Scandal with bullying and harassment of cadets: the head of the National Army Academy was dismissed from his post
Kyiv • UNN
The Minister of Defense dismissed Lieutenant General Pavlo Tkachuk from the post of head of the National Air Force after an audit and violations were found. The cadets complained of systematic harassment, extortion, and problems with their welfare.
The head of the National Army Academy has been dismissed, UNN reports, citing the Defense Ministry.
Details
According to the ministry, during the visit of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Lviv, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov reported to the head of state on the results of the audit of the Main Inspectorate of the Ministry of Defense regarding the activities of the National Army Academy and numerous violations identified by the Main Inspectorate of the Ministry of Defense.
The President instructed to immediately remedy the situation.
Lieutenant General Pavlo Tkachuk has been dismissed from his post as head of the Hetman Petro Sahaidachny National Army Academy by order of the Minister of Defense of Ukraine, the ministry said.
Context
In March, a story began to circulate on social media that cadets at the Hetman Sahaidachny Army Academy were being systematically harassed and beaten.
Cadets of the Hetman P. Sahaidachny National Army Academy (NASA) filed a collective complaint with the Temporary Investigation Commission (TIC). In essence, the complaint concerned the granting of dismissals to cadets only if their parents or spouses come to pick them up. This was reported by MP Yulia Yatsyk, who is a member of the Temporary Investigation Commission of the Verkhovna Rada to investigate violations of the rights of servicemen.
However, after the filing of this complaint, the harassment of the cadets for their active position only intensified. Moreover, there were even attempts to open a criminal case against one of the authors of the collective complaint .
The members of the PIC, in turn, conducted a number of anonymous interviews with the Academy's cadets from different courses, who told about th
- A "company cash register" where cadets chip in for various needs (buying a printer, paper, detergents, etc.)
- cadets' dismissal is regulated manually (if you want to be dismissed, buy paper, or refill the cartridge, or...)
- there are cases of harassment, humiliation and bullying of cadets
- Lack of necessary medicines at the health center ("everything is treated with ibuprofen or paracetamol")
- In different groups, from 30% to 60% of cadets on the allowance do not eat in the canteen for various reasons (mostly due to tasteless dishes and poor quality food).
