A gunman opened fire in Kyiv on Saturday, killing six people and wounding more than a dozen, officials said. Five victims died at the scene and a young woman later died in hospital. Authorities said the attacker also took hostages before security forces shot him dead.
President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed condolences to the families and said the attack occurred in the Holosiivskyi district. In his nightly address he reported 14 people injured. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said a special operation was launched after the assailant entered a supermarket inside a shopping mall, causing multiple fatalities and injuries.
Televised footage showed police taking cover inside the mall as shots rang out and rescuers escorted bystanders to safety. Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko said one of the wounded was a 12‑year‑old boy whose parents were among those killed.
Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said officers spent about 40 minutes negotiating with the suspect before he was killed during an arrest attempt, after firing at police. Klymenko described the attacker as shooting some victims at close range. Authorities said the suspect had a registered firearm, a criminal record, and had set fire to his apartment before the attack.
Officials said the gunman was born in Moscow in 1958; local reporting suggested he likely held Ukrainian citizenship and had long lived in the Donbas region. Ukraine’s SBU security service has classified the incident as a terrorist act. Shootings are rare in Ukraine, and investigators are working to clarify the motive and circumstances.
Edited by: Wesley Dockery