"Couldn't get my service weapon and start shooting": patrol officer Dudina explained why she didn't open fire on the shooter in Kyiv
Kyiv • UNN
The policewoman stated that she did not see the shooter and did not open fire due to the risk to civilians. She tried to call an ambulance for a child with a head injury.
Patrol police officer Anna Dudina, who is accused of official negligence during the terrorist attack in Kyiv on April 18, which killed seven people, told her version of the events of that day, noting that she could not open fire on the shooter because she did not see him and did not want to open fire blindly so as not to injure others, UNN reports.
We received a call on April 18 at 4:29 PM. The call was classified as hooliganism. The caller was the boy's mother. She reported that a neighbor was threatening with an object resembling a weapon, and that they had a conflict. We went to the scene. The arrival time was 4 minutes. On the way, I called her twice. She did not answer. We were informed via radio that citizens were reporting gunshots. We arrived at the scene, and at approximately that time, it was reported via radio that there were fatalities.
According to her, she and her partner left the service car at 33 Demiyivska Street and walked to the scene, where she saw two people lying near the entrance.
They were covered in blood. Visually, I saw no signs of life. A boy was sitting nearby. He looked about 10 years old. I approached him. He was covered in blood. I knelt down to him and started asking questions. He told me he couldn't hear me. I examined him and saw a wound not in the neck, as you wrote, but in the head. Behind the left ear. A bullet wound. Since the child kept saying he couldn't hear me in response to all my questions, I concluded that he had a severe injury. With a head injury, especially in a child, you cannot move the person, because you can cause even more harm to their health. A decision was made... I called an ambulance twice.
She stated that the ambulance did not answer her, and she and her partner decided that she would return to the car and get the first aid kit.
I took the car keys, left the tablet in the car so it wouldn't interfere with our work. The perpetrator was not at the scene, as stated in the indictment. The perpetrator was not at the scene at that time. We asked people: "Did you see him, did you not see him? What does he look like? Where did he go?" I couldn't take the boy. I walked about 30 meters and heard gunshots. I didn't know what was happening, where the shots were coming from. Of course, I started looking for cover. I didn't see the shooter himself because I was at a distance. I couldn't get my service weapon and start shooting where I couldn't see. Some say: "You should have shot into the air," but excuse me, there are multi-story buildings nearby, people are standing in the windows, and you could kill someone else.
The patrol officer stated that she "thought every minute about how to return and pick up the boy." She also added that she did not manage to reach the service car.
I tried to return, but an auxiliary crew had already arrived. They picked up the boy and handed him to me. I stayed with him until the ambulance arrived. He asked where his mother was. I didn't know what was wrong with his mother. I told him that the guys were doing everything they could to save his mother.
Addition
Today, April 21, the court remanded Dudina's colleague Mykhailo Drobnitskyi in custody until June 18.
Recall
Last Saturday, April 18, Ukraine was shaken by terrible news. In Kyiv, an armed man opened fire on people, as a result of which six people died and another died today in the hospital.
Death toll from the shooting attack in Kyiv has risen to seven20.04.26, 10:19 • 3846 views
The shooter was eliminated during his arrest in a Kyiv supermarket, where he barricaded himself and held hostages. According to the police, the terrorist act in Kyiv on April 18 began due to a domestic conflict.
According to the head of the National Police of Ukraine, Ivan Vyhivskyi, a conflict between neighbors escalated into a shooting. The man first used traumatic weapons, and then returned with firearms and set fire to his apartment.
Law enforcement officers responded to a call about a domestic dispute, but on the way, they received information that there was a shooter at the scene. When the police approached the child and were about to return to the car for a first aid kit, shots were fired.
The Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Ihor Klymenko, reported that the man who carried out the shooting had a registered carbine - he obtained the permit back in December 2025.
In addition, a video appeared online showing two police officers leaving the scene of the shooting in Kyiv without taking measures to neutralize the attacker.
Klymenko ordered an official investigation, the patrol officers were suspended from duty for leaving the scene of the shooting, and the head of the Patrol Police Department of the National Police of Ukraine, Yevhen Zhukov, resigned.
Two police officers were charged with official negligence during the shooting in Kyiv. Due to their escape, an armed terrorist killed seven civilians.