At ten in the morning on 29 July, a message appeared in one of Vorzel’s chat groups of the kind that chills the blood anywhere near the front line: a man with a weapon was allegedly holding people hostage near the local lake. “There is a man with an assault rifle there right now, he has lined people up by the lake, made them all raise their hands, he is shouting and aiming the weapon at them,” the post read.
This was reported in an article by the outlet TheBuchaCity.
Concerned residents immediately contacted Oleksandr, the Vorzel community police officer. His answer came quickly and defused the alarm: “The report of disorderly conduct was not confirmed. Filming for the series ‘Perevizynk’ is taking place at the location. There is no threat to the public.”
The episode exposed a problem that goes well beyond one morning and one lake. According to the officer, film crews notify the police only when public safety measures are required — closing a street, escorting equipment. In every other case, only the regional military administration and the local authorities that issue the permits are informed. The patrol officer answering the call, and the neighbours watching from their windows, know nothing about it.
In the Bucha district this is not an abstract point of procedure. Vorzel was under occupation in the spring of 2022, and armed men on its streets are not a plot device here but a memory. The response of residents who saw “hostages” by the lake and reached for their phones was exactly right: this is how a community’s vigilance is supposed to work.
The trouble is that every false alarm carries a cost. It diverts police, wears people down, and gradually teaches them to assume that the man with the rifle is probably just filming again. A single warning post in the community chats the day before a shoot would be enough to avoid paying that price.
The production team behind “Perevizynk” has not commented publicly on the incident.
Nota bene
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