Written by Andrew E. Kramer
A member of the Ukrainian National Guard opened fire at an aerospace and rocket factory Thursday, killing five people, authorities said, and raising anxiety in a region already on tenterhooks as tensions with Russia grow.
Little was known about the soldier behind the attack or his motive, but given the nature of the tightly guarded factory and warnings in recent days that Moscow might stage an act of sabotage as a pretext for invading Ukraine, the shooting drew immediate attention.
The attack took place in Dnipro, one of the largest cities in the country, more than 100 miles from the front line of the war in eastern Ukraine, where the military has been fighting Russian-backed separatists since 2014.
The gunman fled the scene, leading to a manhunt that lasted for hours before a suspect was taken into custody. The man was identified as Artemiy Ryabchuk, and authorities said he was born in 2001 but released few other details.
The investigation was taking place against the backdrop of a geopolitical struggle.
The Kremlin has been pushing to reduce the Western presence in a region it considers within its sphere of influence, repositioning troops to increase pressure and demanding assurances that NATO will not allow Ukraine to become a member. Earlier this month, the United States said Russia had dispatched intelligence agents and saboteurs into eastern Ukraine to stage a provocation, with industrial infrastructure seen as a potential target.
That made the site of Thursday’s attack of special interest.
The shooting took place at what was once one of the Soviet Union’s largest missile factories. US officials have long seen the factory, commonly known as Yuzhmash, as posing a risk of weapons proliferation.
The Ukrainian police said the gunman opened fire shortly before 4 am as soldiers were collecting their weapons in a guard house. There were 22 people in the room at the time, authorities said.
Four of those killed were soldiers, and the fifth was an employee of the factory, the police said. Five other people were wounded.
A statement from Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said that the soldier had turned his weapon on fellow service members who were guarding the plant and then fled. It said he had fired “for undefined reasons.”
The attack came hours after the United States and NATO provided written responses to Russian demands concerning Western nations’ presence in former Soviet states.
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