The mass protest against the TCC in Lviv began after one of the military enlistment officers ran out of a car and, without cause, struck a passing young man from behind. The crowd that gathered tore the officer’s clothes off and beat him. The TCC, as usual in such cases, limited itself to announcing an internal review. It later became known that an investigation had been opened into both sides—the protesters and the TCC employees.
The head of the President’s Office, Kyrylo Budanov, reacted to the events. He criticized the protesters and called for them to be punished.
“If you tear off the clothes of and beat a serviceman of your own army, think about who tomorrow will defend you from an enemy army that will beat you and tear off your clothes in the same way, only this time from you. I expect a fair response from law-enforcement agencies to the events in Lviv,” the head of the President’s Office wrote.
Under this post on Budanov’s official Facebook page, readers left hundreds of comments. We reproduce them without cuts—as they were written. Omissions in long comments are marked with <...>.
So when five to seven strong men in uniform and balaclavas bundle up one person, is that how they are protecting us, Mr. Budanov?
— You are constantly talking about unity, without which we will not survive. But there is none. The problem has to be acknowledged and solved, not used to pit some people against others. There is already no family that does not have people in uniform, but some are in trenches or dead, while others are in the rear growing fat, torturing their fellow citizens in basements, and buying houses in Marbella. Make the TCC a uniform like the Gestapo or the NKVD, and there will be no attacks on people in Ukrainian Armed Forces military uniform.
— I do not support what happened yesterday in Lviv. I am in favor of every citizen of Ukraine acting in accordance with the law. But this is an obvious public reaction to the lawlessness committed by the TCC. Not a single TCC employee has been punished.
— Excuse me, but which of them is a serviceman? None of them could show either a combatant’s ID or even a service ID. And everyone has forgotten that power is elected by the people. And the extermination of the people is somewhat against the state, don’t you think?
— No one tore the uniform off a serviceman; they tore off the servicemen’s uniform that had been put on by gang formations... By the way, we somehow do not hear you condemning the crimes committed by representatives of the TCC and the police, because abductions, torture, and executions are war crimes with no statute of limitations...
— The TCC guy who hit the young man from behind in the head and whose clothes were then taken off for it is a kickboxing coach at Bastion in Sykhiv, Lviv. He is no soldier and never was one. All the videos and photos of the attack and retribution, his name, and even his phone number are already everywhere on the Internet. Your writing, Budanov, is the writing of a liar and a scoundrel.
— It is very strange that there is no fair response to the abduction of a person from the street by people who do not even identify themselves. It is very strange that there is no fair response when the TCC sprays gas into a car, beats people, and the police standing two meters away do not react to it in any way. It is not at all strange that people do what they did in Lviv—as the TCC treats people, so people treat the TCC. Subjectively, that is my opinion.
— And if so-called soldiers abduct people on the street in broad daylight, torture them, drive them to suicide, do they not think that with such behavior they only inflame hatred toward themselves <...> After all, if the state is unable to protect a citizen of Ukraine, unable to protect human rights, then a logical question arises: why should that person defend the state if the state is unable to defend him?
— Anyone whose loved one has gone through the TCC will not be able to condemn the actions of these people. People are sick of the bestial treatment of future soldiers whom you are supposedly so nobly defending here, Mr. Budanov. There have been no real steps toward changing how the TCC works. But there is good manipulation of society’s fears. Remind you of anyone?
— I, too, am expecting a fair response from the police of the city of Uman and the TCC. My son was mobilized, he offered no resistance, he is ready to go defend the country, but near the Uman TCC <...> they told him to leave his small bag in the car, that is, they stole it—it contained documents, car keys, money, and bank cards. We filed complaints with the police twice; they do not want to open a criminal case on the order of the Uman TCC. Is this motivation for Defenders???
— And when servicemen abduct a father who has a disabled child, what should these people be called? Or when four burly men beat up an ordinary grain farmer so badly that they knock out his kidneys! What should that be called? We have gone down the wrong “path” (turned the wrong way...
— So how is the TCC reform going? The country’s leadership is silent, sees nothing, hears nothing. <...> How are the 40-year-old pensioners in the police, the prosecutor’s office, the courts, the SBU, the children of officials, officeholders, and lawmakers doing with their constitutional duty? You bastards, what are you driving the country to? <...> With what zeal and excitement they deal with a Ukrainian warrior, while they could be at the front dealing with a Russian soldier...
— Budanov, I would like them to mobilize you once, with all the contests and “honors,” the way they know how, preferably without a medical commission and with a couple of days in a basement <...> when they bundle you up, all you hear from them is what a faggot you are and what heroes they are...
— We will, of course, not notice the facts of blatant violations of people’s rights by servicemen, and those facts, of course, have absolutely nothing to do with this situation... Some spherical civilians attacked spherical servicemen in a spherical vacuum...
— While you sat there with your mouth shut, you could have passed for smart. If these hulking thugs in uniform are soldiers, then they should be at the front, not forcibly abducting people in the rear! And if they are not soldiers after all, then sit down and shut the fuck up, Kyrylo.
— Faggots are illegally kidnapping people in the streets, while Oksanas and old men in the comments, whom no one will touch, are spouting something about unity. Fuck all of you. The TCC are not soldiers; they are fucking inhuman bastards in the rear who kill their own people. You expect justice? Put these dogs in prison for violating human rights. Rot.
— This is only the beginning!!! People’s nerves can no longer withstand this kind of life. The fifth year.
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