Ukrainian police shot and killed a gunman who took hostages inside a Kyiv supermarket on April 18, 2026, ending a siege that left at least seven people dead and 14 wounded in one of Ukraine’s deadliest mass shootings.
The rampage began when the shooter opened fire on the streets of Kyiv’s Holosiivskyi district before fleeing into a nearby Velmart supermarket where he seized staff and customers as hostages. Four people were killed on the street, while a woman in her 30s later died from her injuries at a hospital, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. A sixth victim, a hostage, was killed inside the store before police intervened. A seventh victim, 72-year-old Oleksandr Hryhorovych, died in the hospital on April 20 from injuries sustained when he shielded a wounded boy with his body before being shot. Among those killed on the street was Igor Savchenko, a guitarist for the Ukrainian rock band “Druhe Sontse.”
Special tactical units stormed the supermarket and fatally shot the 57-year-old attacker while he resisted arrest, freeing four hostages. The assault followed a tense 40-minute standoff during which police negotiators tried unsuccessfully to persuade the gunman to surrender.
“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,” Zelensky said in a video posted online before the seventh victim died on April 20.
Investigators identified the shooter as Dmytro Vasyliovych Vasylchenkov, a Ukrainian citizen born in Moscow who served in the Armed Forces of Ukraine from 1992 to 2005, primarily in Odesa Oblast as a motor transport soldier. He moved to Russia in 2007 and lived in Ryazan before returning to Ukraine in 2017, settling first in Bakhmut and later in Kyiv’s Holosiivskyi district. He used a legally registered carbine in the attack and set fire to his apartment before beginning his shooting spree.
Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko, who arrived at the scene wearing body armor, said the attacker was “acting chaotically” and made no demands during negotiations. A female negotiator in body armor used a loudspeaker from behind an armored vehicle, pleading with the gunman to release the hostages. When he killed a hostage inside the store, tactical units received orders to storm the building.
Among the wounded is a preteen boy being treated for gunshot wounds who lost both his father and aunt in the attack. A 4-month-old infant suffered carbon monoxide poisoning from the fire set in the gunman’s apartment, and the baby’s mother was also wounded. As of April 22, seven people remained hospitalized, including four adults in intensive care and one child.
The attack occurred in broad daylight on a crowded street, leaving bodies covered with emergency blankets as witnesses 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.
Ukraine’s Security Service and Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko are treating the incident as an act of terrorism. Authorities continue investigating the shooter’s motive, with particular scrutiny on his background. Investigators examining Vasylchenkov’s social media uncovered a Facebook page he maintained from 2016 to 2019 under the nickname “Bakhmut V.D.V,” where he posted anti-Ukrainian and antisemitic content, denied Ukraine’s right to exist, and fantasized about “cleansing” society using the methods of Adolf Hitler. He also expressed regret that Russia’s capture of Bakhmut in 2023 had not occurred sooner. Born in Russia and having lived extensively in the Donetsk region—partly under Russian occupation since 2014—the attacker’s history has raised questions among investigators.
In December 2025, Vasylchenkov had approached licensing authorities to have his weapon test-fired as his permit neared expiration, submitting the required medical certificate and application for renewal. Investigators are now working to determine which medical institution issued that certificate and examining the circumstances surrounding how the permit was granted.
According to a leaked Russian database referenced in the investigation, Vasylchenkov maintained multiple Russian bank accounts until at least 2021 and retained a Russian phone number, having travelled to Russia several times in 2016. Ukrainian authorities are examining whether the attack was directed by Moscow, noting that Kremlin operatives have recruited more than 800 Ukrainians between 2024 and 2026 to carry out attacks on critical infrastructure and draft offices.
Vasylchenkov had a prior criminal record, though officials did not elaborate on the nature of those offenses. Neighbors described him as a loner who kept to himself.
“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.”
The shooting exposed significant failures in the initial 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, which has grown accustomed to Russian aerial attacks but rarely experiences this type of violence from within.
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.
