Ukraine has launched a criminal probe against a number of former top military commanders over their failure to ensure combat readiness of the country's armed forces since 1996, Ukraine's chief military prosecutor said Tuesday, Oct 7, according to RIA Novosti.

"The military prosecutor's office has opened a criminal investigation over neglect of official duty against former top officials of the Defense Ministry and the General Staff, who signed documents... that led to the situation where out of six brigades on paper [in spring 2014] we managed to put together only a unit of 400 soldiers [rather than several thousand]," Anatoly Matios, Ukraine's chief military prosecutor, said.

Among the officials under investigation are former defense ministers, including Yuriy Yekhanurov, Mykhailo Yezhel and Pavlo Lebedyev, as well as several former chiefs of the General Staff, Matios said.