Ukraine
Soldier shoots five people in factory – perpetrators arrested
Ukraine: A Google Street View image shows the exterior of the Yuzhmash aerospace engineering factory in the city of Dnipro
© Screenshot Google Street View
A soldier shot at a factory in Ukraine in the city of Dnipro. Five people are killed and several are seriously injured.
A soldier of the Ukrainian National Guard opened fire at an aerospace technology factory, killing four comrades and a civilian. As the Interior Ministry in Kiev announced on Thursday, five other people were seriously injured in the incident in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro. The shooter was arrested several hours after the incident. President Volodymyr Zelenskyj ordered an investigation.
Ukraine is currently on heightened alert with tens of thousands of Russian soldiers on its external borders. However, the authorities initially did not establish a direct connection between the gun attack in the factory and a Russian threat. President Selenskyj described the incident in the industrial city as “terrible”. It must be clarified “how the incident could have happened”.
The shooter’s motive is unclear – arrest during a special operation
According to the Interior Ministry, the soldier armed with a Kalashnikov opened fire at the Yushmash factory in Dnipro at around 3:40 a.m. (local time; 2:40 a.m.). The gun had therefore been handed over to the shooter immediately before the start of the shift. The motive of the 21-year-old shooter, who comes from the Odessa region, according to the Interior Ministry, was initially unclear.
The shooter fled immediately after the crime. He was arrested during a special operation, Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky said on Facebook.
State investigative agency DBR later said the shooter turned himself in to police and turned himself in to security officers in the town of Pidgorodne near Dnipro. The DBR has launched an investigation into negligence against the leadership of the National Guard. The shooter faces life imprisonment if convicted. Interior Minister Monastyrsky said it was investigating how the soldier was able to go through the screening.
Defence, aerospace and agricultural products are manufactured at the Yushmash factory. Among other things, launch vehicles are produced.
Similar deadly incidents have occurred in Ukraine in the past. In 2018, two members of the army killed four of their comrades in the east of the country. Again and again there are incidents with firearms originating from the conflict area in the east of the country. Pro-Russian separatists have been fighting the Ukrainian army there since 2014. The West accuses Russia of supporting the separatists, which the Kremlin denies.
Massive Russian troop movements along the Ukrainian border are currently causing unrest in Kiev. The West fears a possible attack by Russia on the neighboring country. Moscow rejects such plans and says it feels “threatened” by Ukraine and the West.