KYIV — A rare and harrowing act of domestic violence gripped Ukraine’s capital on Saturday as a gunman embarked on a chaotic shooting spree, leaving at least six people dead and over a dozen injured in the city’s Holosiivskyi district.
The incident, which shattered the relative weekend calm of the southern neighborhood, culminated in a tense standoff at a local supermarket where the attacker was ultimately killed by police.
A Trail of Chaos
According to Ukraine’s Interior Minister, Ihor Klymenko, the violence began when the suspect—a 58-year-old local resident—set fire to his own apartment before taking to the streets with an automatic weapon.
Witnesses described a scene of pure terror as the man began firing indiscriminately at passersby. President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that four victims were killed instantly on the street. A fifth victim, a woman approximately 30 years old, succumbed to her wounds later at a nearby hospital.
Among the 14 reported injured is a 12-year-old boy, as medical teams continue to treat survivors for various degrees of trauma.
The Supermarket Standoff
After the initial street shooting, the gunman retreated into a supermarket, taking several shoppers hostage. Police negotiators reportedly engaged with the suspect for roughly 40 minutes, attempting to de-escalate the situation as he “acted chaotically.”
“We tried to persuade him, realizing that there was an injured person inside,” Klymenko explained. “We offered to bring in tourniquets to stop the bleeding, but he made no demands and did not respond.”
The standoff turned fatal when the gunman executed one of the hostages. Following the murder, tactical units received the order to move in. The shooter was killed during the ensuing exchange of gunfire with officers. Four remaining hostages were subsequently rescued and brought to safety.
Investigation Into the Shooter’s Past
Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko has identified the attacker as a Moscow-born man who had lived for a “long time” in the Donetsk region—an area that has been at the heart of the conflict with Russia for over a decade.
While Kyiv frequently faces missile and drone strikes from Russian forces, mass shootings of this nature are exceptionally rare in the city. Adding to the gravity of the investigation is the revelation that the automatic weapon used in the attack was officially registered. Officials are now conducting a high-level probe into how the permit was issued and the circumstances that led to the shooter’s “chaotic” mental state.
