MOSCOW, November 2. /TASS/. Ukraine’s law enforcement officers opened gunfire near the house in a village outside Kiev where hundreds of protesters are rallying against holding conscripts and deserters in the basement, the Strana news outlet reported.
It has released a video shot near the house that features the sounds of gunfire. According to its report, the protest has "escalated into a violent phase." Protesters are again attempting to storm the fence and are smashing the windows of a police bus. In response, security forces opened fire.
The UNIAN news agency also reported that special forces have arrived at the scene. Apart from that, head of Vladimir Zelensky’s office Kirill Budanov (designated in Russia as a terrorist and extremist) has arrived at the building.
The Ukrainian media reported earlier on Monday that armed people are holding around 40 people in the basement of a single-family house in Petropavlovskaya Borshshagovka, a community on the outskirts of Kiev. An ambulance arrived at the site after a medical worker said that she had received a video featuring people in critical condition held in the basement. Many of them had injuries consistent with torture, she said. The armed people guarding the building however did not let the medics in. Clashes erupted around the house and when locals tried to break down the gate, tear gas was used against them The ambulance crew was allowed to take four injured people to the hospital only after the case attracted widespread attention. One of them was in serious condition.
Later, the police said that the building housed servicemen of Ukraine’s National Guard. Ukrainian National Guard Commander Alexander Pivnenko has acknowledged that the building’s basement is being used to hold servicemen who have left their units without authorization, as well as newly mobilized men. He also said that the four men taken by ambulance were servicemen detained for leaving heir units without authorization.