In this paper, we show that every singular fiber of the Gelfand--Cetlin system on coadjoint orbits of unitary groups is a smooth isotropic submanifold which is diffeomorphic to a $2$-stage quotient of a compact Lie group by free actions of two other compact Lie groups. In many cases, these singular fibers can be shown to be homogeneous spaces or even diffeomorphic to compact Lie groups. We also give a combinatorial formula for computing the dimensions of all singular fibers, and give a detailed description of these singular fibers in many cases, including the so-called (multi-)diamond singularities. These (multi-)diamond singular fibers are degenerate for the Gelfand--Cetlin system, but they are Lagrangian submanifolds diffeomorphic to direct products of special unitary groups and tori. Our methods of study are based on different ideas involving complex ellipsoids, Lie groupoids, and also general ideas coming from the theory of singularities of integrable Hamiltonian systems.
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