“He called himself a general of the Russian army.” Police share details of audio from the phone of the Kyiv shooter

In recordings from the Kyiv shooterʼs phone, he can be heard calling himself a general of the Russian army during the April 18 terrorist attack.

This was reported by the head of the National Police Ivan Vyhivsky after a briefing.

"When we looked at certain files on his phone, he constantly filmed himself shooting. When he walked down the hallway, he called himself a general of the Russian army. We understand that he had certain flaws," says the head of the National Poll.

Vyhivsky added that the shooter turned on the recorder during a conflict with a neighbour, probably to justify himself later. The recording, in particular, captured the moment when the shooter went up to the apartment to get a carbine. The audio continues until the moment when the attacker ran into the store, where he took people hostage. This recording has already been transferred to SBU.

Shooting in Kyiv: what is known

On the afternoon of April 18, a man opened fire on passersby in the Holosiivsky district of Kyiv. It all started with a quarrel with a neighbor, then he fired from a traumatic pistol near the entrance. After that, the man returned to his apartment, took a rifle, set fire to the apartment and went outside, where he randomly shot passersby.

Later, he barricaded himself in a supermarket and took the customers hostage. Law enforcement officers negotiated with him for 40 minutes, but when he killed one of the hostages, they launched an assault and eliminated the attacker.

The shooting resulted in 7 deaths and 14 injuries. Law enforcement officers have initiated criminal proceedings under the article on terrorist acts.

According to law enforcement, the shooter is a native of Moscow, previously lived in the Donetsk region for a long time. He has already been brought to criminal responsibility. The weapon from which the attacker fired is a registered carbine. In December 2025, he renewed the right to use this weapon. At the same time, he provided a certificate of his mental state.

After the shooting, the head of the patrol police department Yevhenii Zhukov resigned. This happened because of a video showing police officers running away from the shooter and leaving a civilian under fire. Zhukov is now an advisor to the head of the National Police.

On April 20, the State Bureau of Investigation reported suspicion of negligence of duty to two patrol police officers. Already on April 21, the Pechersky District Court of Kyiv sent police officers Mykhailo Drobnytsky and Anna Dudina to a pre-trial detention center for 60 days with the alternative of bail of UAH 266 000.

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