The first minutes of the terrorist attack in Kyiv: a policewoman explained why she did not open fire

Patrolwoman Dudina spoke in court about the first minutes after the terrorist attack in Kyiv.

Patrol policewoman Hanna Dudina testified in court about the events during the terrorist attack in Kyiv. The law enforcement officer rejected accusations of negligence and described in detail the chronology of the call, the rescue of the injured child, and the circumstances of the shelling.

This is reported by the correspondent TSN Nelly Kowalska.

Why didn't the patrol officers shoot the culprit?

According to Dudina, the hooliganism call came in at 16:29 p.m. from Olesya Arbuzova, who reported threats from a neighbor with an object resembling a weapon. The patrol crew arrived at the address within four minutes, after which information about the shots and the dead was transmitted via walkie-talkie.

"We left our vehicle at a nearby address. We walked into the yard. I saw two people near the entrance who showed no signs of life. They were covered in blood. There was a little boy nearby, I talked to him. I saw a bullet wound to the head behind the left ear," the patrolwoman said.

The law enforcement officer called for medics and emphasized that the victims with head injuries could not be moved until specialists arrived. She added that she had not seen the shooter himself at the time, so she did not use her service weapon.

She added that she and her partner agreed that she would return to the car for a first aid kit and try to call an ambulance.

"I literally walked away about 30 meters and heard shots. I don't know what was happening. Where the shots were coming from. And of course, I'm going to look for cover. I didn't see the shooter himself. I really didn't see him, because I was already quite far away... I couldn't get my service weapon and start shooting where I couldn't see... Some say they should have shot in the air, but excuse me, there are apartment buildings, high-rise buildings. People are standing in the windows, on the balconies, and someone else could be killed, God forbid. Every minute I thought about this boy. Every minute I thought about how I could go back and pick him up," the patrol officer noted.

How was the child evacuated?

Dudina noted that when she and her colleague arrived at the scene, the perpetrator had already disappeared, and eyewitnesses could not provide a description of him. The patrol officer took the injured 12-year-old boy to a nearby restaurant, where they waited for doctors.

According to her, the child was handed over to the first ambulance that arrived at the scene. Dudina noted that the medics did not get out of the car, and the wounded man was carried onto the couch by the soldiers of the patrol auxiliary crew. The boy left the scene first.

"I stayed with him until the ambulance arrived. I was next to him. And he kept asking: 'Where is my mother?' I couldn't say whether your mother was alive or not. I didn't know what was really happening to his mother. I really hoped that she was alive. I said that we were doing everything, the guys were doing everything now to get your mother out of there," the policewoman said.

During the court hearing, Hanna Dudina stated that she did not plead guilty to the article on official negligence. When asked by the court about the admission of official negligence, she briefly answered: "No."

Terrorist attack in Kyiv - what is known

As a reminder, on April 18, an armed man opened fire on passersby in the Holosiivskyi district of Kyiv, after which he took hostages in a supermarket. Special forces eliminated the terrorist during an assault that began after 40 minutes of negotiations after the attacker killed one of the captives.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs has launched an investigation into the incident. Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko ordered the head of the National Police, Ivan Vyhivsky, to conduct an internal investigation into the actions of security forces during the terrorist attack. All collected materials will be transferred to the State Bureau of Investigation for legal assessment.

It later became known that for the period of the inspection and official investigation, the police officers accused of fleeing during the terrorist attack in Kyiv were suspended from their duties.

In addition, it became known that when the patrol police crew, who arrived at the scene of the shooting, found three injured people: a man, a woman and a child. All of them had gunshot wounds and needed emergency medical care. Another child was also nearby, who witnessed the incident and asked to save his father, not him.