On Saturday, April 18, 58-year-old Moscow native Dmitro Vasylchenko opened fire on pedestrians on Demiivska Street in the Holosiivskyi district of Kyiv, then barricaded himself in a Velmart supermarket with hostages. KORД special forces eliminated him during the assault. Six people were killed, more than ten hospitalized — including a child.
But parallel to the chronicle of the terrorist attack itself, another story unfolded.
Video that cannot be ignored
Footage appeared online showing patrol police officers fleeing from an armed attacker, leaving civilians without protection. Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko reacted publicly and harshly.
"To serve and protect" is not just a slogan. It must be backed by appropriate professional actions. Especially in critical moments when lives depend on it.
Ihor Klymenko, Minister of Internal Affairs
Klymenko instructed the head of the National Police Ivan Vyhivskyi to conduct a service investigation and submit all materials to the State Bureau of Investigation. According to the minister, the results will be made public "in the shortest possible time."
Three parallel investigations
While police investigate their own officers, the Prosecutor General's Office and the SBU are dealing with the terrorist attack itself. Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko announced a criminal case under Part 3 of Article 258 of the Criminal Code — a terrorist act resulting in deaths. Investigators are separately establishing the circumstances of issuing and renewing the weapons permit.
This is where the most uncomfortable fact lies: Vasylchenko used a legally registered hunting rifle Kel-Tec SUB-2000. The permit for it was officially renewed in December 2025 — four months before the terrorist attack. Who signed the renewal and whether the grounds were verified is now being determined by the investigation.
President Volodymyr Zelensky added another dimension: according to him, the eliminated terrorist had previously been prosecuted. OSINT analysts identified Vasylchenko's Facebook account with anti-Ukrainian and antisemitic posts from 2016–2019.
What was actually accomplished
- Negotiators spent 40 minutes trying to establish contact — the attacker made no demands
- After killing one hostage, КОРД decided to launch an assault
- Four hostages were rescued alive
- The attacker was eliminated during the operation
This is the result of special forces work. Questions about the patrol officers who left the scene and about the weapons permit system are separate, and answers to them have not yet been obtained.
The service investigation of police actions will be transferred to the SBI — the agency that by law has the authority to open cases against law enforcement officers. If the SBI opens proceedings, this will set a precedent for public accountability of patrol officers for their conduct during an active threat. If the case is closed at the level of "internal conclusions" — the question of whether such an investigation format actually changes real practice will remain unanswered.
