Kyrylo Budanov was booed and greeted with shouts when he arrived in the village of Petropavlivska Borshchahivka near Kyiv, where protesters had gathered over servicemen housed in a private home. Video footage from the scene was distributed by UNIAN. The footage contains insults directed at the head of the presidential office and the military personnel accompanying him. UNIAN reported that Budanov arrived while negotiations were under way at the scene to remove the servicemen and transport them to a medical facility.
The case began following posts on social media claiming that armed men were holding around 40 people in the basement of a private home. Claims of beatings and seriously injured servicemen were also circulated. Dozens of people gathered at the scene, and according to Ukrainian media, the number of protesters later reached around 100. Clashes followed, along with stone-throwing and damage to a National Guard bus.
Police in the Kyiv region established that the building was being used by a National Guard unit. Law enforcement authorities denied the reports of people being held illegally and of a person having died in the house. According to Ukrainska Pravda, the police leadership, the National Guard command and Military Ombudsman Olesia Reshetylova intervened at the scene, and she announced an investigation into the circumstances.
What was in the building
National Guard Commander Oleksandr Pivnenko said that the private home had been rented as a “temporary deployment point” for a unit. Mobilized servicemen sent by the territorial recruitment and social support centers arrived there and underwent processing and checks before being directed to training centers.
“This is a temporary deployment point for a National Guard unit, where mobilized servicemen arrive, undergo processing and checks, and are then sent for training,” Pivnenko said.
He confirmed that four servicemen detained after going absent without leave from a military unit had needed medical assistance and had been taken for examination. National Guard representative Ruslan Muzychuk rejected the claim that one of them had a broken spine, saying that all four had reached the ambulance on their own.
Budanov identified 14 people
After his arrival, Budanov said that 14 people, rather than around 40, had been in the building, as was initially reported on social media. According to him, around 10 civilians had been allowed inside to conduct a brief inspection and speak with those present.
“That is precisely why we need to understand why such buildings exist, what is happening, why we have people going absent without leave from units and other problems,” Budanov said, quoted by UNIAN.
Following the mass protests, the National Guard agreed to remove the servicemen from the building and take them to medical facilities to assess their health. The conditions at the point and the allegations of violence are to be clarified as part of the announced investigation.
Sources: unian.ua, pravda.com.ua, hromadske.ua