Lubinets responded to reports of bullying in the 211th Pontoon Bridge Brigade: "Such a shameful phenomenon should not exist"

The Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, is checking information about possible cases of abuse against servicemen of the 211th Pontoon-Bridge Brigade of the Support Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, reports UNN.

Lubinets wrote on Telegram that today he saw a publication in the media about possible cases of abuse against servicemen in one of the military units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

"I immediately sent letters to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Military Law Enforcement Service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine to verify the information and conduct an official investigation for further response. Such a shameful phenomenon should not exist! So I'm taking the situation under personal control and will report on the results of the verification of this fact," the Ombudsman wrote.

Addition

Servicemen of the 211th Pontoon-Bridge Brigade of the Support Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine told the media about abuse of soldiers, extortion of money, and nepotism, which law enforcement officers do not pay attention to.

The brigade began to be formed in April 2022 - at first it was the 210th Pontoon-Bridge Regiment, and in August of the same year it was transformed into a brigade.

The servicemen are engaged in purely engineering work. They do not take part in combat at the "zero" line. However, one of the company commanders, on condition of anonymity, said that the unit was created by military personnel, most of whom previously served together in the "Tysa" battalion of the 128th Mountain Assault Brigade. In particular, the commander is Colonel Oleh Poberezhniuk.

According to media sources, the brigade has "husbands and wives, fathers and sons, godparents, distant relatives, mistresses, friends, classmates, neighbors, and all others who can be drawn from their environment".

The most odious family in the brigade was called the Pastukhiv family. "Father Valerii is the chief of staff, deputy brigade commander. Son Vladyslav is the commander of one of the platoons in the first battalion of the brigade. Now the younger Pastukhiv is no longer serving in the 211th Pontoon-Bridge Brigade, but for a certain time he was subordinate to his own father. As is known, the Law "On Prevention of Corruption" prohibits the direct subordination of close relatives," the investigation says.

According to five former officers and sergeants of the brigade, it was the younger Pastukhiv who demanded money from the military and abused them during business trips for the construction of fortifications in Donetsk, Kharkiv, and Dnipropetrovsk regions. In the combat zone, he had access to servicemen of various battalions, including the second, although he was a platoon commander only in the first.