In what turned out to be an outrageously brutal assault, a shooter using a registered carbine gun shot dead six persons and injured more than 14 in the Holosiivskyi district in Kyiv, before storming into a supermarket where he took hostages.
After being pinned down by the special forces who broke into the store, he was finally shot dead.
It is believed that the 58 year old went on his rampage in the densely populated district where he fired bullets on pedestrians near an apartment block and another shopping complex.
He had set himself on fire in his own apartment building before making his way to the streets armed with his firearm.
According to the Interior Ministry of Ukraine, he entered the supermarket and held several people hostage until special units raided it.
Minister of Interior, Ihor Klymenko, told that police had attempted to negotiate for about 40 minutes before launching a raid.
In the course of negotiations, a lady negotiator spoke to him via a loudspeaker from behind a tank, urging him to free his captives.
At least one hostage died during the siege while four others were saved when the KORD Special Forces stormed into the store.
Zelenskyy said that the attacker was born in Russia, had been in trouble with the law before, and had lived in the Donetsk region, which is one of the front lines of the ongoing war, for a long time.
Ukrainska Pravda says that the man was a citizen of Ukraine and had moved to Kyiv from Bakhmut. The police have not made his name public. There is no known reason.
Among those who were hurt, there was a 12 year old boy. According to the Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, nine people had been hospitalized and six other people were treated for injuries sustained on the spot, which included a child aged four months.
The incident is currently under investigation by the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), classifying it as a terrorist attack.
President Zelensky ordered an investigation into the perpetrator’s devices, telephone calls, and contacts.
Local residents could not believe what happened. According to 75 year old Hanna Kulyk, who lived in the same house as the killer, he did not socialize much. She described him as an educated person, with no visible signs of threat.
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The shooting was an unusual act of violence by civilians in a capital that has been under Russian airstrikes since the full scale invasion began in 2022.
Just two days before, Russia had sent nearly 700 drones and dozens of missiles to Ukrainian cities, killing at least 16 people, four of whom were in Kyiv.
However, Saturday’s attack did not come from enemy strikes but from within the city itself, making the security problems in the war-weary capital even worse.
After the event, security in Kyiv has been stepped up, with more police units sent to important areas.
