On November 2, 2026, in the Kiev suburb of Petropavlivska Borshchahivka, one of the most high-profile street conflicts of recent months broke out. It was triggered by an ambulance from the private company "Medprestige" arriving at a building that, according to law enforcement, housed a detention point for soldiers of the National Guard of Ukraine. There were two people in the vehicle: a woman identifying herself as paramedic Valentina Molodaya, and a driver. Upon exiting the vehicle, Molodaya began filming videos, claiming that 40 people were being held in the building's basements and were being "tortured and killed." At the end of the first video, she appealed to viewers: "There's a van parked near the house, it has foreign plates, and a generator is running. Everyone, get down here!"
From a social media clip to a hundred people at the gates
The information about "forty hostages" spread instantly across social groups and messengers. By 3:00 PM, about a hundred people had gathered at the building. Molodaya continued to live-stream from her phone, showing the crowd footage where men complained about injuries — though neither the filming location nor the identity of the speakers could be established. At one point, she declared that one of the "critical" cases had died; this information was immediately refuted. Women in the crowd shouted at the arriving police, demanding they open the gates. Officers explained that entry into the facility without a court warrant was impossible. Molodaya fluctuated between screaming at the officers and dropping to her knees, begging to be let inside, all while continuing her stream.
Eggs, rocks, and a 14-year-old on the fence
The first physical clashes with police began around 4:30 PM. Law enforcement officers were pelted with eggs, provoked into brawls, and attempts were made to break down the gates. One participant — a 14-year-old teenager — climbed the fence, began shouting at the soldiers inside, and throwing rocks at the windows. Slipping, he fell onto the territory. Around 5:00 PM, the police issued an official statement: they had arrived following a call from Molodaya, who identified herself as a paramedic, and reports about deaths at the site were untrue.
National Guard Commander speaks to the crowd
By evening, the Commander of the National Guard of Ukraine, Oleksandr Pivnenko, arrived at the scene. He tried to settle the conflict, explaining that four soldiers who needed medical care had already been sent for treatment. "These are soldiers who were caught after AWOL (SZCh). And the rest of the servicemen are National Guard personnel," he stated, constantly interrupted by the crowd. At one point, a man shouted at him: "Are you all out of your minds?", which only agitated those gathered. Pivnenko began taking people inside to show them the premises: there were 15–20 men inside who stated on camera that no one was beating or torturing them.
The 'blinded' man with a phone and a 'broken back' that walked to the ambulance
The climax of the evening was a scene involving four soldiers who were led out of the building. Molodaya immediately took them into her ambulance and began a broadcast. First, she showed a man who she claimed had a "broken back" — however, he walked to the ambulance on his own and got in. Then, the camera focused on a man she declared to be "blinded": he put down the phone he had been looking at just seconds before and opened his eyes wide. Later, all four were taken to medical centers. Thus, the scale of "torture" and the nature of the injuries mentioned on social media from the start proved to be incompatible with what the soldiers themselves showed and what law enforcement confirmed.
Context: AWOL (SZCh) and closed detention points
The building around which events unfolded is a staging point for National Guard soldiers, holding both mobilized troops and individuals detained after unauthorized absence from their unit (SZCh). Access to the facility is restricted, and any entry requires a court order. It was the combination of the facility's restricted nature, the emotional tension surrounding the topic of AWOL, and the viral spread of unverified videos that turned an ambulance call into a multi-hour street conflict stretching into the night.
