Commander of the 211th Pontoon and Bridge Brigade, which abused the military, arrested
19 December 2024 16:08
The court, at the request of prosecutors from the Ternopil Specialized Defense Prosecutor’s Office in the Western Region, imposed a pre-trial restraint on the commander of the 211th Pontoon Bridge Brigade of the Armed Forces Support Forces in the form of detention with the right to post UAH 908,400 bail. This was reported by the Office of the Prosecutor General, according to
In addition, the high command has suspended the commander of the 211th pontoon and bridge brigade from duty.
Earlier, it was reported that criminal proceedings had been initiated over the illegal actions of the commanders of the 211th Pontoon and Bridge Brigade.
How the public learned about the abuse of the military in the brigade
Journalists of the Ukrainska Pravda media outlet drew attention to what was happening in the 211th Pontoon and Bridge Brigade. on December 16, they published an article titled “An Engineer Family. Mockery of the military, extortion, nepotism and other secrets of the 211th Pontoon and Bridge Brigade”.
The subject of the journalists’ investigation was the scandalous situation in the pontoon and bridge brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, where the military were mocked, beaten, and extorted money.
Following the decision of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, a commission of the Military Law Enforcement Service was sent to the 211th Pontoon Bridge Brigade of the Armed Forces Support Forces to check the facts of possible abuse. The prosecutor’s office also joined the investigation.
What is the brigade command accused of?
On December 16, 2024, the Ternopil Specialized Defense Prosecutor’s Office launched a pre-trial investigation against officials of the 211th Pontoon and Bridge Brigade of the Support Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the fact of abuse of power or official authority by a military official (Part 5 of Article 426-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
The criminal proceedings are investigating possible illegal actions of the brigade officers, which consisted of the use of physical violence against subordinates, extortion of money and abuse of disciplinary power under martial law. The materials collected in the course of official inspections of the brigade by the Main Inspectorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, media and social media reports, etc. are being studied.
The pre-trial investigation was entrusted to the investigators of the territorial department of the State Bureau of Investigation located in Lviv.
In addition, the commander of the mentioned brigade was served a notice of suspicion of abuse of office (Part 2 of Art. 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). It was 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 to be sent to Mykolaiv region, where they allegedly performed their duties, but in fact they were not there. At the same time, they received salaries and combat payments totaling almost a million hryvnias.
Law enforcement officers conducted authorized searches in the military unit, at the place of residence of the commander, servicemen and at the construction site. They seized documents and other material evidence of illegal activity.
The pre-trial investigation in this criminal proceeding is being conducted by the National Police of Ukraine.
