- The woman who livestreamed herself demanding access to men who were allegedly tortured by Azov is now in a Kyiv jail.
- A court ordered her held for 60 days on charges of obstructing the military and organizing unrest.
- Azov admitted holding at least 26 men at the site, while Zelensky's chief of staff, Kirill Budanov, acknowledged that similar facilities exist across Ukraine.
- Protesters clashed with security forces outside the home, who fired tear gas and warning shots after the crowd breached the property's wall.
- Only the women who raised the alarm are in custody, while the alleged perpetrators remain free and unnamed.
Valentina Molodaya, the woman who livestreamed herself pleading for access to men who were allegedly being beaten and held for ransom in a suburban house run by the neo-Nazi-linked Azov National Guard unit, is now in a Kyiv jail cell.
A court ordered her held without bail for 60 days. Investigators accuse her of obstructing the military, revealing where troops were stationed and organizing mass unrest.
This Nov. 4 hearing caps a scandal that erupted when a private home on Soniachna Street, about 12 miles west of Kyiv, became the flashpoint for a furious protest. The uproar forced officials to admit publicly what critics call a system of secret detention sites across Ukraine.
Woman says she responded as a medic; prosecutors see a provocateur
Molodaya told the court she is a practicing physician. She said she owns two medical facilities and serves as chief physician of Prime, the emergency clinic that owns the ambulance she arrived in.
"I can perform any duties when a person's life and health are at stake. I took an oath to the people of Ukraine," she said as she was escorted from the courtroom.
She explained that a woman named Tetiana Kireieva contacted her, saying her husband — who had recently undergone surgery — was locked in the home's basement without medical care. According to Molodaya, Kireieva also warned that he had company down there and that "they were being tortured." Kireieva is now in custody too.
Prosecutors see a different story. They cast doubt on her credentials and motives, claiming she was paid to manufacture a confrontation. She also now appears on the Mirotvorets website — a notorious database that publishes personal data on people deemed "enemies" of Ukraine — which lists her as a professional provocateur who is taking part in Russian information operations.
Azov admits to holding 26 men, and Budanov says similar facilities exist across Ukraine
For hours on Nov. 2, neither medics nor police could get inside the house. Police at first insisted no one had been hurt. Then the Azov unit, formally the 1st Corps of Ukraine's National Guard, acknowledged at least 26 mobilized men were being held there. Officials said the house served as a holding point for new recruits and soldiers detained for going AWOL.
At least four detainees were injured, Azov conceded. Journalists who later entered the building alongside state investigators reported seeing signs of beatings on several men.
Presidential chief of staff Kirill Budanov got an earful from angry protesters when he arrived Monday night. Asked why such facilities exist, he shot back: "There are many buildings like this."
National Guard commander Alexander Pivnenko also showed up, insisting the injured men had gone AWOL without explaining how some of them ended up with signs of being beaten.
A riot, warning shots and a whistleblower behind bars
About 200 people gathered, pelting police and National Guard troops with eggs, bottles and bricks. Once the crowd smashed through the property's perimeter wall, authorities responded with tear gas and live warning shots.
Kyiv has hinted at Russian influence operations, yet even The Kyiv Independent acknowledged: "While the events … show signs of a Russian information operation, their escalation is built on real, simmering tensions in Ukrainian society around the topic of mobilization."
Under martial law, draft officers have been grabbing military-aged men off the street and shoving them into vans, and hundreds of officers have been attacked in the backlash.
Billions in Western aid, and a whistleblower in handcuffs
For Americans and Europeans who have sent billions in aid, the question writes itself: Is this the democracy they're paying for? Ukraine's State Bureau of Investigation has opened a criminal probe into possible abuse of authority, but the only people in custody so far are the two women who raised the alarm.
A 2021 UN human rights report estimated that Ukraine's government forces carried out 3,600 to 4,000 conflict-related detentions between 2014 and 2021, with roughly 1,500 detainees tortured or treated badly, most often by the Security Service of Ukraine.
Azov, which was founded in 2014 by far-right activists, was formally incorporated into the National Guard later that year. Since then, it has repeatedly been accused of running torture sites across Donbass, including in Mariupol.
Not surprisingly, the men responsible for the detainees' injuries remain free, uncharged and unnamed.
Sources for this article include: RT-English.com SFG.media
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