KYIV - Six people died and 14 others were wounded on Saturday after a Russian-born man began shooting at passersby in the Holosiivskyi district of Kyiv and later took hostages inside a supermarket, Ukrainian authorities said. Police shot the suspect dead after storming the store following unsuccessful negotiations.
Ukraine's Security Service has opened an investigation and is treating the attack as a terrorist act, though it has not released any motive for the assault. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in his nightly video address, confirmed the toll and provided additional details on the sequence of events.
"He took hostages and unfortunately, one of them was killed," the president said, describing how four people were killed on the street and one woman later died in hospital after being seriously wounded. Zelenskiy said the incident occurred in the leafy Holosiivskyi neighbourhood and that 14 people had been injured.
Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko said one of the wounded was a 12-year-old boy whose parents were among those killed. Video footage released by authorities showed emergency crews placing bodies into vehicles near the scene.
Residents described the suspect as someone who kept to himself. A woman identifying herself as Hanna said he had been a neighbour who avoided close contact with others. "He didn’t want to communicate with anyone," she said, adding that he would acknowledge familiar faces briefly before hurrying away to run errands.
Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said police attempted to negotiate with the man for 40 minutes but were forced to enter the supermarket when talks failed. Klymenko described the suspect as having legally owned a weapon, having obtained a medical certificate that allowed him to possess it, and then moving along the street firing at people without warning.
"He was simply shooting people at close range. He approached and shot them," Klymenko said, adding that bystanders had little chance of survival given the nature of the attack.
Kravchenko provided further identification details, saying the shooter was born in 1958 and was a native of Moscow. He carried an automatic weapon, the prosecutor general said, and posted a photograph showing a blurred, prone figure covered in blood inside the store with a weapon lying nearby.
Zelenskiy said the man had a criminal record and had set fire to the apartment where he was registered before taking to the street with the gun. The president also noted that the suspect had lived for some time in the eastern Donetsk region, part of the wider conflict area with Russia.
Authorities said investigators are working to clarify every detail about the suspect and his motivations. "Everything that can be known about him and why he did this is being clarified. Every detail needs to be checked," Zelenskiy said. He added that investigators had several lines of inquiry and that all the suspect's electronic devices, phones and contacts would be examined.
The violence stunned residents. "I was shocked when I saw photographs of the people who had been killed," said Lesia Rybzha, 45. "I still can’t understand why, on top of (Russians) killing us with airstrikes, people are being killed on the streets as well."
Officials did not provide a motive and said investigations remain ongoing. Emergency services continued processing the scene and authorities have pledged to review the evidence collected from the suspect's devices and contacts as part of the probe.