Crowd besieges National Guard site outside Kyiv over claims draftees were held and beaten

FACTS

Hundreds of people surrounded a private house used by Ukraine's National Guard in Petropavlivska Borshchahivka, a village on the edge of Kyiv, on Monday after Telegram channels claimed armed men were holding about 40 people in the basement and that one had died. Protesters threw eggs, broke through a brick wall and tried to stop a bus carrying men out; troops answered with tear gas and shots in the air, Kyiv Independent reporters at the scene said.

National Guard commander Oleksandr Pivnenko said the house is a temporary station for newly mobilized men and for soldiers caught after going absent without leave, and that four of them were taken to hospital, Interfax-Ukraine reports. Police called the hostage and death reports false. The Azov 1st Corps said the claims of torture were untrue.

Presidential Office head Kyrylo Budanov came to the scene Monday night and called it "a classic street-level protest" that was keeping injured men from reaching hospital. He said investigators and prosecutors would decide whether the men were held lawfully. The National Guard has opened an internal investigation and the military ombudsman is on site.