Ukraine’s military recruitment authorities in Lviv have denied reports that a man died after allegedly being thrown from a recruitment bus, after video of an apparently unconscious man lying outside a military recruitment centre spread rapidly across social media on August 22.

Initial reports on Ukrainian and Russian-language Telegram channels claimed: “A dead man was thrown out of a bus near the TCC in the Lviv region. They write that medics tried to provide him with assistance, but they were unable to save him.”

However, the Lviv Regional Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Centre, or TCC, said the reports were false and that the 53-year-old man was alive and receiving treatment in hospital.

“Information about the alleged ‘death’ of a man near the Sykhiv district TCC and SP does not correspond to reality,” the recruitment centre said. “The man is alive.”

Local police said the 53-year-old resident of the Lviv district was admitted to hospital following a sudden deterioration in his condition accompanied by a sharp rise in blood pressure.

The man, a former law enforcement officer, had been taken to the Sykhiv district recruitment centre on August 22 and was being sent to undergo examination by a military medical commission, according to the TCC.

After leaving the recruitment centre under escort, he attempted to leave the group accompanying him before suddenly becoming unwell, the recruitment authorities said. An ambulance was called and he was taken to a hospital in Lviv.

“His life and health are not in danger,” the regional TCC said.

Video circulating online showed the barefoot man lying motionless face down on the pavement near the recruitment office. A woman could be seen nearby and bottles of water had been placed close to him, apparently as bystanders attempted to help before emergency medical personnel arrived.

The footage prompted claims that recruiters had “thrown him out of a bus” and that efforts to resuscitate him had failed.

Police interviewed witnesses and took statements from TCC personnel following the incident. According to information subsequently released by Lviv city councillor Ihor Zinkevych, citing police, neither the man nor the recruitment officials had filed complaints over the incident.

The TCC said former law enforcement officials of military age who hold special ranks remain subject to military registration after leaving the service and can be mobilised if they do not have a statutory exemption.

The recruitment office also appealed to news organisations and social-media administrators to verify reports before publishing them.

“This particularly concerns issues of mobilisation and the activities of the TCC and SP, where an unverified report can cause significant public tension within minutes,” it said.

The episode comes amid growing tensions between recruitment officials and civilians as Ukraine struggles to maintain troop numbers more than four years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion.

The sensitivity of the issue was underlined by a separate incident in Lviv only hours earlier.

At about 11pm on August 21, a 25-year-old Lviv resident allegedly attacked a 55-year-old TCC serviceman while military recruiters and police were checking military-registration documents on Stepan Bandera Street, according to Ukraine’s National Police.

The serviceman, subsequently identified by local authorities as junior sergeant Oleksandr Bodnar, suffered knife wounds to the neck and shoulder and died despite attempts to resuscitate him.

A police officer accompanying the recruitment team fired twice at the alleged attacker, hitting him in the leg. The suspect was hospitalised and detained.

Lviv mayor Andriy Sadovyi said: “In Lviv, while performing his official duties, 55-year-old junior sergeant Oleksandr Bodnar, a serviceman of the TCC and SP, was killed. He leaves behind a son and his parents.”

“Violence against servicemen cannot have any justification. Such crimes must not go unpunished,” Sadovyi added.

The Sykhiv district has itself become a flashpoint for disputes over mobilisation.

On July 8, a crowd estimated by local media at about 200 people surrounded and eventually overturned and damaged a TCC vehicle after recruiters and police detained a 30-year-old man who authorities said had been wanted since June 12 for violating military-registration rules.

The man was taken to the recruitment centre for a military medical examination, while a crowd shouting “Shame!” blocked another recruitment team and attacked its vehicle. Police subsequently detained several participants in the disturbance.

Less than a week later, on July 14, police opened a criminal investigation after a 26-year-old woman suffered minor injuries during a confrontation with a TCC recruitment group in central Lviv.

The repeated incidents highlight the increasingly fraught relationship between civilians and the recruitment system as Kyiv seeks more personnel for a war that has imposed mounting human costs on Ukrainian society.

They have also created fertile ground for rumours and disinformation surrounding the TCC, whose officers have repeatedly been accused on social media of using excessive force during mobilisation operations.

In the August 22 case, however, the most dramatic allegation — that recruiters had thrown a dead man from a vehicle — was contradicted within hours by police and military authorities.

The man remained alive and under medical supervision on August 22 evening.