. Chuks had been wounded and refused to continue.

The serviceman alleges that Agronom (then commander of the Shkval company) called the soldier who had just taken over the night shift directing the drone pilots from headquarters and ordered him to drop an explosive on Chuks.

"He called Santa and said, 'Without broadcasting it to the screen, send the drop. Drop it on Chuks.' And he did. Chuks was wounded even more severely. Eventually Agronom ordered them to fall back to the tree line where the drone pilots were positioned. Chuks apparently hid in dugouts there for another couple of days before they finally got him out," the serviceman says.

Agronom is an officer who at different times commanded both a Shkval company and later the Shkval battalion.

Unfortunately, it was not possible to determine Chuks' subsequent fate. Agronom, whom we contacted for comment, said he was "hearing about this for the first time," cited a lack of time due to combat duties, and promised to call back, but never did.

The same source also says that "blocking detachments" were positioned behind the assault troops with orders to open fire on anyone who refused to move forward.

According to sources who provided the recording, it was on this front, at roughly the same time, that the order to shoot Ukrainian soldiers retreating from their positions—the recording quoted at the beginning of this article—was issued.

According to our information, that order was sent to at least one commanders' chat while Ukrainian forces and the 225th Separate Assault Regiment were operating inside Kursk Oblast. Testimony about "blocking detachments"

Autumn 2025. Huliaipole again

Last November, relatives of soldiers from Territorial Defense brigades began posting on social media about blocking detachments, publishing screenshots of messages exchanged with their family members.

"Our own are shooting at our own during the withdrawal... They say the commander of the 225th ordered them to kill us," one serviceman deployed in Zaporizhzhia wrote to his son.

The Southern Operational Command denied these reports:

"Information is currently circulating on social media claiming that so-called blocking detachments exist, preventing our units from withdrawing. This information is false."

One officer who directly participated in those events, Kyrylo (name changed), speaking anonymously, says he personally encountered a blocking detachment from the 225th Regiment.

He was serving in one of the battalions of the 102nd Territorial Defense Brigade, which, according to him, became encircled after neighboring battalions withdrew from their flank positions.

According to Kyrylo, they informed their own command that they were being forced to withdraw, but were not allowed through.

"We were met by our own troops from the 225th Separate Assault Regiment. We entered their trench. I contacted their commander using their radio and asked them to let us pass. He replied: 'Don't let anyone through. Open fire to kill.' We were ordered to put our weapons on the ground and lie face down. Then a fucking FPV drone came in, a fucking Mavic spotted us, and we came under mortar fire. We were then told to disperse into the tree line," the officer says.

After the shelling, they were allowed to pass.

However, fire was opened on the next group of six men who were also withdrawing from their positions. One of those soldiers, Taras (name changed), also speaking anonymously, described what happened:

"They put this blocking detachment right in front of us. About ten men met us. They fired near our feet, near our ears."

225th Regiment commander Oleh Shyriaiev explained the events near Huliaipole as follows:

"At the end of 2025, when we entered the sector, the enemy had already crossed the Yanchur River near the settlements of Poltavka and Maliivka, while the 102nd Territorial Defense Brigade was retreating.

Overall, the 102nd Brigade lost 190 square kilometers of territory. Nine battalions withdrew from their defensive sectors, and 20 command posts were lost. We also remember the disgraceful incident in Huliaipole, where a command post was abandoned together with classified communications equipment, maps, callsigns, and documents. That was one of those 20 command posts. In addition, nine company strongpoints, 18 platoon strongpoints, and the remaining positions were lost.

Personnel losses included 79 missing servicemen, 30 wounded, and 781 servicemen who abandoned their positions without authorization. In practice, the entire brigade withdrew from its positions.

When they were withdrawing, they had no identifying insignia. They weren't even wearing Ukrainian uniforms but Multicam. The enemy wears the same camouflage. They were armed and moving toward our assault groups. Our assault troops acted in accordance with the Armed Forces Statute. There was no attempt to prevent them from passing. The problem was their lack of communication. We tried to establish blocking lines, and during our deployment we suffered casualties because we had been given false information about the location of their positions.

The 108th Territorial Defense Brigade also withdrew. It lost less territory—109 square kilometers. So the 108th Brigade lost 109 square kilometers, and the 102nd lost 190. That's 299—almost 300—square kilometers lost in a single month.

When the 102nd Brigade withdrew from Huliaipole, my units became encircled and had to fight under those conditions."

Regarding the disarming of the withdrawing soldiers, he stated:

"Our assault troops could not recognize those servicemen by sight. In accordance with wartime procedures and the Armed Forces Statute, they first issued a verbal command ordering the armed group to stop. Then they fired a warning shot into the air, after which the servicemen were detained and disarmed so they could be handed over to the Military Law Enforcement Service for identification."

It should be recalled that, in January 2026, relatives of soldiers from the 108th Territorial Defense Brigade later alleged that they had been "abducted" by the assault unit. Armed members of the 225th Regiment, dressed in civilian clothing, reportedly went from house to house in the village gathering soldiers attached to the unit and placing them in a basement—around 40 men in total.

Those soldiers later testified that they had been held in a facility similar to the "basement" at the school in Sumy Oblast described earlier. Most of them subsequently fought under the command of the 225th Regiment, despite official statements claiming they had merely participated in joint training.

The Territorial Defense unit managed to retrieve its sick and wounded personnel only after the intervention of Military Ombudswoman Olha Reshetylova.

It should be noted that when the 225th Separate Assault Regiment was deployed to stabilize the Huliaipole sector, the situation there was already genuinely critical.

The families of soldiers from those brigades had begun demanding that they be withdrawn from their positions amid heavy fighting and increasing Russian pressure—conditions the Zaporizhzhia-based brigades had not previously faced.

Under Ukrainian military regulations, however, intense fighting and strong enemy pressure alone are not grounds for withdrawing personnel from defensive positions unless accompanied by additional critical circumstances.

Threatening subordinates with execution and opening fire on them, however, constitutes a criminal offense under the article covering "the use of violence against a subordinate... committed with the use of a weapon." During martial law, the offense carries a harsher sentence—between eight and twelve years' imprisonment. In other words, wartime is not a mitigating circumstance but an aggravating one.

Such methods are prohibited under both Ukrainian law and international law.

We also sent an inquiry to the General Staff asking whether any order had been issued authorizing the disarming of, or the use of weapons against, servicemen who abandon their positions without authorization in any sector. At the time of publication, no response had been received.

Negligence and losses

One of the public criticisms of the separate assault regiments, including the 225th, is their excessive losses.

Roman Bedei’s and Vitalii Kozhukhar’s accounts of the conditions of service and treatment of soldiers may partly explain the reasons for them. But there are other factors as well.

For example, the school in Myropilske in Sumy Oblast, where according to different reports 40 to 70 men from the 225th Regiment were being held, was shelled several times by KAB glide bombs. In the end, according to our sources, a missile completely destroyed the building. The exact number of those killed is unknown.

About a year later, as a result of another strike on facilities at one of the regiment’s bases in another region, four servicemen were killed and more than fifty were wounded. The editorial team has a document confirming this.

As a result of an inspection by the Military Law Enforcement Service initiated by Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi, “inadequate control by the command of the 225th Separate Assault Regiment over the dispersal of personnel ... and the inadequate performance of Commander of the 225th Separate Assault Regiment Oleh Shyriaiev of his duties during the period when the camp was being set up” were established.

The editorial team is not aware of any serious personnel decisions in the regiment taken in connection with the ongoing consequences of this negligence in safeguarding soldiers’ lives.

It has recently emerged that the public criticism by then-commander of the 47th Mechanized Brigade Oleksandr Shyrshyn of “stupid orders from the General Staff” and his subsequent request to be relieved from his post referred specifically to the order to “dig in” while encircled after soldiers from the 225th and 425th Separate Assault Regiments had entered there.

“In the 225th there were also some insane losses. They may say it was because the 47th Brigade did not replace them. That is a lie: the 47th was still there together with them. We still sent some of our people in. They died for other reasons — and that concerns how they used their unit... They do not account for losses or for people’s lives, which is our defense capability that they are weakening,” the officer said in an interview with Babel.

He also said that from private conversations he understood that the commanders of these units were not concerned with whether the task could actually be accomplished with the available resources. The attitude was basically: “an order is an order.”

Back in spring 2025, the separate assault regiments under the Commander-in-Chief’s command, including the 425th and 225th, sharply criticized Shyrshyn.

“The tasks that were set took precedence over people’s lives. That is a hundred percent true. Even if the task was inappropriate, even if they understood that the position had already been completely occupied by the bastards from a military point of view, that did not stop them. They went in again, people died, they came out, unfortunately. I do not know what this was for. I think that maybe one day there will be investigations into the actions of the commanders who gave such orders,” says Vitalii Kozhukhar, a senior sergeant in the fire support company of the 39th Coastal Defense Brigade.

Using just the already mentioned battalion of the 39th Coastal Defense Brigade of the Marine Corps as an example, it can be said that over three weeks of an operation under the regiment’s command, they suffered twice (!) as many losses as they had in nearly three years of war on the islands and the left bank of Kherson Oblast, including Krynky. The editorial team has the figures.

According to various sources in the military-political leadership, the unit’s total losses last year may have amounted to roughly what veteran Bohdan Krotevych recently said publicly: “They are losing people, sorry, f***, at a rate of 1,000 a month!”

Despite this, the 225th and 425th “Skelia” were among the priority units for manpower replenishment throughout the year, and they grew roughly fivefold.

According to loss estimates from one of the military administration bodies, which the journalist was able to see, this year too the 225th and 425th are sharing the lead in the number of losses.

“We have very serious problems near Huliaipole,” DeepState co-founder said last week. So it remains unclear how former Commander-in-Chief Syrskyi justified expanding this particular unit to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief.

Deputy Military Ombudsman Ruslan Tsyhankov, in the context of the scandal surrounding the 425th Regiment, emphasized that such units, “in addition to effectiveness, carry major risks in terms of rights violations,” and therefore remain under their constant oversight.

He also said that the Office opposes the creation of a separate branch of assault troops because they are difficult to control. However, as of now, the president has placed them under a separate Joint Command.

Five days ago, the Office of the Military Ombudsman reported on a monitoring visit to the 225th. It stated that servicemen’s complaints had been received, but the public response did not mention any serious violations.

This article does not disclose all of the testimony received from various sources about what has been happening in the 225th Regiment on different fronts over the past two years. We published only those accounts for which we had additional evidence or cross-confirming testimony. Many other accounts of serious violations of servicemen’s rights were left out because those claims could not be verified for various reasons.

The author of the investigation is tracking the fate of all her sources, public and non-public, and remains in contact with them. She is ready to provide law enforcement with the contacts of those who agree to testify in the case if an investigation is opened, and she will refer them to Military Ombudswoman Olha Reshetylova.

After one of the publications about rights violations in the 225th and 425th Separate Assault Regiments, the author received threats. The police registered a criminal proceeding.

If you or your loved ones have encountered rights violations in the 225th Regiment and are willing to testify about them, please write to arbours.swelter.3p@icloud.com