A gunman killed six people and wounded 15 others in a shooting spree in Kyiv's Holosiivskyi district on Saturday before police special forces killed him during a supermarket raid.
The attacker, identified as 58-year-old Dmytro Vasylchenkov, born in Moscow, began firing at pedestrians on Demiyivska Street, killing four people point-blank with a registered automatic weapon. He then entered a nearby Walmart supermarket, shot and killed at least one more person, and took four hostages. Around the same time, his registered apartment in the area caught fire, possibly set by him.
Negotiators contacted the gunman for about 40 minutes, but he refused to surrender and fired at police. Elite KORD units from the National Police then stormed the store, neutralized the suspect, and rescued the four hostages unharmed.
The death toll rose to six after a woman around 30 years old succumbed to her injuries in the hospital. Among the 15 injured were nine hospitalized patients and six treated on site, including a four-month-old infant who suffered carbon monoxide poisoning from the fire and a 12-year-old boy. A supermarket security guard was also wounded.
Vasylchenkov, a Ukrainian citizen who had lived in Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast before moving to Kyiv, had a prior criminal record and a medical certificate allowing him to possess the weapon. His motive remains under investigation, with Ukraine's Security Service treating the incident as a possible terrorist act.
President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the operation's end, offered condolences to the victims' families, and noted such shootings are extremely rare in Ukraine. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko updated the casualty figures via Telegram. Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko and Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko provided details on the response and the attacker. Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko expressed sympathy and praised law enforcement.
Investigators continue to probe the origins of the weapon and the fire as the city reels from the violence amid the ongoing war with Russia.
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