Gunman who killed six people and took hostages is shot dead

A gunman who killed at least six people in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, before taking hostages and barricading himself inside a supermarket on Saturday has been shot and killed by police, Ukrainian officials said.

Ukraine’s special tactical police units stormed the store after attempts to contact the gunman with a negotiator failed, the head of Ukraine’s interior ministry, Ihor Klymenko, said in a statement on social media.

The attacker was killed while resisting arrest, he said.

Speaking to reporters at the scene, Mr Klymenko said that the gunman had killed four bystanders while on the street, before entering the supermarket and killing a fifth person.

City mayor Vitali Klitschko said that a sixth victim, a young woman, died from her injuries in the hospital.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later confirmed that four hostages had been rescued and that at least 14 people had been wounded.

An Associated Press reporter on the scene saw the bodies of the victims in the street covered by emergency blankets before they were taken away.

Mr Klymenko said the shooter was born in 1968 but gave no further details as to his identity. Police negotiators spoke with the attacker for roughly 40 minutes before storming the building, he said.

Mr Zelensky later wrote on social media that the shooter was born in Russia and had lived in Ukraine’s eastern city of Donetsk for a “long time”.

He also said that the attacker had set fire to his apartment before going out into the street armed.

The shooting took place in Kyiv’s Holosiivskyi district, the mayor said.

Televised footage of the scene showed police taking cover in the shopping mall that housed the supermarket while shots were fired.

Published: 18/04/2026 by Radio NewsHub