Ukrainian soldier kills 4 fellow servicemen, 1 civilian
- Artemiy Ryabchuk, aged 20, was on guard duty at a military factory in the city of Dnipro when he opened fire on his colleagues killing five people and wounding five more
- He fled the scene immediately but was detained by police soon after the shooting
A member of Ukraine’s National Guard on Thursday opened fire on his fellow soldiers, killing five people and wounding five more, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said. The serviceman was detained by police but his motives remain unclear.
The incident occurred in the city of Dnipro, 500 kilometres (310 miles) southeast of Kyiv on Thursday morning. The soldier, identified by the authorities as Artemiy Ryabchuk, 20, was on guard duty at a military factory and opened fire on his colleagues, fleeing the scene immediately after.
Four soldiers and one civilian died, and five more people sustained injuries. Police detained Ryabchuk soon after the shooting. It wasn’t immediately clear what prompted him to open fire.
President Volodymyr Zelensky demanded the authorities thoroughly investigate and analyse the incident.
“I expect law enforcement to fully tell the public about all the circumstances of the crime. Motives of the killer, how (the shooting) became possible – everything should be analysed as thoroughly as possible,” Zelenskyy said in an online statement, adding that conclusions should be drawn from the incident about personnel in the National Guard.
The shooting took place against the backdrop of soaring tensions between Russia and Ukraine. Moscow has massed an estimated 100,000 troops near its borders with Ukraine, stoking fears that such a build-up might indicate plans to invade its ex-Soviet neighbour.
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The Kremlin denied harbouring such plans, but demanded security guarantees from the West, including a clause precluding Nato from accepting Ukraine and other former Soviet states as members – a demand the US and Nato have rejected as a non-starter.
Ukraine’s officials have acknowledged the threat of an invasion, but insisted it was not imminent and accused Russia of fomenting tensions and fear among Ukrainians to destabilise the country from within.
