Law enforcement officials are seen on the web site the place a gunman killed at the least six folks within the streets earlier than being shot useless by police, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, April 18, 2026.
Dan Bashakov/AP
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Dan Bashakov/AP
KYIV, Ukraine — A gunman wielding an automated weapon killed six folks and barricaded himself inside a grocery store with hostages within the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, on Saturday, earlier than he was shot and killed by police, authorities stated.
Not less than 14 folks had been wounded and brought to hospital.
The 58-year-old attacker was not named by police, however Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated he was born in Russia, as authorities labored to piece collectively a motive for the violence.
The mass capturing — unprecedented in wartime Kyiv following Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022 — came about in a busy central district of town, exterior an condo block and a close-by purchasing heart, leaving our bodies on a crowded road as bystanders fled for security.
An Related Press reporter on the scene noticed victims’ our bodies on the street coated with emergency blankets earlier than they had been taken away.
“The assailant has been neutralized. He had taken hostages and, tragically, killed one of them. He also murdered four people on the street. Another woman died in the hospital due to severe injuries,” Zelenskyy stated.
“It has been established that the attacker set fire to an apartment before taking to the streets with a weapon,” Zelenskyy stated in a video posted on-line. “He had a prior criminal record, had lived in the Donetsk region (in eastern Ukraine) for a long period, and was born in Russia.”
Ukraine’s particular tactical police items stormed the comfort retailer after makes an attempt to contact the gunman with a negotiator failed, Inside Minister Ihor Klymenko stated.
The hostages had been grocery store clients and employees.
“We tried to persuade him, knowing that there was likely a wounded person inside. We even offered to bring in tourniquets to stop the bleeding, but he did not respond,” Klymenko stated. “Consequently, the order was given to neutralize him.”
The minister stated the gunman had a legitimate weapon’s allow.
Throughout the 40-minute standoff, a feminine negotiator sporting physique armor and standing behind an armored car used a loudspeaker to name out to the assailant, urging him: “The people are not to blame for this. Please let them go, and we will talk with you.”
Ukraine’s safety service, or SBU, described the killings as an act of terrorism.
The capturing came about in Kyiv’s Holosiivskyi district, the place a number of residents stated they acknowledged the gunman.
“I knew him by sight. He seemed like an educated, refined man. You’d never guess he was some kind of criminal,” stated 75-year-old Hanna Kulyk, who lived in the identical condo block because the attacker.
“He didn’t socialize much with people — just a greeting and he’d be on his way,” she stated. “He lived alone.”
Related Press journalists Vasilisa Stepanenko and Dan Bashakov in Kyiv, Ukraine, and Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England, contributed to this report.
