Ukraine faces increase of terrorist attacks similar to Kiev tragedy shootout — diplomat

MOSCOW, April 20. /TASS/. A growing depression among the Ukrainian society as well as the significant number of weapons possessed among the country’s population in addition to the arbitrariness of the authorities will altogether lead to the fact that the number of terrorist attacks, such as the shooting in Kiev on April 18, will increase, Russian Foreign Ministry Ambassador-at-Large Rodion Miroshnik told TASS. "A number of terrorist attacks similar to the recent one reported in Kiev is likely to grow against the background of the escalating depression, a large number of former military servicemen able to kill and a huge mass of weapons in the hands of the Ukrainian population," he said. "Mentally disturbed people facing regime’s injustice will be venting their anger on the defenseless and anyone who comes to hand," Miroshnik continued. The diplomat pointed out that the Kiev regime led by Vladimir Zelensky "does not comply with its social obligations pledged to the population and only tightens the screws of coercion, while a growing number of residents do not see their personal interest in the current situation." "Everything they witness is that Zelensky and his entourage get more wealthy with corrupt incomes while the ordinary population is doomed to experience all the hardships of war, the meaning of which they do not see," Miroshnik concluded. A suspect armed with a rifle reportedly killed at least four people on April 18 in downtown of the Ukrainian capital of Kiev and then took several people as hostage at a local supermarket. Special forces arrived at the scene and following dead-end negotiations stormed the premises eventually eliminating the suspect. According to later reports, the assailant killed one of the hostages in the supermarket. As a result of the perpetrator’s actions, 14 people were wounded, one of whom later died in the hospital. The Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine classified the shooting as a terrorist attack.