In the footage posted on Facebook by National police the visibly shaken assailant with a grenade in his hand is heard shouting ‘I will not leave this place alive’. The author of the video and another witness turned to the guards and said that there was a man in the lobby with a grenade in his hand.
‘Here is a grenade, here is a pin! Do not touch the gun! Take people away!’ he shouted.
In comments, Anton Holovenko, an official from the town of Irpin, indentified the assailant as a ‘veteran of the war in Donbas’.
Update 11:58
Kyiv olice said they detained Volodymyr Prokhnych, a man who entered the government building with a grenade.
The head of the National Police Ihor Klymenko says that Prokhnych has wartime injuries including TBI. The police chief alleged the combat veteran committed this crime due to his ‘hard life circumstances’.
The police state that they have started a criminal investigation. The man faces several charges with most severe article -taking hostages – carrying imprisonment for up to 15 years.
Ukraine’s Internal minister Denys Monastyrskyi reported that Prokhnych would undergo a psychiatric examination.