{"id":7300,"date":"2026-06-28T23:47:30","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T23:47:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/youtubexyoutube.com\/?p=7300"},"modified":"2026-07-03T13:50:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T13:50:07","slug":"commander-of-major-ukrainian-military-unit-found-dead-with-gunshot-wound","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/28\/commander-of-major-ukrainian-military-unit-found-dead-with-gunshot-wound\/","title":{"rendered":"Commander of major Ukrainian military unit found dead with gunshot wound"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Police have launched a murder investigation into the death of Colonel Vladimir Kononnikov, who led the 154th Separate Mechanized Brigade<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><\/strong>The commander of Ukraine\u2019s battle-hardened 154th Separate Mechanized Brigade, Colonel Vladimir Kononnikov, has been found dead with a gunshot wound, police said.<\/p>\n<p>Kononnikov\u2019s death was first reported by Ukraine\u2019s Operational Command South. The command said on Facebook that the officer\u2019s body was discovered on Sunday and that <em>\u201cpreliminary findings indicated there were no signs of violence.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Police, however, later released a brief statement saying that Kononnikov was found dead with a gunshot wound and that a murder investigation has been launched.<\/p>\n<p>The brigade was formed in September 2023 and has primarily fought in Kharkov Region and Donbass. It took part in the battle for Krasnoarmeysk (Pokrovsk), which was captured by Russia in December 2025, and in the ongoing operations around Kupyansk.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n        <span><strong>Read more<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<figure>\n            <img src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" alt=\"Commander of the assault regiment \u201cSkelia,\u201d Yury Harkaviy.\" class=\"lazyload\" data-src=\"http:\/\/youtubexyoutube.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/6a3ea22c2030277c4b50d568.jpg\"><figcaption><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/russia\/642237-ukraine-regiment-torture-deaths\/\">Ukrainian regiment commander suspended over training camp deaths<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>According to Ukrainian media, Kononnikov was appointed commander last year.<\/p>\n<p>The unit is currently based in Gulyaypole, a town in the Ukrainian-controlled part of Zaporozhye Region. The region voted to secede from Ukraine and join Russia in a referendum held in September 2022.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"67\" data-end=\"304\">Last week, Ukrainian news website Babel published a bombshell report alleging abuses at the training camps of the 425th Separate Assault Regiment Skelia (formerly Skala), which it said led to the deaths of at least 26 recruits.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"309\" data-end=\"543\">The authorities confirmed the non-combat deaths of 25 of the recruits mentioned in the report but did not disclose the causes of death. The unit\u2019s commander, Lieutenant Colonel Yury Garkavy, was suspended pending an investigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Police have launched a murder investigation into the death of Colonel Vladimir Kononnikov, who led the 154th Separate Mechanized Brigade [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7300"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7300"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7300\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7304,"href":"http:\/\/youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7300\/revisions\/7304"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}