- At least six people are dead and 15 others injured after a 58-year-old gunman went on a shooting rampage in Kyiv’s Holosiivskyi district on Saturday.
- The assailant opened fire on civilians in the street before barricading himself inside a “Velmart” supermarket, where he took several hostages and shot victims at point-blank range.
- Ukrainian special forces (Rapid Response Unit) stormed the building after a 40-minute standoff; the shooter, a Moscow-born man with a criminal record, was killed during the exchange of fire.
A mass shooting has left the Ukrainian capital in shock after a gunman launched a deadly assault on a street and a local supermarket.
Eko Hot Blog reports that authorities have identified the shooter as a 58-year-old man, originally born in Moscow, who had been living in the Donetsk region for an extended period.
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Ukraine’s Attorney General, Ruslan Kravchenko, confirmed that the suspect used a registered automatic weapon to kill four people on the street before moving his attack into a nearby supermarket.
Inside the store, the man killed another victim and held four others hostage. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko later confirmed that a sixth victim passed away at the hospital, while 15 others remain under medical care.
Internal Affairs Minister Ihor Klymenko described the attacker’s behavior as “chaotic,” stating that he approached individuals and shot them at close range.
A police negotiator, Valeriia, attempted to establish contact with the gunman for 40 minutes, but the suspect remained silent.
Following the failed negotiations, special forces stormed the Velmart supermarket. The gunman fired upon the officers during the breach and was subsequently neutralized.
President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that all four hostages held inside the store were rescued during the operation.
The incident is being investigated as a “terrorist act.” Adding to the complexity of the case, the apartment where the shooter was registered was reportedly set on fire around the same time the attack began.
President Zelensky has ordered a thorough examination of the suspect’s background and criminal history to determine a motive.
While Ukraine has a high number of weapons in circulation due to the ongoing war, mass shootings of this nature are exceptionally rare in the country’s post-independence history.
