By Serge Duchêne
Published on
Ukraine’s interior minister announced on Sunday that two police officers had been suspended after a video was posted online showing them fleeing the scene of the shooting in Kyiv, which left six people dead.
An armed man opened fire and took hostages in a supermarket in a residential district of the Ukrainian capital on Saturday, before being shot dead during an attempt to arrest him.
In footage broadcast by Ukrainian media, a male and a female officer in uniform and yellow vests can be seen standing next to a person lying on the ground, before fleeing as shots ring out, leaving behind civilians, including a child.
“Shameful, unworthy behaviour. It is a disgrace for the whole system. They have been suspended and an investigation is under way,” interior minister Ihor Klymenko said on Telegram.
The officers caught on camera have been suspended from duty for the duration of the investigation.
Klymenko also stressed that the behaviour of just two officers should not be used to generalise about the entire police force.
Police have yet to establish a motive for the shooting, although it has now been officially classified as a terrorist act, but Klymenko said the attacker “was clearly suffering from mental instability”.
“It is necessary to examine how he obtained the medical certificates required to renew his gun licence,” the minister added, while making clear there would be no systematic checks on gun owners, who are legally required to register their weapons.
He pledged to hold “expert discussions with the participation of MPs, citizens, journalists and veterans” on firearms legislation.
On the question of granting civilians the right to own firearms, including handguns, the interior minister said, “I believe people should have the right to defend themselves with weapons. Especially after seeing, at the start of the full-scale invasion, civilians being given weapons for the national resistance.”
Patrol police chief resigns
The head of Ukraine’s national police, Ivan Vyhovskyi, whom the minister tasked with the inquiry, announced that an internal investigation had been opened, and later on Sunday prosecutor general Ruslan Kravtchenko announced the launch of a criminal investigation into alleged failures by the police officers to fulfil their professional duties.
“All the actions of law enforcement at the time when citizens’ lives were in serious danger, including leaving a young child at risk and failing to neutralise the assailant in time, will be subject to appropriate legal assessment,” the prosecutor general said.
The head of Ukraine’s patrol police department, Yevhen Zhukov, meanwhile resigned over the officers’ behaviour, which he described as “shameful”.
“The officers acted unprofessionally and in a manner unworthy of police officers. They arrived at the scene and were supposed to help and save our fellow citizens. They lost their bearings and left wounded civilians in danger,” he said.
Zhukov said one of the patrol officers had been in the police since 2024, and his female partner since 2015.
According to Zhukov, the patrol officer should have drawn his weapon and fired a warning shot, then used it, “But he made a mistake and, unfortunately, did not use it,” the patrol police chief said.
Additional sources • AFP, Ukraïnska Pravda, Meduza