Officials said 14 people were wounded in the rare mass shooting in Ukraine’s capital.
KYIV, UKRAINE — A 58-year-old gunman killed six people and wounded 14 others in Kyiv on Saturday before taking hostages inside a supermarket and being shot dead by police after a 40-minute standoff, Ukrainian officials said.
The attack stunned a city more used to missile sirens than street gunfire and set off a terrorism investigation by Ukraine’s security service. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko and prosecutors said investigators were still working to establish a motive, while police reviewed the gunman’s contacts, phone and other devices. The shooting also raised urgent questions about how the man, who officials said had a criminal record, was able to hold a valid firearms permit.
Authorities said the violence began in Kyiv’s Holosiivskyi district, a busy part of the capital with apartment blocks, shops and a shopping center. According to officials, the attacker first set fire to the apartment where he was registered, then went outside carrying an automatic weapon and opened fire on people in the street. Klymenko said the man shot at close range without warning as people tried to make sense of what was happening. Four people were killed outside before the gunman moved into a nearby supermarket, where he took staff and customers hostage. During the standoff, police sent in a negotiator and tried to make contact from behind an armored vehicle. Klymenko said officers offered to bring tourniquets because they believed someone inside was wounded, but the gunman did not answer. Special tactical units then stormed the store and killed him. Zelenskyy later said one hostage was killed inside the supermarket and a sixth victim, a woman badly hurt in the attack, died in the hospital.
Officials said at least 14 people were taken to hospitals after the shooting. Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko said one of the wounded was a 12-year-old boy whose parents were killed. On Sunday, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said eight people, including that child, remained hospitalized. He said the boy was in moderate condition and one adult was in critical condition. Police have not publicly released the gunman’s name, but officials said he was born in Moscow in 1958 and had lived for a long period in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. Zelenskyy said the suspect had a prior criminal record. Klymenko said the weapon was legally registered and that the man had obtained the medical documents needed for his permit. “The attacker’s mental state was clearly unstable,” Klymenko said Sunday, adding that authorities would examine how those certificates were issued and renewed. The supermarket customers and employees caught inside were the hostages, officials said, and police said the assault ended only after negotiations failed.
The shooting unfolded in a country where civilians have lived for years under the pressure of Russia’s full-scale invasion, air raid alarms and repeated strikes on cities, but random mass shootings in central Kyiv remain highly unusual. That made Saturday’s attack especially jarring for residents in the capital, where the sight of bodies lying in the street near a shopping area drew immediate shock. An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw victims covered with emergency blankets before their bodies were taken away. Reuters footage showed emergency crews loading bodies into vehicles. By Sunday, the supermarket was still cordoned off and closed, with bullet holes visible in its windows and bloodstains nearby. Flowers had been left near a residential building a short distance away, where witnesses said the first victims fell. The Security Service of Ukraine, known as the SBU, said the case was being handled as an act of terrorism, a classification that reflected both the public nature of the killings and the still unanswered question of motive.
Neighbors and local residents described the gunman as a solitary man who did not seem close to others in the area. Hanna Kulyk, a 75-year-old woman who lived in the same apartment block, said she recognized him by sight and had never seen signs that pointed to such violence. “He seemed like an educated, refined man,” Kulyk said. “You’d never guess he was some kind of criminal.” Another woman, identified by Reuters only as Hanna, said he kept to himself and rarely spoke beyond a brief greeting. For people nearby, the attack moved from confusion to terror within seconds. Daryna, a 31-year-old resident, said parents rushed to pull children away from a playground as the gunfire spread panic. “People didn’t understand what was going on,” she said. “They said that there was a man there, a man was shooting with a machine gun.” Lesia Rybzha, 45, said she was shaken by the photographs of those killed and struggled to understand how such an attack could happen in a city already under wartime strain.
Investigators said the next steps would focus on reconstructing the gunman’s movements, examining his communications and determining why he carried out the attack. Zelenskyy said every detail had to be checked and that investigators were working through several possible versions of events. Officials have not said whether they believe the shooter acted alone in planning the assault, though the public statements so far have centered on his personal history, weapons permit and recent actions. Klymenko said the case had also renewed debate over civilian access to firearms in Ukraine, where current law allows ownership of hunting weapons but not a broader right to carry arms for general self-defense. He said the ministry intended to finish work on a firearms bill, though the immediate priority remained the criminal investigation and care for the wounded. No court hearing is pending because the suspect was killed at the scene, but the terrorism case remains open as prosecutors gather records, witness statements and forensic evidence from the apartment, the street and the supermarket.
By Sunday, Kyiv officials said the wounded were still receiving treatment, the supermarket remained sealed off and detectives were sorting through evidence from one of the deadliest street shootings the capital has seen since the war began. The next major milestone is expected to be a fuller account from investigators once the forensic review and digital checks are complete.
Author note: Last updated April 19, 2026.