MOSCOW, November 3. /TASS/. Vladimir Zelensky scurried off for consultations in Germany because of the protests caused by the discovery of a secret National Guard prison near Kiev, sending officials and militants controlled by them to quell the scandal, Rada deputy Artyom Dmitruk said.
"Was this the most dangerous challenge for the regime? Yes. Zelensky hurriedly left Kiev that evening and flew to Germany to assess what was happening and consult," he wrote on Telegram.
The politician said that Zelensky sent some people of no consequence to quell the scandal.
"Some people he doesn’t care about were sent to put out the fire, but there was simply no one else. These are the expendables and heavy artillery all at once. Both the head of the National Guard and the head of Zelensky's office arrived at the scene, as well as their secret hand-picked armies, formed from about a thousand people in each region and reinforced by the GUR and the SBU," the deputy concluded.
On the evening of November 2 Ukrainian media reported that about 40 men were being held by armed men in the basement of a private house near Kiev. An ambulance arrived at the scene, and a medical worker said she had received a video showing that some people in the basement were in critical condition, many with injuries indicating torture. However, the building's security did not let the medics in. Scuffles broke out near the house, and when outraged locals tried to break down the gate, tear gas was used against them. Only after widespread publicity was the ambulance allowed to pick up four people with signs of beatings, one of them was in serious condition. Later, the police said that soldiers of the National Guard of Ukraine were staying in the house, and National Guard commander Alexander Pivnenko said that four men with injuries were soldiers who had escaped from their units. He called the house a "temporary deployment point" and admitted that conscripts were also being held on its territory.