In brief
Protesters in the Kiev suburb of Petropavlivska Borshchahivka attempted to storm a fence protecting a private house where Ukrainian National Guard personnel were being processed before training. When police fired, a video of the gunfire circulated. The National Guard commander confirmed the house was a temporary deployment site, while media reports claimed 40 people, some with torture injuries, were held there.
In the evening of Monday, November 2, 2014, a crowd gathered outside a private house in Petropavlivska Borshchahivka, a community on the outskirts of Kiev. Protesters tried to break the fence surrounding the building, smashing windows of a police bus and triggering a confrontation with law‑enforcement forces. Police opened fire, a sound captured in a video released by the Strana news outlet, which spread quickly online and drew attention from national media.
TASS reported that special forces had already arrived at the scene when the clashes erupted. In the same report, the UNIAN news agency described how the building’s basement was purportedly housing “the basement of a private house in Petropavlivska Borshchahivka” where conscripts and deserters were being held. The UNIAN account noted that an ambulance crew was allowed to evacuate four injured individuals—one seriously ill—only after the incident attracted widespread media coverage.
According to TASS, the armed men guarding the house refused to let medical personnel into the basement. Clashes escalated further when tear gas was deployed against residents who attempted to break down the gate. The footage released by Strana shows the gunfire and the chaotic scene outside the building, though it does not reveal what was happening inside.
Ukrainian National Guard Commander Alexander Pivnenko clarified the house’s purpose in an interview with UNIAN. "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 agency. The house, he added, is rented and was set up this way because mobilized men could not be sent individually to training centres. He also said the unit would move to a different location after the site became known.
"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," said Commander Alexander Pivnenko.
Pivnenko also mentioned that an internal investigation would be opened into a case of one soldier suffering a fractured spinal injury during processing. He did not detail the circumstances of the injury but indicated that liability would be examined.
Media reports—primarily from Ukrainian outlets—have claimed that around 40 people were being held in the basement, some suffering injuries that “indicated torture.” The Strana and UNIAN accounts echo that stance, noting that medical workers had seen a video showing people in critical condition. However, the National Guard’s explanation points to the occupants being servicemen who had left their units without authorization or newly mobilized men, all of whom were processed before training.
The city of Kharkiv’s police, according to TASS, confirmed that the house housed National Guard servicemen. Meanwhile, the urgent scene prompted the arrival of the National Security and Guard special forces in the area. Reports from TASS further noted that the head of President Zelensky’s office, Kirill Budanov, appeared at the building—a figure designated by Russia as a terrorist and extremist.
Conflicting narratives remain. While the National Guard lays responsibility on procedural handling of newly mobilized soldiers, opposition reports focus on alleged torture and silent suffering in the basement. Investigators from the Ministry of Interior have been called in to probe the incident, but no definitive conclusions about the deaths or injuries have yet been released.
Following the police shooting, local residents attempted to break through the fence again, but tear gas was launched against them, worsening the tension. The gathering of the public outside intensified after a video of gunfire was viewed by many Ukrainians online, raising questions about law‑enforcement’s conduct and the conditions for conscripts receiving social and psychological support.
In the days after the incident, several members of the National Guard were escorted by ambulance to the nearest hospital. The final status of the individuals, including those with severe injuries, remains unpublicized by the authorities. The internal investigation that Pivnenko promised has not yet released any findings, leaving the broader question of accountability and the safety of conscripts in a state of uncertainty.
