MOSCOW, November 2. /TASS/. Ukrainian National Guard Commander Alexander Pivnenko has acknowledged that the basement of a private house in Petropavlovskaya Borshchagovka near Kiev is being used to hold not only servicemen who have left their units without authorization but also newly mobilized men.
"This house is a temporary deployment site for a National Guard unit. Servicemen mobilized by a territorial recruitment center (Ukraine’s military enlistment office - TASS) arrive there, have their documents processed and undergo checks before being sent [...] to a training center," he told the UNIAN news agency.
Pivnenko said the house is rented. He explained that mobilized men could not be sent to training centers individually, so the unit was being assembled at this "deployment site." Commenting on the case of one man who suffered a spinal fracture, the commander said an internal investigation would be conducted to determine the extent of any wrongdoing. A journalist asked what needed to change. Pivnenko said the unit should move to a different location now that its current site had become known.
Earlier on Monday, Ukrainian media reported that armed men were holding around 40 people in the basement of a private house in Petropavlovskaya Borshchagovka, a community on the outskirts of Kiev. An ambulance arrived at the scene after a medical worker said she had received a video showing that some of those in the basement are in critical condition and that many had injuries indicating torture. However, the armed men guarding the building refused to let the medical personnel inside.
Clashes broke out outside the house, and tear gas was used against residents who tried to break down the gate. Police later said that the building housed Ukrainian National Guard servicemen. 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.