In a video posted on September 4, a man was forcibly taken into a police vehicle on Mykhaila Boichuka Street, in Kyiv’s Pecherskyi district. His clothes were torn as he struggled to resist being put into the car. Several people filmed the incident.
Police officers in black uniforms were present, alongside unidentified individuals who appeared to use physical force against the man. A video posted on September 4, 2026 and shared in Ukrainian Telegram channels and social networks, shows a man whose clothes were torn as he was being forced into a police car in Mykhaila Boichuka Street, in Kyiv’s Pecherskyi district. ©Instagram/ @pecherskykyiv To display this content from Instagram, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. We contacted several witnesses present at the scene.
An employee of a pharmacy located at the nearby intersection told us: > “They blocked the street with their cars here. They tackled him like a dog. They tore his clothes.” A woman living in a building on Mykhaila Boichuka Street said : > “My neighbours told me that they beat him up and took him away.
He lived right here, near me.” According to a lawyer specialising in military law that we consulted, the way in which the detention was carried out may have exceeded the police’s legal authority.He noted that the presence of unidentified individuals using force alongside police officers is particularly worrying; and that the grey civilian vehicle against which the man was pressed appears to be a type commonly used by recruitment personnel during mobilisation activities. We also contacted the Pecherskyi District Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Centre (TCK) in Kyiv to ask for information about the reasons for the intervention and what happened to the man afterwards. TCKs are government institutions responsible for military registration and conscription.
They did not respond to our requests for comment. The footage of this incident has circulated widely on Ukrainian social media and Telegram channels, alongside many other videos depicting alleged “busification” – a neologism that emerged during the war to describe the alleged practice of forcibly taking men into minibuses or vans for mobilisation. While some footage has been identified as AI-generated or manipulated– including by Russian-linked accounts– lawyers and witnesses told us they had encountered numerous cases involving what they described as irregular or coercive mobilisation practices.
After more than four years of war with Russia, the Ukrainian armed forces face significant manpower shortages. In the first months following Russia’s full-scale invasion, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians volunteered to serve. As the war continued however, recruiting sufficient personnel became increasingly difficult.
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