Gunfire Reported Near House Holding National Guard Personnel Outside Kyiv

Dragon Media News Desk

Security forces opened fire outside a house near Kyiv as residents protested the detention of conscripts and soldiers who had left their units, Russian news agency TASS reported, citing Ukrainian media.

Strana reported that the protest turned violent after demonstrators tried to break through a fence and smashed the windows of a police bus. Security forces then opened fire, it said. TASS also reported that a video released from the scene captured the sound of gunshots. These accounts have not been independently verified.

Ukrainian media reported that special forces arrived at the scene. Kyrylo Budanov, head of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, was also reported to have arrived.

Earlier on Monday, media reports alleged that around 40 people were being held in the basement of a house in Petropavlivska Borshchahivka, near Kyiv. An ambulance was sent after a medical worker said she had received a video showing people in critical condition in the basement. The reports quoted her as saying that some had injuries consistent with torture. Armed guards reportedly prevented medical workers from entering the building.

Media reports said tear gas was used when residents tried to break through the gate. Four injured people were later allowed to be taken to hospital, one of them in serious condition.

Police later said the building housed Ukrainian National Guard personnel. National Guard Commander Oleksandr Pivnenko acknowledged that the basement was being used to hold servicemen who had left their units without authorisation, as well as newly mobilised men, TASS reported. He said the four taken to hospital were servicemen detained for leaving their units without authorisation.