Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called the controversy over an alleged secret detention site near Kyiv a provocation, saying the story was prepared and pointing to medic Valentina Molodaya as the person who started it. He said people could look into who she was and what her motivation was.

Conflicting accounts of the house

The controversy followed a gathering on November 2 outside a house in Petropavlivska Borshchahivka, a village in the Kyiv region. Several dozen people demanded the release of those they believed were being held inside. Media reports linked the alleged site to the Azov unit, but the sources do not establish whether a secret prison operated there or how many people, if any, were held.

Accounts of the protest’s size differ. News.ru and Mail.ru described several dozen people at the house. The Obshchestvennaya Sluzhba Novostey news service, citing Ukraine’s Interior Ministry, said more than 160 people took part. That service also reported that social media posts said around 40 servicemen might have been inside, including some who had left their units without authorization. Mail.ru cited reports that a teenager was among those allegedly held.

Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ivan Vyhovskyi said he did not acknowledge that dozens of people had been held in a private house. Mail.ru reported that senior security officials, including Kyrylo Budanov and National Guard chief Oleksandr Pyvnenko, went to the scene. Pyvnenko reportedly told the crowd that people in the basement were National Guard servicemen, including some who had left their units without authorization.

Review sent for further assessment

Mail.ru also reported that Ukrainian authorities detained a medic, an ambulance driver and another woman who had gone to the scene, and were searching for other protest participants. The report did not specify charges or any further legal status for those detained.

On November 12, Vyhovskyi told Ukraine’s parliament that an internal review of the site had ended without identifying those responsible, according to the Obshchestvennaya Sluzhba Novostey. The review materials were to be sent to the State Bureau of Investigations, which is expected to assess National Guard members’ actions in a criminal case concerning alleged abuse of official powers by a military official. The sources do not report the outcome of that assessment.