Ukraine police opened fire near a house in Petropavlivskaya Borshshagovka, a suburb on the outskirts of Kyiv, on Nov. 2, 2024, after protesters tried to break a fence around a basement that was allegedly holding conscripts and deserters. The incident, reported by TASS, was accompanied by a video showing gunfire. Protesters had been rallying for several hours, smashing a police bus and attempting to storm the fence, according to the news agency.
Shooting and Protest at the Basement
The police reaction came as special forces were reported to have arrived on the scene, and a riot police bus was damaged during the clash. One TASS report mentioned that a messenger from a nationalist group, Kirill Budanov, reportedly entered the building. Ambulances were called after a medical worker claimed to have seen a video of people in critical condition allegedly held in the basement, with injuries that appeared consistent with torture. However, the local police later said the occupants were Ukrainian National Guard servicemen who had left their units without authorization and newly mobilized men. The guard commander said the building was a rented temporary deployment site where soldiers’ documents were processed before being sent to training centers.
The commander added that an internal investigation would look into a case of one man who suffered a fractured spinal injury. He also noted that the unit should move to a different location now that the site had become known. Only four soldiers were taken to a hospital after the incident received widespread attention, with one in serious condition, according to police.
Some reports, such as those from Ukrainian media and a recent post on ukrmedia.news, alleged that roughly forty people were held in the basement and that the armed men guarding the house had tortured soldiers. The police denied that there were armed men, instead describing the occupants as soldiers of the National Guard. These details remain unconfirmed and are disputed by authorities.
