Ukraine's interior minister on terrorist attack in Kyiv: people must be given right to armed self-defence

Following a terrorist attack in Kyiv's Holosiivskyi district that killed six people, Ukraine's Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko has described the behaviour of police officers who fled the scene as shameful and stated that people must be given the right to armed self-defence.

Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs press service

Quote: "Yesterday's tragedy in Kyiv has rightly raised a number of contentious questions. I would like to comment on some of them. The actions of a policeman and a policewoman who arrived at the scene of the terrorist attack. Shameful, unworthy behaviour. This is a disgrace to the entire system. They have been suspended and an investigation is underway. Additional personnel decisions regarding their supervisors will also be taken."

Details: However, Klymenko considers it not entirely appropriate to make generalisations about the entire police force based on the actions of two officers. "Isolated situations do not reflect the system as a whole. After all, even in this same special operation, National Police's KORD unit, criminal analysts and other deployed forces acted professionally and swiftly," he noted.

The minister also stated that the attacker's mental state was clearly unstable. "It is essential to investigate how he obtained the necessary medical certificates to renew his firearms licence. This will be done in the course of the investigation," he stated.

He also promised that there will be no mass checks of weapons owners.

On the question of granting civilians the right to possess firearms, including handguns, the interior minister said: "I believe that people must be given the right to armed self-defence. Especially after the experience of the early days of the full-scale invasion, when civilians received weapons for national resistance".

He promised to hold expert discussions in the near future with the participation of members of parliament, the public, journalists and the veterans' community on the preparation of a final version of the bill on civilian weapons.

"My sincere condolences to the families and loved ones of the victims of the terrorist attack. Our task is to draw conclusions and strengthen the system where this is needed. That is precisely what we are working on now," Klymenko stated.

Previously:

• Investigators are treating the killing of civilians in Kyiv as a terrorist attack that resulted in fatalities.
• Klitschko reported that the death toll from the shooting in Kyiv's Holosiivskyi district had risen to six, while nine injured people were hospitalised and six others received assistance at the scene, including a four-month-old baby.
• Klymenko has ordered an internal investigation into the actions of police officers during the terrorist attack.

Background:

• On 18 April, a man opened fire in Kyiv's Holosiivskyi district, killing and injuring people. Police conducted a special operation to detain the attacker.
• The man who carried out the fatal shooting was later killed during the operation to arrest him.
• According to Ukrainska Pravda sources, his name was Dmytro Vasylchenkov and he was born on 21 April 1968 in Moscow. He held Ukrainian citizenship and had previously lived in Bakhmut, Donetsk Oblast, before moving to Kyiv's Holosiivskyi district.
• Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko confirmed that the shooter was a 58-year-old Moscow-born man.
• Klymenko said the shooter used a registered weapon during the attack.

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