A Ukrainian woman doused herself in flammable liquid and self-immolated in front of a courthouse in Kiev Region, reportedly in protest of her husband’s conscription being denied postponement.
The Kiev Region police confirmed that the incident took place at around 4 pm on Thursday. Once court security noticed the woman dousing herself with a flammable substance, the guards “tried to stop her, but the woman set herself on fire,” the police wrote on Telegram.
“Upon arrival, the woman was conscious but had about 70% burns to her body surface area,” the post said, adding that she was rushed to the hospital.
A video shared online shows the woman walking onto the roundabout in front of the courthouse, dropping her handbag to the ground and pouring a liquid over herself.
She then faced the building with open arms before writhing and stumbling to the ground as flames engulfed her.
Three people ran out of the building and used a fire extinguisher on the woman. The video cannot be shown due to its graphic nature.
Local news and Telegram channels claimed the woman set herself on fire after her husband was conscripted into the Ukrainian army and denied a postponement. However, police insisted that according to “preliminary information,” the woman and her husband were merely “resolving the issue of child custody.”
“Today in Kiev, a woman doused herself with a flammable substance and set herself on fire,” the Kiev INFO Telegram channel wrote on Thursday. “According to sources, it all happened because she and her husband (a military man) filed a lawsuit for a postponement of mobilization, but they were denied. And she set herself on fire right in front of the court.”
The Ukrainian government has been ramping up its mobilization efforts amid an acute shortage of fighting men on the battlefield. Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky signed a contentious decree that lowered the mobilization age from 27 to 25, gave wider powers to conscription officers, and introduced stricter penalties for draft dodgers.
Earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin estimated that Ukraine is losing around 50,000 service members dead or wounded every month while only being able to mobilize around 30,000 people monthly.