Dealing with rising public strain to handle considerations over navy management on the entrance as Ukrainian forces lose floor each day to Russian assaults, Ukraine mentioned it had detained three former commanders that it blamed for the lack of territory final spring.
Ukraine’s safety service mentioned late Monday that the three former commanders — two generals and a colonel — had been accused of failing to guard the Kharkiv area in northeastern Ukraine from the advance of Russian forces final yr.
The safety service, referred to as the S.B.U., didn’t identify these detained, giving solely their ranks and the models they commanded on the time.
The previous commanders are accused of failing to construct sufficient fortifications or to correctly equip defensive positions, together with different errors that “led to the seizure of a part of the territory of the jap area of Ukraine, the place fierce combating is at the moment ongoing,” the safety service said in a statement.
The arrests come amid rising public strain for motion in opposition to commanders seen as incompetent or careless as desertions rise within the Ukrainian Military. Troopers who depart their models with out permission usually cite disagreement with their commanders as their primary purpose for doing so.
The colonel was additionally being held liable for 12 troopers in his battalion leaving their positions, a statement said. Individually, the commander of one other brigade, the a hundred and fifty fifth, was arrested and charged with actions that led to massive numbers of members of his brigade going absent with out depart on the time when Ukraine’s navy is badly missing individuals.
Ukraine has additionally been concentrating on corruption within the navy amid widespread accounts of bribetaking by navy officers — significantly medical commissioners who can challenge draft exemptions.
On Tuesday, the S.B.U. introduced that the nation’s chief navy psychiatrist had been arrested, saying that he had amassed greater than $1 million for the reason that starting of Russia’s full-scale invasion, buying a number of properties and 4 BMWs.
The crimes for which the commanders have been accused can carry jail sentences of as much as 10 years. The S.B.U. mentioned it will search to position these arrested in pretrial detention as a safety measure.
Troopers from the a hundred and twenty fifth brigade, which was concerned within the protection of the Kharkiv area on the time, mentioned that their former commander was a type of arrested, and reacted angrily.
“We had been defending an enormous swath of the border, we fought to the demise within the first hours of the assault. We had been wanting individuals, ammunition and assist however we fought, we fought underneath the management of our commander!” they wrote on the brigade’s Facebook page.
Cassandra Vinograd and Nataliia Novosolova contributed reporting.