At least five people were killed, and 10 were wounded by a gunman in Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Saturday.
The mass shooting appeared to be at random, with footage showing the gunman shooting anyone he came across. After shooting several people, he entered a supermarket where he took several hostages. A Ukrainian counter-terrorism team stormed the building and killed him shortly after.
“Ukraine’s Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko has just reported that the attacker in Kyiv who opened fire on civilians has been eliminated,” Zelensky said in a post on X. “All the circumstances are being established. At present, 5 people have been confirmed killed. My condolences to the families and loved ones.”
Four hostages were rescued in the storming of the supermarket. Zelensky instructed investigators of the National Police and the Security Service of Ukraine to conduct a “swift” investigation and make all information from the investigation public.
Security footage captured the gunman, armed with a rifle, in the supermarket shortly before his death. He looked to be in his 50s or 60s.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said a child was among the 10 hospitalized.
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Few details on the shooter were immediately clear, with his motivation remaining unknown.
Civilian mass shootings in Ukraine are relatively rare since Russia’s full-scale invasion, with Saturday’s shooting being one of the first. A little under a month before the invasion, National Guardsman Artemiy Riabchuk shot and killed five National Guardsmen at a factory and wounded five others. He was reportedly motivated by previous hazing, which had gone unpunished.
