The first reports of gunfire on the streets of Kyiv came in at around 5 pm. The attacker’s victims had little chance of survival: according to Ihor Klymenko, the man armed with a carbine approached at close range and opened fire.
“In the Holosiyivskyy district of the capital, a 58-year-old man originally from Moscow opened fire, killing four people, after which he barricaded himself inside a supermarket and took hostages. According to preliminary reports, he used an automatic weapon. At the same time, a fire broke out in the flat where the attacker was registered,” said Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko.
After 40 minutes of unsuccessful negotiations and the shooter killing one of the hostages, the supermarket was stormed by special forces from the National Police’s KORD unit. The attacker also fired at the police and was shot dead.
Paramedics at the scene treated six casualties, including a four-month-old baby. The infant had suffered carbon monoxide poisoning in a flat adjacent to the one the attacker had set alight before going out onto the street with a weapon, said the capital’s mayor, Vitaliy Klitschko.
In an evening video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that the attacker had previously been subject to criminal proceedings. According to Zelenskyy, the attacker killed four people on the street. Another woman later died in hospital. Four hostages were successfully rescued.
Investigators from the National Police and the Security Service of Ukraine are examining all the circumstances of the attack on civilians in Kyiv, the head of state said. “We are currently establishing everything about him and the motives behind his actions. Every detail must be verified. Investigators are working on several theories. All his electronic devices, his phone and his contacts will be examined. The Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Security Service of Ukraine and the Prosecutor General’s Office will keep the public informed. All verified information must be provided to our citizens,” Zelenskyy emphasised.
WHAT IS KNOWN ABOUT THE SUSPECT
According to the information released, he was 58 years old, was born in Moscow, held Ukrainian citizenship, and had previously lived in Bakhmut in the Donetsk Region before moving to the Holosiyivskyy district of the capital.
A neighbour of the shooter, said that he would greet residents but did not socialise with them. He had purchased the flat about ten years ago and lived alone.
Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko noted that the man had renewed his firearms licence last December. Investigators will examine who authorised the renewal of the attacker’s permits.
Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko announced that criminal proceedings had been initiated under the article “terrorist act resulting in loss of life” in connection with the shooting of civilians and the taking of hostages in the Holosiyivskyy district of the capital.
“The identity of the shooter has been established — he is a man born in 1968 who used a registered firearm. Six people were killed as a result of the attack. Among them are a man who died at the scene and a woman who died in hospital from her injuries. Their son, born in 2015, is in a children’s hospital with a gunshot wound, where he is receiving the necessary treatment,” the Prosecutor General concluded.
Some journalists have named the perpetrator as Dmytro Vasylchenkov. According to their information, he is a former serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine who served until 2004 in the Donetsk Region (254th Motorised Rifle Division, logistics battalion) before being discharged. After 2022, he returned to active service in the Ukrainian army.
The OSINT department of Toronto TV claims that the perpetrator lived in Russia between 2015 and 2017, later returned to Ukraine, but held anti-Ukrainian views.
He faced criminal charges in 2023 in a case of bodily harm, allegedly for starting a fight in a supermarket in the capital. However, in 2024, the court acquitted him after he reached a settlement with the victim.