According to information from the National Police of Ukraine, on the morning of January 12, a minor student put on a pre-prepared mask and helmet in the toilets of a primary school in Kyiv, then ran into the classroom and attacked a 39-year-old teacher and a 14-year-old classmate with a knife.
A few hours after the attack, Ukrainian media, citing sources close to investigators, reported that the attacker was Mykyta Solovjov, born in 2011, the son of a former employee of the National Police of Ukraine. He stabbed the teacher in the hands and abdomen and inflicted cuts on his classmate's back and forearm.
Self-harm
After the attack, Solovjov locked himself in one of the school toilet cubicles and stabbed himself in the hand and stomach. Both the attacker and his victims are currently in hospital under medical supervision. Their condition is unknown, but one of the victims was carried out of the school on a stretcher by paramedics, and the teacher was still in serious condition before noon on January 12.
Witnesses reported the attack to the emergency line at 8:45 a.m. local time. The police immediately arrested the injured attacker, and after his release from the hospital, he will be remanded in custody, where he will await trial. He comes from Nikopol in the Dnipropetrovsk region, and his father was the chief operating officer of the Strategic Investigations Department of the National Police of Ukraine until May 2025.
Although the motive for the crime is still under investigation, the prosecutor's office of the Obolon district of Kyiv, where the attack took place, has initiated criminal proceedings against Solovyov for the attempted murder of two or more persons, for which he faces a prison sentence of 10 to 15 years.
The hand of Moscow?
"During the investigation, police discovered communications with what are likely hostile intelligence services on the suspect's phone. Further investigative measures are currently underway," the Ukrainian police added.
The Kiev City Prosecutor's Office said that, judging by the chat on the phone, "the minor discussed his plans to commit a crime" with unknown persons, whom the prosecutor's office describes as "probable representatives of Russian intelligence services."
Shortly after the attack, several photos were leaked from Solovyov's mobile phone showing him wearing a black T-shirt withthe words "Hitler kaput." This is one of the slogans of the anti-fascist movement, based on the phrase Hitler ist kaputt (Hitler is defeated), which was used in a distorted form, Hitler kaput, by Red Army soldiers at the end of World War II.
"Denazification for export. The most vulnerable groups of the population – children and the elderly – are becoming the targets of its application," wrote Olexiy Reyns, a Ukrainian officer of the 3rd Army Corps, on social media.
According to Ukrainian media, the young Ukrainian perpetrator's possible connection to Moscow is likely related to the Kremlin's propaganda narrative about fascism and Nazism in Ukraine, which may have been behind Solovyov's decision to attack.