Ukrainian police fatally shot a gunman on April 18, 2026, after he barricaded himself inside a Kyiv supermarket with hostages, ending a 40-minute siege that left at least seven people dead and 13 wounded in the capital’s Holosiivskyi district.
The rampage began when the shooter, 57-year-old Dmytro Vasyliovych Vasylchenkov, opened fire outside an apartment block before seizing customers and staff at a nearby Velmart supermarket. Four victims died on the street, while the gunman killed a fifth person—a hostage—inside the store during the standoff. A woman in her 30s died from her injuries in the hospital, and a seventh victim, a man in critical condition, succumbed to his wounds on April 20.
Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko, wearing body armor at the scene, said police negotiators spent approximately 40 minutes attempting to persuade the shooter to release the people he held captive. A female negotiator in body armor used a loudspeaker from behind an armored vehicle, pleading with the gunman to release the hostages. The attacker, described as “acting chaotically,” made no demands during the standoff.
Tactical units moved in after the gunman killed a hostage, fatally shooting him while he resisted arrest and freeing four hostages.
“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,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video posted online before the seventh victim passed away.
Among the wounded is an 11-year-old boy being treated for gunshot wounds after losing both his father and aunt in the attack. A four-month-old infant suffered carbon monoxide poisoning from a fire that the attacker set in his apartment during his shooting spree. The infant’s mother was also wounded. As of April 22, seven people remained hospitalized, including four adults in intensive care and one child.
Vasylchenkov, a Ukrainian citizen born in Moscow who served in the Armed Forces of Ukraine from 1992 to 2005 before eventually settling in Kyiv’s Holosiivskyi district, used a legally registered carbine in the assault. In December 2025, he approached licensing authorities to have the weapon test-fired as his permit neared expiration, submitting the required medical certificate and renewal application. Investigators are now working to determine which medical institution issued the certificate and examining the circumstances surrounding the permit’s issuance.
The gunman had a prior criminal record, though officials did not elaborate on the nature of those offenses. Neighbors in his apartment block described him as solitary and unremarkable.
“I knew him by sight. He seemed like an educated, refined man. You’d never guess he was some kind of criminal,” said 75-year-old Hanna Kulyk, a resident of the same building. “He didn’t socialize much with people—just a greeting, and he’d be on his way. He lived alone.”
Ukraine’s Security Service and Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko are treating the incident as an act of terrorism. Investigators continue working to establish the shooter’s motive, though authorities noted his background raised questions. Born in Russia and having lived extensively in the Donetsk region—partly under Russian occupation since 2014—the attacker’s history is under intense scrutiny.
The daylight violence on a crowded street left bodies covered with emergency blankets as bystanders fled. An Associated Press reporter at the scene witnessed the aftermath before the victims were removed. Televised footage showed police taking cover inside the shopping mall that housed the supermarket while shots rang out.
The incident exposed apparent failures in the police response. Video footage emerged showing two officers running away as shots rang out, prompting Yevhen Zhukov, head of the Patrol Police Department, to announce his resignation. He called the officers’ conduct “unprofessional” and “unworthy of police officers.” On April 20, Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko announced the two officers had been formally charged with official negligence, a charge that could carry up to five years in prison. The images stood in sharp contrast to the tactical units that ultimately ended the siege.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko confirmed the death toll and location. President Zelensky pledged a thorough investigation into both the attack and the circumstances that allowed a man with a criminal record to obtain and maintain a weapon permit. The incident has raised uncomfortable questions about licensing procedures and oversight in a nation already stretched thin by more than four years of full-scale war.
Mass shootings remain uncommon in Ukraine, making the April 18 events particularly jarring for Kyiv’s wartime population, a city more accustomed to Russian aerial attacks than this type of street violence.
As investigators sift through evidence from the burned apartment and interview witnesses, Kyiv residents are left grappling with a new form of violence in their embattled capital—one that came not from Russian missiles, but from a gunman on their streets.
