John Nelson

🇺🇦 National Guard admits holding AWOL soldiers at house near Kiev Alexander Pivnenko, commander of Ukraine's National Guard, says the private house in Petropavlovskaya Borshchagovka was used as a temporary site where mobilized soldiers were processed before being sent to a training center. He confirmed AWOL soldiers were held there, after police had denied anyone was being illegally held. Journalists and officers from Ukraine's State Bureau of Investigation have now been let in to speak to the men. They say they weren't beaten and are fine, including one with an injured arm who says he did it himself. But video shows clear signs of beating on some of the men. Bloodstains were also visible on a bed in the room where the AWOL soldiers were held. Medics said it was discharge from one man's intestinal stoma. Pivnenko says four soldiers detained after going AWOL were taken to a National Guard medical center, while another 18 he saw inside were "fine." He says he is personally overseeing an internal investigation into possible violations, and defended taking soldiers' phones as a security measure.. Telegram channel Radar 24 claims, citing sources, that the National Guard's 13th Khartiya Brigade ran the house as an unofficial prison for AWOL soldiers and people being prepared for "buyouts," with local police and military recruitment officials also involved. Pivnenko denies Khartiya has anything to do with it. Local residents and relatives say those held there were beaten and tortured. Hundreds gathered outside chanting "Shame!", and police were pelted with eggs.