Crowd clashes with National Guard outside house near Kyiv; Budanov steps in
A crowd surrounded a house in Petropavlivska Borshchahivka, near Kyiv, where Ukraine's National Guard was keeping mobilized men and soldiers detained after leaving their units. Shots were heard, and presidential chief of staff Kyrylo Budanov pointed to outside influence.
On November 2, several dozen people gathered outside a private house in the village of Petropavlivska Borshchahivka, near the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. Social media posts had claimed that armed people were holding about 40 people in the basement. Those gathered said soldiers who had left their units without permission were being held and beaten. The incident comes as Ukraine continues mobilization during the war with Russia.
One woman said her son, stopped on his way to work by staff of the TCC (territorial recruitment centre, or draft office), was held inside. Residents stormed the property and tried to break down the gate. Police arrived after private ambulance staff reported being barred from entering the house, where someone needed medical help.
Police called the reports of illegal detention false and said the house held servicemen of a National Guard of Ukraine unit. National Guard commander Oleksandr Pivnenko confirmed this. He said the Guard rents the house as a temporary deployment point where mobilized men are brought, processed and sent for training. Four men were handed to medics, and journalists reported that one had a broken spine. Pivnenko said they were Guardsmen detained after leaving their unit, and that 18 more servicemen inside were "all fine." The Guard's 1st Azov Corps said that if illegal violence is established, those responsible will be punished.
The Kyiv Independent correspondent Francis Farrell estimated about 100 people at the scene, mostly young men, women and teenagers. Eggs, flares and bottles were thrown at police and soldiers, later followed by stones, smoke grenades and firecrackers. On the evening of November 3, Budanov arrived and climbed inside. He said 14 people were in the house, including a 14-year-old boy. When an attempt was made to take the servicemen away by National Guard bus, the crowd blocked it, and gunshots were heard. Near midnight, masked young men dispersed the crowd; their identities are unknown.
Budanov called the events unacceptable and damaging to Ukrainian unity, and said they did not happen without outside influence. Slidstvo.Info reported that 49-year-old Valentina Molodaya, who described herself as owner of a private clinic, spread the claims. Budanov later said she had been detained and had acted according to a plan prepared in advance.
