Fighters held the defense, but money was being extorted from them: the battalion commander was detained on bribery charges

In Zaporizhzhia, law enforcement officers detained the commander of a battalion of one of the military units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who is suspected of extorting money from subordinate personnel. The National Police of Ukraine reported this on May 6, 2026.

According to the investigation, the commander allegedly organized a scheme for the monthly receipt of illicit payments from servicemen of the battalion performing tasks on the Zaporizhzhia direction. This concerns 200,000 hryvnias per month. For this money the suspect, law enforcement says, promised “lenient treatment” toward subordinates and the absence of checks that could affect the accrual of combat pay.

The police note that subordinates, coming under pressure, were forced to collect funds and hand them over to the commander. According to the investigation, the money received by him may subsequently have been passed on to other military officials, whose involvement is now being checked.

The arrest was carried out on the premises of a car park near one of the supermarkets in Zaporizhzhia. It was there, according to law enforcement, that the commander received from a subordinate the second tranche of the illicit payment – 200,000 hryvnias. During a personal search, more than 114,000 hryvnias were also seized from him.

In total, law enforcement documented the suspect’s receipt of 400,000 hryvnias. They also conducted 8 searches in the Vinnytsia, Cherkasy and Zaporizhzhia regions – at the unit’s temporary deployment site, at the suspect’s places of residence and in his vehicle. During these actions, cash totaling more than 1.6 million hryvnias (in hryvnia equivalent), mobile phones, computer equipment, flash drives and rough notes were seized.

The battalion commander was detained in accordance with Art. 208 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine. Investigators notified him of suspicion under part 3 of Article 368 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – receipt of an illicit advantage by an official. The article’s sanction provides for up to 10 years imprisonment with confiscation of property. The investigation continues. Currently, law enforcement is establishing the full circle of persons who may have been involved in this scheme.

Previously we wrote:

• Left his unit without permission and committed robbery: a serviceman sentenced in Mykolaiv
• The “Vovky Da Vinci” fighters beat a boy and shoved him into a trunk: the battalion acknowledged the incident
• Soldiers committed violent acts to extort money and property
• “300,000 desertion cases”: in the Rada they want to punish with property seizure and longer sentences
• Eggs at 17: a food supplier for the Armed Forces of Ukraine in 2023 became the owner of four hotels in Croatia