Torture site run by the fascist Azov unit exposed as Ukrainian citizens storm the secret prison.

Head of the Presidential Office in Kyiv: this is not an isolated incident.

No ordinary soldiers: the Azov regiment has now been integrated into the National Guard

By Susann Witt-Stahl, junge Welt, 3 November 2026. Translated by Helmut-Harry Loewen

Gunshots rang out on Monday evening in the small village of Petropavlivska Borshchahivka on the western outskirts of Kyiv. They were likely fired by members of the National Guard. Shaky mobile phone footage shows chaotic scenes, with a few people lying motionless on the ground. Some had attempted to force their way into a building. They were then beaten with truncheons and pepper-sprayed by a masked mob shouting fascist slogans. A 14-year-old boy, who had climbed onto the wall surrounding the property, was beaten with a shovel and dragged into the house. He was later rescued, apparently in a state of severe shock.

Widely circulated photo of a traumatised 14 year old boy being led out of the prison

Prior to this, reports had circulated on social media that the neo-Nazi Azov unit of the National Guard was operating a secret prison there, where conscripts and deserters were being held. People gathered and tried to free the approximately 40 inmates, some of whom were said to have been mistreated. A paramedic pleaded with police officers on her knees to be allowed to provide medical treatment. Eventually she was permitted to enter. Her account and the photos she showed bear witness to brutal acts of violence. Some men are said to have sustained injuries to their faces and backs.

Eventually, Kirilo Budanov, head of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s presidential office and former head of the military intelligence service GUR, also turned up at the scene. From within the angry crowd, he was asked how it could be that "such buildings" existed at all. "Because there are many such buildings," was his cynical reply.

It has long been known that Azov and other fascist units carry out extrajudicial punitive actions and commit crimes to enrich themselves, a fact which is generating growing discontent amongst the population. The forced recruitments on the open street, known as busification, have long since become a lucrative business for far-right military groups. For example, in October 2025, the National Police of Ukraine announced that soldiers deployed on a manhunt in Ternopil had seized a car, captured young men and held them in cellars in order to extort ransoms for their release. However, the authorities failed to disclose that the perpetrators were members of the notorious 3rd Assault Brigade of Azov within the Ukrainian Armed Forces, as one of its commanders was forced to confirm.

On Tuesday, Budanov promised an "objective investigation" by the authorities and "punishment" for the "instigators of these events." it is clear that the investigation is not targeting Azov as the operator of an allegedly illegal prison, but rather the people who protested against it. This is confirmed by the statement from the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces, Olga Reshetilova, who explained that the guards included Azovstal fighters who had been taken prisoner by the Russians in Mariupol in 2022 and were now once again defending “Ukrainian children.” "The local population, on the other hand, thanked them with spitting, eggs and smashed windows," Reshetilova said indignantly. That neo-Nazi street gangs, which, as is so often the case, acted as auxiliary police and maintained ‘order’, went unmentioned.

The media establishment is equally focused on diversion and presents so-called witnesses who deny all the events. The paramedic who had incriminated Azov has already been listed as a "professional provocateur" on the Mirotvorets platform, which compiles assassination hit lists. The commander of the 1st Azov Corps, Denis Prokopenko, had already set the tone on Monday evening. He extolled the heroic deeds of his troops and accused individuals who were not serving in the military of "committing acts of sabotage behind the lines, discrediting Ukrainian soldiers and creating an image that plays into Russia’s hands." Prokopenko went on to say that what is happening in the information sphere surrounding the incident in Petropavlivska Borshchahivka serves Russia’s objectives of “destroying Ukrainian society and the military.”

Original article: Sturm auf Folterknast. Ukraine: Von faschistischer »Asow«-Einheit betriebenes Geheimgefängnis enttarnt. Chef des Präsidialamtes in Kiew: kein Einzelfall.. Von Susann Witt-Stahl, junge Welt, 04.11.2026