Petropavlivska-Borshchagivka, Ukraine – A woman wearing a crisp new paramedic’s uniform and impeccable makeup kneels on the ground in front of several police officers guarding the rusty gates of a two-storey house. She begs, yells and curses, claiming that forcibly conscripted men are being held in the building in the tranquil suburb of Petropavlivska-Borshchagivka, outside the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. One of the men has already died, claims the woman, who was later identified as Valentyna Moloda, a 49-year-old nurse who once worked at a plastic surgery clinic and has never been authorised to practise as a paramedic.
The ambulance she arrived in carries the logos of a private medical company that reportedly stopped operating in 2023. A woman from Moloda’s “ambulance team” livestreams the scene as a crowd swells, joining in her chants demanding access to what she calls a “torture chamber.” “I’m on my knees, let me get to them,” Moloda screams, claiming that “armed people” allegedly “torture” 40 people inside who had evaded the draft. Her claims resonate with people at the impromptu rally, in a country where conscription officers have become reviled public servants due to their sometimes brutal tactics.
Protesters lob eggs at police and throw tomatoes at the house. The crowd grows to 500 people, with many clashing with officers until midnight. Officials say that Moloda’s “rescue mission” on Monday afternoon – one of the most polarising scandals in Ukraine – was fake and required preparation.
But it had already gone viral online, with tens of thousands of people around the world lamenting Ukraine’s handling of conscription. Glenn Diesen, a pro-Kremlin political analyst from Norway, shared a video and a photo on X of a teenager who fell while trying to film the house from the fence, claiming the boy was a victim of “great outrage and riots in Ukraine against the henchmen of [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy and NATO.” His post has been widely shared. Three days before Monday’s incident, Moloda and her driver “conducted a reconnaissance” of the house, Ukraine’s Chief of Staff Kyrylo Budanov said on Tuesday.
A former top military intelligence officer and one of Ukraine’s most popular and trusted public figures, Budanov interacted with Moloda at the time of the standoff. Several young men clashed with police and tried to kick the doors of the house open until officers let Moloda and her team inside. She came back minutes later to proclaim that she had just seen a man on the brink of death, another with a broken spine and one who was so badly beaten he was unable to talk.
The crowd, however, kept growing, damaging police cars and clashing with officers. Budanov arrived about six hours after Moloda started her livestream, and said that the besieged house on Solnichna Street had been used by the Azov Brigade, a former volunteer militia group of far-right nationalists and football fans that helped repel pro-Russian separatists in southeastern Ukraine in 2014. Azov said apprehended deserters were kept in the house, while Azov’s commander Denys Prokopenko called the scandal a “sabotage behind the lines that discredits Ukrainian servicemen and creates a narrative that benefits Russia”.
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