Overnight on November 4, a spontaneous protest in Petropavlovskaya Borshchagovka, a suburb of the Ukrainian capital, exposed a privately run torture facility.

In the context of the Ukraine conflict, such places are known as podvals, or “basements.” Held inside were so-called ukhylyanty – a Ukrainian term for draft evaders, derived from a verb meaning “to evade” or “to flee” – Ukrainian citizens unwilling, for various reasons, to serve in the military. Four of the detainees were subsequently hospitalized. Members of Ukraine’s National Guard had subjected them to violence and torture in an effort to force them into the 52nd International Assault Regiment.

To understand how this tragedy came about – and the abduction of citizens by their own security forces is undoubtedly a tragedy – we need to examine the origins of these units and the Ukrainian military’s current tactics.

A fish rots from the head

In about 2025, the Ukrainian armed forces faced a crippling shortage of personnel in their main mechanized units. They were also struggling to counter Russia’s use of small infantry teams to infiltrate their positions, a tactic that requires infantry on the ground to stop it. To address these problems, then-commander-in-chief Alexander Syrsky established assault regiments as his personal reserve, moving them from one sector to another to counter Russian advances. Kupyansk, Pokrovsk, Konstantinovka, Gulyaypole – wherever the Russian army was pushing forward, these regiments, known as “Syrsky’s Guard,” were there, taking heavy casualties.

Before long, Syrsky’s conflict with other powerful figures and factions within the Ukrainian state intensified. As part of a campaign to discredit him, local journalists published several investigations into the assault regiments. Among them was the notorious 425th Skala Assault Regiment, widely regarded as the Ukrainian army’s foremost meat grinder. Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation even opened inquiries into the findings. Yet nothing came of them. The only major consequence was Syrsky’s eventual removal, following his clash with the mafia profiteering from military drone production and procurement.

An........

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