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A gunman with an automatic weapon killed six people and barricaded himself with hostages in a supermarket in the Ukrainian capital Kiev on Saturday before being shot dead by police, authorities said.
At least 14 people were injured and taken to hospital.
The 58-year-old attacker was not named by police, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was born in Russia as authorities worked to establish a motive for the violence.
The mass shooting – unprecedented in Kiev during wartime following Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022 – occurred in a busy central district of the city, outside an apartment block and a nearby shopping center.
An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw the victims’ bodies covered with emergency blankets lying in the street before they were taken away.
“The attacker was neutralized. He had taken hostages and tragically killed one of them. He also murdered four people on the street. Another woman died in hospital from her serious injuries,” Zelensky said in a video posted online.
Zelensky later wrote on social media that the shooter was born in Russia and had lived in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk for a “long time.” He also said that the attacker set his apartment on fire before taking to the streets armed.
Special forces from Ukraine’s tactical police stormed the supermarket after attempts to contact the gunman with a negotiator failed, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said.
The hostages were supermarket customers and employees.
“We tried to persuade him, knowing that there was probably a wounded person inside. We even offered to bring tourniquets to stop the bleeding, but he didn’t respond,” Klymenko said. “Consequently, the order was given to neutralize him.”
The minister said the shooter had a valid firearms license.
During the 40-minute standoff, a negotiator in body armor standing behind an armored vehicle shouted to the attacker over a loudspeaker: “It’s not the people’s fault. Please let them go, we will talk to you.”
The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) described the murders as an act of terrorism.
The shooting occurred in Kiev’s Holosiivskyi district, where several residents said they recognized the shooter.
“I knew him by sight. He seemed to be an educated, educated man. You would never have thought that he was some kind of criminal,” said Hanna Kulyk, 75, who lived in the same apartment complex as the attacker.
“He didn’t socialize much with people – just a greeting and he was on his way,” she said. “He lived alone.”
