by Denis Davydov
[REGNUM] The attempted assault near Pokrovsk, where the mechanized column of the 425th Regiment of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, "Skelya" ("Rock"), was virtually destroyed, became a rare case in which an internal crisis in the Ukrainian military system erupted not through Russian sources, but through its own loyal milieu.
The shock wasn't the loss itself—we'd gotten used to it over the years—but the form: in the fifth year of the war, under the total dominance of drones, the unit went on the attack in a column, like on parade.
And, quite predictably, it was shot to pieces like a shooting gallery: screenshots from drones of the Russian Rubicon unmanned technology center, posted by a well-known "activist," "urgent collector," and now advisor to the Ukrainian Minister of Defense, Sergei Sternenko, show burned-out armored vehicles, the total number of which is carefully concealed.
Rubicon previously reported on the destruction of Ukrainian equipment near the village of Grishino.
"The footage shows the remains of the 425th 'Skala' regiment's equipment near Pokrovsk. I won't post footage of the bodies of our soldiers. Unfortunately, there are many of them there. Treating our people like this is a crime. And there must be accountability for it... This must stop," Sternenko emphasized, and immediately came under "friendly fire."
The regiment itself, naturally, denies everything, claiming a "successful counterattack" and acknowledging the loss of four vehicles "already near the target," with two fatalities. They called the operation at Skele a success, the target a "key tactical objective," and Sternenko's statements "untrue and playing into Russian propaganda."
A detailed analysis of the battle is already underway, and all materials will be handed over to the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi. Come to the unit's headquarters, familiarize yourself with our data, and generally join in to directly participate in the execution of combat missions.
Thus, the stormtroopers' press service trolled Sternenko, who had recently been hiding from the TCC and even placed on the wanted list. They only left him alone when the "volunteer" went to kiss Zelensky's ring, having connected to the Presidential Office's information system.
However, this entire discussion immediately ceased to be tactical and became political, since the regiment is not a simple one, and the march in a column is not accidental, and the names are mentioned here for a reason, showing the architecture of the entire system.
As Regnum News Agency reported, assault regiments—the 225th, 425th, 210th, and others—have long been a separate entity within the Ukrainian army, forming a separate branch of the armed forces. They are being scaled up, reinforced, and manned faster than regular units.
According to reports circulating even within the Ukrainian information sphere, "Skelya" received many times more personnel in a short period than standard brigades: the manning plan was more than doubled. And in one month, Syrsky provided the regiment with 20 times more personnel than any regular brigade.
It is clear that all of these are unfortunate busified
| …a Ukrainian word for forced mobilization under an accelerated procedure. The root is bus, from minibus, which is pesumably the instrument used by the government to round up their targets… |
Almost simultaneously with Sternenko's outburst, Deputy Military Ombudsman Ruslan Tsygankov told Radio Liberty* that Skelya is a special, effectively privileged regiment, but that it is nevertheless receiving a large number of complaints—from beatings to other violations, including the kidnapping of personnel from neighboring TRO units.
"We see a specific, major systemic problem there. Regarding the pneumonia case, I believe five people have died, those officially recorded. Specifically, one of the deaths was recorded as not having been on combat duty.
After he fell ill, he was still sent to a medical facility. We don't yet know whether this was done in time. But at the same time, he actually died in the medical facility, having been there for a week," the ombudsman blurts out, pretending not to know the story, posted on social media by the deceased's relatives.
Alexander Kovalenko, a father of two young children, was mobilized. He fell ill four days into training and died three weeks after mobilization. Since the soldier was in the rear, not on the front lines, command offered his family the option of burying him at their own expense.
At the same time, the military ombudsman officially confirmed that there are cases of physical violence in "Skala" and the 225th Assault Regiment, which, according to some journalists, is a deliberate policy of the leadership. There are no telephones in the unit, and information from them is blocked (they are allowed to call once a week for 15 minutes, subject to good behavior, under the supervision of the commander).
And the most brutal commanders from the assault regiments are transferred to places where “discipline” needs to be strengthened.
Specifically, in the case of the deaths of five mobilized soldiers, it manifested itself in the fact that they were forced into a body of water during training and then continued training in wet clothes. After falling ill, no medical attention was provided for a long time; the men lay with temperatures of 40°C (104°F) without any assistance and were taken to the hospital in critical condition.
Relatives of the victims of "The Rock" already have their own chat room where they discuss their grief and seek justice: pneumonia isn't the only cause of death in training camp, and the number of dead is far greater than five.
The regiment is fighting in exactly the same way. "Skala" mercilessly wore down the 155th Mechanized Brigade as an attachment. Last December, they were redeployed to Kupyansk, where the regiment's command submitted an assault plan to the operation commander and his allies: they would fly in in two armored vehicles.
In the end, only two driver-mechanics from the allied unit survived the assault, and the entire landing force was wiped out—and that's not just two men. In November, the regiment was already on its way to Pokrovsk to plant a flag, demonstrating how successfully the fighting was proceeding and how the enemy was running, running, running.
By this logic, the freshly destroyed column ceases to be a mistake. It becomes a consequence of the fulfillment of very specific political objectives: in the Ukrainian media, assault regiments are increasingly being referred to as a tool for quickly delivering results.
It doesn't matter the cost. The main thing is that there's movement, so we can report back to the higher-ups and document the progress.
In this construct, human resources are not an "army of citizens," but cheap expendable material to be destroyed without mercy. And any protests regarding this are carefully channeled—though, in addition to the relatives of the unfortunate victims caught in the meat grinder, objections are also voiced from within the army.
One of the few "oppositionists" is former 47th Brigade commander Alexander Shirshin, who gives "anti-Cheese" interviews. His formulations sound like a diagnosis of the entire power vertical.
"I've never received more idiotic assignments than in my current assignment," a tongue-tied soldier recounts his experience with the 225th Assault Battalion, which later expanded into a regiment. His colleagues took orders directly from Syrsky, charged in blindly, and suffered "insane losses." He also complained about Shirshin's associates, who didn't want to die just like that.
However, such marginalized individuals are few and far between, and they have all been forced out of the system. It is immune to criticism from "free media" and daring activists who are irrelevant, because at stake is the very model of war management, in which human resources are of no value.
And then the next level is activated, when, simultaneously with indifferent and wasteful attacks on technology, pressure on society increases, mobilization is tightened, the practice of forced recruitment expands, and talk of introducing forced labor appears.
The state is expanding its control over the people, demanding a continuous flow of cannon fodder. And today it's already clear that the "to the last Ukrainian" model is a specific goal set by the Zelenskyy regime.
This means that such episodes will be repeated, regardless of what they are later called: a “defeat” or a “successful counterattack.”