The horrifying tragedy that unfolded in Kyiv on April 18 continues to shock the public as new details emerge about the attacker. The man responsible for the mass shooting in the Holosiivskyi district has been identified as 58-year-old Dmitry Vasilchenkov, a native of Moscow who held Ukrainian citizenship. This information was officially confirmed by the Office of the Prosecutor General. Concurrently, journalist Vitaly Glagola shared the shooter’s military background on his Telegram channel, while the OSINT department of Telebachennya Toronto uncovered the attacker’s profoundly anti-Ukrainian and anti-Semitic digital footprint.
According to the investigation, Vasilchenkov was born on April 21, 1968, in Moscow. Despite his origins, he lived for a long time in Bakhmut, Donetsk region. Between 2015 and 2017, he temporarily relocated to Ryazan in Russia before eventually returning to Ukraine and settling in Kyiv on Demiivska Street—just a short distance from the location where he committed the massacre.
The attacker had extensive military experience. He served in the 254th Motorized Rifle Division in the Donetsk region until 2004, at which point he retired and became a military pensioner. Shockingly, after the full-scale invasion in 2022, Vasilchenkov was remobilized and continued serving in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Security analysts highlight that allowing an individual with such extremist views into the military points to serious flaws in the vetting process.
OSINT investigators discovered Vasilchenkov’s Facebook account, active between 2016 and 2019 under the alias “Bakhmut V.D.V.” The content he posted revealed a deeply disturbed mindset. He regularly shared racist and anti-Semitic propaganda, calling for the violent “cleansing” of society and citing the methods of Adolf Hitler. Furthermore, Vasilchenkov denied the legitimacy of the Ukrainian state, referring to it as the “so-called Ukraine,” and openly lamented that Russian terrorist Igor Girkin did not completely destroy Bakhmut in 2014.
Adding to his alarming profile, the Holosiivskyi District Court in 2024 released Vasilchenkov from criminal liability for intentional bodily harm following a “reconciliation” with the victim. This leniency allowed a potentially dangerous individual to remain unchecked.
The sequence of events on the day of the attack reveals a calculated rampage. After setting his own apartment on fire, Vasilchenkov took to the streets with an automatic weapon, indiscriminately shooting pedestrians. He then stormed the “Velmart” supermarket, taking innocent people hostage. Special forces from the KORD unit engaged in negotiations, but when the attacker refused to surrender, they initiated an assault and neutralized him.
The senseless violence claimed the lives of six people, including a 30-year-old woman who later succumbed to her injuries in the hospital. Over a dozen others, including a 12-year-old boy, were wounded. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has stated that law enforcement agencies are thoroughly investigating several potential motives, meticulously examining the shooter’s contacts and digital devices. This horrific event underscores an urgent need for stricter psychological evaluations and background checks for military personnel and gun owners alike.