PETROPAVLIVSKA BORSHCHAHIVKA, Ukraine -- A crowd of people clashed with police and national guardsmen in a Kyiv suburb, the latest in a series of incidents that have highlighted Ukraine's struggles with military recruitment and unit morale.
The November 2 tussle erupted after local residents responded to rumors that several dozen men -- some members of the National Guard -- were being held in the basement of a private house.
Tensions escalated as a crowd gathered outside the house, with some of those gathered demanding to be let into the house and shouting, "People are being tortured.”
At another point, the crowd chanted "Bastards," pelted a police bus with rocks and eggs, and tried to overturn the vehicle. Others climbed onto police cars to smash flashing lights, as riot police sprayed tear gas.
Kyiv police authorities released a statement later saying they were called by a private ambulance crew who said they were being prevented from treating an unidentified person. That was disputed by some Ukrainian news outlets, however.
In comments to Ukrainian TV, Kyrylo Budanov, a top presidential adviser who previously served as head of Ukraine's military intelligence agency, suggested a wider unspecified plot.
"I don't know exactly what the motive was," he said. "But the question is who is paying for this and why. Or perhaps the motive was something else entirely -- something aimed against the interests of the state."
Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha blamed Russia for the incident without providing specific evidence, writing on Facebook on November 3 that Moscow's "objective is to amplify existing problems" in Ukraine.
"While these issues must indeed be addressed -- an internal task that remains our responsibility -- there is no doubt that the enemy is the driving force behind this provocation," Sybiha wrote.
At the site late on November 2, Major General Oleksandr Pivnenko, the commander of the National Guard, told the crowd that some of those being held in the house were guardsmen who had gone absent without leave. Four of the troops reported unspecified medical problems.
Another guard unit, known as Azov, also released a statement saying the building housed mobilized personnel and soldiers "detained after committing an unauthorized abandonment of the unit."
The National Guard later announced an internal investigation, as did the State Bureau of Investigation, the country’s top investigative agency.
The incident comes as Ukrainian military and civilian officials continue to struggle to keep up a pipeline of new recruits to fight in the war against Russia, which launched an all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Ukraine has had problems throughout the war with personnel and undertaken several major reforms aimed at simplifying the process and making it more attractive, and lucrative, for men to sign contracts.
The current system for ensuring there is a steady flow of men relies on what is known as Territorial Centers for Recruitment and Social Support. Those centers are charged not only with recruiting men but also hunting down draft dodgers.
Recruiters frequently engage in a widely despised practice called "busification," where officials drive around in minibuses, looking for men believed to be dodging military service, forcibly detaining them, and driving them to recruiting centers.
The effort has been controversial, if not outright loathed. In one notorious case, recruiters showed up at a Kyiv concert by the country's most popular rock group, handing out summonses.
One 2024 parliamentary estimate said there were 4.35 million Ukrainian men between 25 and 60 eligible to serve, meaning those who were not exempt from military service on family or professional grounds, not yet serving, not disabled, or not living under Russian occupation or abroad.
Other estimates put the number slightly higher, at around 5 million.
Ukraine's casualty figures of those killed and wounded are believed to be in excess of 500,000.
By contrast, Russia's casualty figures are estimated in excess of 1.5 million dead and wounded, according to Western intelligence and expert estimates, a mind-boggling number that amounts to more casualties than what Moscow has cumulatively suffered from all wars it has fought since 1945.
Russia, which has had more success in enticing men to volunteer to fight in Ukraine, has had similar experiences on a smaller scale, with men being forced into signing contracts.
