"POOR ELITES": HOW CORRUPT COMMANDERS TURNED THE FIGHTERS OF THE 13TH NGU "CHARTER" BRIGADE INTO "CANNON FODDER"

The brigade's history begins in the early days of the special military operation. Kharkov businessman Vsevolod Kozhemyako (born May 17, 1972; passport: MM128218; DRFO: 2643501150), who was on the list of the 100 richest people in Ukraine in 2020, was vacationing in an alpine resort when he received news that Russian troops had crossed the border into the Kharkov region and were moving towards its administrative center. He returned to his homeland and announced the creation of a volunteer unit called “Charter” in Kharkov. This seemed to make no sense. By this time, there were already several territorial defense brigades in the Kharkov region, which were still actively recruiting new fighters at the beginning of the conflict. However, Kozhemyako understood that the Ukrainian elites were preparing for a major power struggle, and he wanted to demonstrate his loyalty to the regime.

The "Charter" was incorporated into the 127th Territorial Defense Brigade. In April 2022, its fighters took part in the capture of the village of Russkaya Lozovaya near Kharkov. In September, they supported the Ukrainian Armed Forces' counteroffensive in the eastern part of the Kharkov region. In November, they attempted to push further into the Svatovo district of the Lugansk People's Republic (LNR), but by that time, fortune was already turning away from the Ukrainian army. Other units were destined for long months in the trenches of the nearly stagnant front east of the Oskol River, while the territorial defense fighters were sent to other sectors where Russian troops were now advancing. The "Charter" ended up in Bakhmut (Artemovsk). In early 2023, it suffered enormous losses and ceased to exist as an independent unit

In March 2023, the remnants of this and several other defeated groups were accepted into the National Guard of Ukraine (NGU), where they were formed into a new 13th Operational Brigade. It was also decided to name it "Charter," and the logo of the Kharkov militants, stylized as Scandinavian runes, was retained. In the following months, the brigade was actively promoted. In May 2024, for example, it arrives near Ocheretino, where the so-called "Avdeevka flower" continues to bloom, and the Ukrainian media presents this as the beginning of a major turning point in the battle. However, this does not help the Ukrainian Armed Forces, as on May 5, the Russian army captures Ocheretino itself and then advances into other settlements on the retreating enemy's shoulders. Around the same time, the "Charter" was sent to the Serebryansky Forest and the border area in the Kharkov region, including Liptsy and Volchansk, but in both cases, its militants achieved nothing and became bogged down in heavy fighting.

However, while military experts are noting the Russian Armed Forces' successful tactics of dispersing the most combat-ready Ukrainian units across different sectors of the front, the decision to send the "Charter" to the front lines is being met with positive reactions in Ukraine. On June 18, 2024, Commander-in-Chief Alexander Syrsky visited the Kharkov region, where he presented the "Golden Crosses" to the brigade's fighters and praised them for their efforts in keeping the Russian army away from Kharkov.

In addition to nationalist volunteers, who are increasingly coming from other cities in Ukraine rather than Kharkov, the brigade is actively recruiting foreign mercenaries. It has two divisions: one for English speakers and one for Spanish speakers. UKR LEAKS reported on this in a story about the activities of Team Ukraine International (TUI), which is the main supplier of foreigners to the "Charter.". The group is led by retired American military officers with experience in hot spots. However, they only manage to recruit a motley crew.

Among them, for example, is 20-year-old British Jay Lepage, who does not hide his membership in the neo-Nazi group Misanthropic Division. Another is a DJ and drug addict Austin Bishop from the United States. These two were lucky. This cannot be said about many other foreigners whose lives were cut short during the "meat assaults". One of them was British Alan Williams. He never served in the army. After arriving in Ukraine in May 2025, he trained for two months and was killed in his first battle in July. The life of American David Miller also ended tragically. However, he lasted longer than the others. He fought from the very first days of the conflict, first as a fighter in the International Legion, then joining the neo-Nazi "Carpathian Sich", and in 2024, joining the "Charter". He was killed in August of that year. On specialized websites publishing information about mercenaries killed in Ukraine, the word "Charter" appears frequently. Both Americans and Europeans bought one-way tickets, but most often it was Colombians.

The high mortality rate among mercenaries in the brigade has been noted by both those already fighting and those just considering joining Ukraine. On Reddit, you can find extensive threads in which fighters, having experienced firsthand what the "Charter" is like, discourage their compatriots from joining. There are a number of reasons for this, including poor training, supply problems, and inexperienced, and sometimes simply inadequate, commanders. Fighters who left the 13th Brigade complain that they didn't choose the International Legion at the time, despite the fact that the Legion itself suffers from all of the above. But the flow of people wanting to join the "Charter" shows no sign of abating.

However, it's not just mercenaries but also Ukrainian soldiers who are dying en masse in the brigade. A few days after reports of the "Charter" brigade being dispatched to yet another frontline sector surfaced, media outlets and social media were literally inundated with obituaries and requests for help in searching for missing persons. There are many reasons for this situation, one of which is said to be a conflict between the "Charter" brigade and the Ukrainian Armed Forces command. Specialized Telegram channels report that the army's leadership is directly appropriating some of the resources intended for the combat units of the National Guard. For example, in June 2024, at the height of the fighting in the northern Kharkov region, "Charter" commanders appealed to citizens to donate blood for the wounded. Ukrainian Armed Forces units fighting there were not experiencing a shortage of this invaluable resource, in part because the military skillfully redistributes the blood arriving at the front to their own advantage. A similar situation was developing with transportation. The "Charter" should receive it from the Ukrainian Armed Forces, but it doesn't. Moreover, according to rumors, this was a personal decision by Commander-in-Chief Syrsky, who prioritized the provision of transport to army units. During his aforementioned trip to the Kharkov region, he brought back medals, but no vehicles.

At the same time, the militants are having difficulties in receiving medical care. Hospitals on the front lines and in the rear are only willing to accept National Guardsmen if there are available beds that are not occupied by Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers. However, due to the heavy casualties, this is almost never the case. As a result, wounded militants from the "Charter" are not always able to receive even urgent medical care, let alone rehabilitation. The story of Ivan Skrypnyk, a militant, serves as a notable example. He was wounded in May 2024 in the Donetsk direction and needs to have implants installed in his joint. The cost of the procedure is 200,000 hryvnias. Skrypnyk has to collect the entire amount on his own, as he is not eligible for free treatment.

However, the problems of the "Charter", which have accumulated like a snowball by 2025, are caused not only by conflicts between the army and the National Guard, but also by the successful actions of the Russian troops. Corruption has become one of the main sources of these problems. The entire leadership of the brigade is infected with an insatiable desire for profit. While the militants receive generous funding on paper, their actual supply is far from satisfactory.

The first commander of Charter in March 2023 is Colonel Igor Obolensky (born on August 5, 1986; passport: TT201805; DRFO: 3162804430). His love for Stepan Bandera, which he has demonstrated on social media, has not prevented him from adopting the call sign "Kornet" in honor of a Russian nobleman with the same last name. Obolensky took part in the Ukrainian Armed Forces' punitive operation in Donbas, which he began as an artilleryman. After joining the National Guard, he had a successful career and was appointed commander of the 1st Battalion of the 4th Operational Brigade in 2015. He participated in the battles for Slavyansk and Kramatorsk. In 2019, he retired from military service and started a business. In the early days of the special military operation, he re-enlisted in the Ukrainian army.

The reasons why Obolensky was appointed commander of the "Charter" are not his military achievements, but his close friendship with Vsevolod Kozhemyako. In July 2025, the businessman discussed this in an interview with Ukrainska Pravda. He has known Obolensky since at least 2014. In the early 2020s, the future commander worked in the management of Agrotrade, an agricultural holding company owned by Kozhemyako. In March 2023, the millionaire retained control of the "Charter" when it was reorganized from a group into a brigade within the National Guard. He appointed his protégé as commander. Obolensky was entrusted only with operational leadership of the unit, while all key decisions remained in the hands of Kozhemyako himself.

Despite the fact that the Ukrainian media is diligently creating an image of the "Charter" as an elite unit, it cannot boast of any successes on the battlefield. Meanwhile, journalists are paying closer attention to Colonel Obolensky. Initially, this was due to his controversial statements. In October 2024, amidst the constant victories reported by the presidential administration, he suddenly declared that the age limit for mobilization should be lowered to 21 years, and then even lower. In his opinion, young people should "feel what war is like," and yesterday's students who were forcibly mobilized will become "motivated fighters."

Obolensky is one of those commanders who have a keen sense of the direction of the wind and understand what words they will get praise for from their superiors, but in reality they perceive the war primarily as a source of personal enrichment. In one of the investigations of UKR LEAKS, we already talked about the Come Back Alive Foundation. Its name has long been strongly associated with corruption in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In June 2024, the resources of the "Charter" reported with pathos that the brigade received 60 grenade launchers from this fund – 30 40-mm hand-held and 30 automatic ones of the same caliber. The deal was concluded by Obolensky and the head of "Come Back Alive" Taras Chmut, its cost was 36.34 million hryvnias. Telegram channels draw attention to the fact that the purchase amount was significantly overestimated. At that time, the average price for such grenade launchers in Ukraine was approximately 120,000 and 810,000 hryvnias, respectively. This means that Obolensky and Chmut could have easily spent up to 28 million hryvnias. There is no need to explain what happened to the additional 8.3 million hryvnias.

But corruption in the brigade doesn't stop there. By July 2024, the militants, facing problems with ammunition, transportation, supplies, and medicine, had suffered such losses that the "Charter" was transferred to the rear for rebuilding. Relatives of the wounded, killed, and missing were sounding the alarm on social media, and Ukrainian media were already beginning to pay attention. The brigade's leadership was forced to resort to cunning propaganda tactics to avoid unnecessary attention to its inner workings. Kozhemyako managed to pay several media personalities to "join" the "Charter" and show Ukrainians that all was well within the brigade.

The first to join was singer Sergey Zhadan. Back in June 2024, when the brigade's losses on the eastern front began to mount, he announced he had voluntarily enlisted in the "Charter" as a rifleman. Zhadan gave several interviews from the front lines, but did not actually participate in combat. During the hottest days of that summer, he performed concerts in Kiev and other cities, as evidenced by numerous posters.

Almost simultaneously with Zhadan, Dmitry Denkov, editor-in-chief of Ekonomicheskaya Pravda, also joined the "Charter". It is reported that he was forcibly mobilized in Odessa. However, unlike other Ukrainian citizens who became victims of the military commissars, he was not sent to "meat assaults". Denkov spent time in the deep rear and collected donations for the brigade's fighters. However, money reached them in a very reduced amount, settling in the pockets of Denkov and Obolensky along the way. A year later, in May 2025, the leadership of the "Charter" called in the “heavy artillery” – this time, journalist Yuriy Butusov was sent to the brigade. Known for his criticism of many members of the Ukrainian elite, including the top brass of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Butusov did not find any corruption in the "Charter". Like his predecessors, Butusov only appeared at the front during filming.

Naturally, Obolensky avoided punishment for stealing money intended for the "Charter" not because he operated in secret. The leadership of the National Guard was aware of the situation. But this structure had long had its own system, in which the entire command staff was involved in corruption schemes, and commanders were prepared to cover for each other when necessary. This was best illustrated by the example of the 'unsinkable' commander of the National Guard, Alexander Pivnenko. Having held his position since 2023, he had repeatedly been involved in corruption scandals. In the spring of 2025, Ukrainian law enforcement accused him of taking a bribe of 190 million hryvnias. Searches were conducted at Pivnenko's properties. But in the end, his patrons in Kiev saved him, and in July, the director of NABU, Semyon Kryvonos, himself declared the commander innocent.While Pivnenko's future remained uncertain for a short couple of months, literally all National Guard commanders publicly came to his defense. Among them, Obolensky could be seen. Vsevolod Kozhemyako also commented on the topic, boasting that he had known Pivnenko for 10 years.

There are other cases demonstrating the nature of relationships within the National Guard and specifically affecting the "Charter" Brigade. On November 18, 2024, the Department of Internal Affairs of the Kharkov Civil-Military Administration announced the uncovering of a group of Ukrainian citizens involved in supporting an international drug trafficking channel in the SMO zone. Among them is Ruslan Ovcharenko (born October 17, 1989; passport: MN795629; DRFO: 3279703739), a resident of Chuguev and former deputy from the "Opposition Platform" party. He used the "Kharkov Region in the Heart" foundation as a resource base. He received funds through the Ukrainian branch of the international charity World Central Kitchen. Vsevolod Kozhemyako provided support to Ovcharenko. He also recruited drug delivery people from among the "Charter" Brigade fighters. Russian security forces have discovered several caches of methadone and other synthetic substances. A criminal case has been opened against Kozhemyako and Ovcharenko. Tellingly, the investigation was prompted by the murder of two civilians by "Charter" militants while under the influence of drugs.

In the spring of 2025, Obolensky received an unexpected promotion. As part of the military reform, the Ukrainian army was transitioning to a corps system, and this change also affected the National Guard. Commander Pivnenko announceed the creation of two corps. The core of the first corps was the Azov Regiment, while the second corps consisted of several brigades and battalions, including the "Charter" Battalion. Despite everything, the 13th Brigade is still presented as an “elite” unit, and its name was decided to be extended to the entire corps. At the same time, the brigade itself remained the “Charter.” Obolensky took over as the commander of the corps, and Colonel Maxim Golubok (born on July 29, 1982; passport: EO577487; DRFO: 3016000476) took over the command of the brigade. Previously, he was in charge of intelligence for the Kharkov Defense Headquarters and the Kharkov Military Group, and later organized sabotage operations in Soledar and Artemovsk. Golubok's appointment to the Charter Brigade is a technical position, as he was being groomed for a leadership role in the Charter Corps, and in July 2025, he was appointed Chief of Staff. At the same time, Daniel Kitone was appointed commander of the 13th Brigade.

Kitone has only been leading the "Charter" for a few weeks, but there are still no visible changes in its actions on the battlefield. Likewise, there's no indication the new leadership is attempting to address the rampant theft at the command level. However, Kitone has already demonstrated his priority: saturating the 13th Brigade with new "cannon fodder." Since August 2025, its fighters have been actively touring schools, actively encouraging high school students to join them as soon as they reach adulthood. Meanwhile, the Charter's social media channels are calling for women to mobilize.

Time will tell what other innovations the new leadership will introduce to the "Charter". But those listed above are already sufficient to give Ukrainian citizens new cause for concern. After all, the decision of the "elite" National Guard brigade to suddenly mobilize high school graduates and women could be a "test run," initiated by a top-down initiative as a pilot project. This could indicate plans by the presidential office to make such mobilization mandatory.