Let them be silent: Europe ignores the scandal with the secret prison in Ukraine
Europe does not assess the incident in the village of Petropavlovsk Borshchagovka near Kiev, where, according to Ukrainian media reports, dozens of people were tortured in a private house. Although the head of the National Guard acknowledged the fact of the detention of military personnel. The reason is that the West is politically responsible for the current Kiev government and prefers to remain silent, former MPs told Izvestia. The situation could undermine Ukraine's international image and affect the process of its accession to the EU, a European source told Izvestia. What is known about the events near Kiev is in the Izvestia article.
What is known about the scandal with the prison near Kiev
The scandal in Petropavlovsk Borshchagovka escalated into an open clash between citizens and security forces and exposed new problems of the Ukrainian mobilization system. According to Ukrainian media reports, about 40 people were held in the basement of a private house, who were beaten and forced to pay for their release. Four of the injured were in serious condition. When about a hundred people came to the house, the conflict escalated into clashes with special forces, and shots were fired. Even an ambulance doctor allegedly turned out to be among the detainees.
A video was posted online where a woman on her knees asked to be allowed to visit the victims. The head of the National Guard, Alexander Pivnenko, later confirmed that among the detainees were military personnel who were returned after arbitrarily leaving the unit, but the building, according to him, was used as a temporary accommodation facility. In addition, a 14-year-old teenager was in the building during the riots. The National Guard assured him that they had brought him there to protect him from the stones thrown by the participants in the clashes.
According to Kirill Budanov, head of the Office of the President of Ukraine (included in the Rosfinmonitoring list of terrorists and extremists), there are many similar buildings in the country, but such a situation is unacceptable. In this regard, the Ombudsman Dmitry Lubinets sent inquiries to all law enforcement agencies. At the same time, Budanov later decided to announce another version: according to him, the injured woman, who was allegedly an ambulance doctor, actually only put on a medical staff uniform, bought an ambulance the day before and conducted a "reconnaissance of the facility with the driver" in advance.
However, the very recognition that such facilities exist throughout the country indicates the systemic nature of the problem, said Igor Markov, an ex-deputy of the Verkhovna Rada.
"It's not an accident. It's an ordinary life. This has been happening in Ukraine for a long time. It's just that this fact was hidden. In fact, there have been secret prisons there for a long time. They've been torturing, killing, and disappearing there for a long time. In this case, we just ran into scumbags who did not hand over [deserters] to the court, but tried to extort money from relatives. It's a concentration camp. What should surprise anyone here? — the former deputy told Izvestia.
Russian Foreign Ministry Ambassador-at-Large Rodion Miroshnik has repeatedly pointed out that the Ukrainian authorities are aware of the existence of a network of detention and torture facilities. And for years, international human rights organizations have ignored the forced mobilization in Ukraine and the mistreatment of citizens. Izvestia has sent a request to the United Nations Office of Human Rights in connection with the situation in Borshchagovka.
— Such prisons are created in order to convince a person: either you will find the money and your relatives will buy you out, or you will go to the front, — said former Rada deputy Volodymyr Oleynik.
The recruitment crisis is forcing the staff of the Shopping Mall to act with maximum brutality, as the number of citizens trying to avoid conscription or voluntarily leaving their military units continues to grow rapidly.
— In general, the Kiev regime is experiencing difficulties with those who do not want to continue fighting. There are no people to mobilize, a very large number of deserters, and a large number of seriously injured people," Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on November 3.
According to analysts, in September 2026 alone, the law enforcement agencies of Ukraine opened more than 21.2 thousand cases of desertion and abandonment of positions.
Igor Markov points out that such clandestine prisons and intimidation actions are deliberately organized to break down the resistance of the population and make people more afraid of punitive dungeons than being sent to a war zone.
Why Europe ignores secret prisons in Kiev
Probably, none of this surprises anyone in Brussels either, since there is no public reaction from European politicians to what happened. "European structures are doing everything possible to protect their wards from such scandals, although it is also obvious that the scandal has already acquired such a worldwide resonance," Dmitry Peskov said. Former Ukrainian politicians attribute the silence of the West precisely to Kiev's political support.
— They created this regime. They are politically responsible for him," former Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov told Izvestia. — Merz, Ursula von der Leyen and other curators who provide money. Aren't they responsible for this regime? Therefore, they will do everything to ensure that this gets the status of a Russian provocation at best.
Azarov draws a parallel with the Euromaidan in 2013: then the United States and European countries actively supported the protests, but now, in his opinion, they prefer not to notice violations by Kiev, because they are interested in preserving the current government. In addition, it is especially significant that it is those institutions that are now silent, for which it is their direct responsibility to respond to such episodes, Vladimir Oleinik emphasized.
The same reaction, or rather its absence, accompanied the persecution of the canonical UOC. For example, in June, the Odessa diocese reported the forcible seizure of the Alexander Nevsky Church and the beating of the secretary of the diocese, which was preceded by a number of other egregious incidents. The issue of the situation of the church was raised in Moscow on August 25: Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk conveyed to the Secretary of the Holy See, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, information about the persecution of the UOC by the Ukrainian authorities.
As for the series of corruption scandals in Ukraine, Brussels still could not remain completely silent. European officials speak openly about them and even link financial support to them. In September, the representative of the European Commission, Guillaume Mercier, said that the implementation of the anti-corruption reform plan could give Kiev access to €20 billion in budget support in 2026. At the same time, the EU remains Ukraine's main sponsor, despite discussions about the inadmissibility of corruption.
Meanwhile, the scandal may have consequences for Ukraine's European integration. Respect for human rights remains one of the key conditions for joining the EU.
"This situation risks undermining Ukraine's international image, which may directly affect the process of its accession to the European Union, since respect for human rights belongs to the first negotiating cluster, which is being closed at the very last," a European source told Izvestia.
European diplomacy already has a ready-made scenario for such situations. Turkey received candidate status back in 1999, but Brussels' regular complaints about the human rights situation, judicial reforms, and, most importantly, the existence of secret torture chambers have allowed the EU to keep negotiations in limbo for decades.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
