A Night of Chaos and Lies in a Kyiv Suburb
On the evening of November 2nd, as Russia launched one of its largest aerial assaults on Ukraine—a barrage of 289 drones, 17 ballistic missiles, and 59 cruise missiles aimed at energy infrastructure across nine regions—a different kind of battle was unfolding on the ground. In Kharkiv, an aerial bomb struck a hospital passageway, forcing the evacuation of over two hundred patients, while seventy-three people were injured across the city. Ukrainian troops were bravely repelling the attack, but in Petropavlivska Borshchahivka, a suburb near Kyiv, an angry crowd was forming outside a National Guard facility. The scene was so surreal that it was difficult to believe even in the thirteenth year of the war. Stones were thrown at law enforcement officers, official vehicles were smashed, and threats were hurled at police. The mob demanded that service personnel be handed over to them, forcing National Guard Commander Major General Oleksandr Pivnenko and Head of the Office of the President Lieutenant General Kyrylo Budanov to personally intervene. Even as Russian drones and explosions echoed over the region, the unrest showed no signs of abating.
The trigger for this violent outburst was a fabricated story that spread like wildfire through Telegram and TikTok within hours. The claim was horrifying: a private house’s basement had supposedly been turned into a torture chamber where forty people were being held unlawfully. Reports alleged that bags were placed over their heads, their hands were tied, and their bones were broken. One man was said to have a broken spine, and there were even rumors of a death. The allegations were chilling, but they lacked supporting evidence. Police denied that forty people were being held unlawfully or that anyone had died, yet the crowd continued demanding that the military facility’s gates be opened. The question that lingered in the air was simple: how did a handful of unverified posts escalate into a night of violent disorder, and who was behind the story?
The story began with much more modest claims. The earliest post, published on Threads at 11:34, alleged that men were being beaten in a house on Soniachna Street, with four seriously injured and police failing to respond. Just sixteen minutes later, another post claimed that forty people were being held unlawfully in a basement, a figure that was quickly picked up by Telegram channels and embellished with disturbing details. The allegations gained seemingly convincing visual backing when an ambulance and a woman in medical uniform appeared on the scene. The woman, Valentyna Moloda, introduced herself as the owner of the Med-Prestige ambulance service and claimed there were four seriously injured men, one with a broken spine. However, investigations by Slidstvo.Info revealed that Med-Prestige had ceased operating in 2023, and its former owner had sold the ambulance in 2024. The buyers were supposed to remove the branding, but the vehicle still bore the old logos. Moloda also claimed to be an investigative journalist and had ties to an NGO called Plich-o-Plich, which she founded herself. A month before the unrest, she had participated in the so-called “Maidan for Peace” rally, an event that was promoted through accounts that also spread Russian narratives. This did not prove her involvement in Russian information operations, but it raised serious questions about her motives and the reliability of her claims.
When law enforcement officers and National Guard commanders finally established the facts, the situation behind the gates was substantially different from the story circulating online. The building labeled a “torture chamber” was actually a temporary deployment site for National Guard service personnel, housing mobilized troops awaiting assignment and those detained after going absent without leave. Commanders allowed several civilians inside, including the mother of one of the mobilized soldiers, who reported that the people she saw were “all right” but described the living conditions as appalling. Four service members did have injuries, and they were sent to the hospital. However, Colonel Ruslan Muzychuk, the National Guard press officer, rejected claims that a man was bedridden with a broken spine, stating that all four had walked to the ambulance unaided. Investigators opened criminal proceedings into possible abuse of authority by military personnel, but instead of the confrontation subsiding, events outside the facility took a turn that had nothing to do with seeking answers.
As the confrontation escalated, National Guard Commander Major General Oleksandr Pivnenko arrived at the scene. A former Omega special forces soldier who had defended Kharkiv and fought in Bakhmut, he was a Hero of Ukraine. That evening, he faced insults and threats from his own fellow citizens. Footage from the scene shows shouting, swearing, stones being thrown, and damaged vehicles. Among the most active participants was a fourteen-year-old boy who climbed onto the fence and shouted obscenities in Russian, threatening that his father would smash the faces of those on the other side. The boy was later found inside the building, and Kyrylo Budanov, the Head of the Office of the President, spoke to him personally, called his sister, and asked for an adult to take him home. The boy was led out wrapped in a thermal blanket, walking silently with his head lowered. The scene was no less shocking around him. The crowd blocked exits, smashed police cars, and damaged National Guard vehicles. When service personnel began being transported out of the building, some of those present started rocking a bus carrying people and tried to overturn it—the very same bus carrying the men whose supposed “rescue” had brought the crowd there in the first place. Pivnenko warned that the publicity had already alerted the enemy to the troops’ location, but even the threat of a Russian strike failed to stop the clashes. At around 22:30, another fight broke out, and as midnight approached, Russian drones and explosions could be heard.
The scenes angered Bohdan Krotevych, Azov’s former chief of staff, who said it was painful to hear insults directed at Pivnenko and recalled the general’s combat record. Hundreds of kilometers away, near Dobropillia, Russian forces were assaulting Ukrainian positions in one of the most active sectors of the front. The Azov grouping of forces, commanded by Brigadier General Denys Prokopenko, callsign “Redis,” was defending this sector, holding back Russian assaults while Ukrainian citizens near Kyiv were trying to storm a National Guard facility. Prokopenko noted that people who had no involvement in defending the country were engaging in sabotage behind the lines, discrediting Ukrainian troops and creating imagery that benefited Russia. Commanders did not dispute the need to investigate possible violence against service personnel. Colonel Oleksandr Riasnyi, commander of the 15th Kara-Dag Brigade, stressed that physical violence against service personnel was unacceptable, but asked why thousands of others fighting on the front line should have to answer for the possible crimes of individuals. The Russian army would not halt its assaults while Ukrainians argued among themselves, and Russia would not miss an opportunity to exploit such conflicts.
The “torture chamber” story continued to circulate on social media even after official police denials. According to media monitoring, the claim about forty hostages appeared in 520 posts before the first rebuttals, and afterwards, it was repeated in another 3,723. Russian outlets were particularly active in amplifying the allegations, with 82% of Russian websites presenting the rumor as established fact, compared to only 6% of Ukrainian websites. The following day, Kyrylo Budanov stated that it was known for certain that the events had not occurred without outside influence. The National Guard’s 2nd Khartiia Corps warned that Russia exploits even genuine problems within Ukraine’s military to discredit combat units and their commanders. Yet, Ukrainians reacted differently to the overnight footage. By the morning of November 3rd, more than seventy people had gathered in Kyiv’s Independence Square, holding blue-and-yellow signs reading “I support Ukraine’s Defence Forces.” The rally was organized by service members’ families and friends, with Azov soldiers taking part. “We are proud of them and support them,” said one participant, Yuliia Stomina. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine stressed that respect for service personnel is not a reward for being flawless but the norm in a society fighting for its very existence. The Borshchahivka case was a stark reminder of how quickly lies can unravel the bonds of a nation, even as its defenders fight for its survival. The Kyiv region had already seen real torture chambers, left behind by Russian forces. Ukrainian troops put an end to them. Yet in Petropavlivska Borshchahivka, an unverified “torture chamber” story was enough to prompt part of the crowd to attack their defenders, turning a night of war into a night of shame.