Five Ukrainian Police Officers Were Killed in a Shoot out, with Each Other

On the morning of Dec. 4, a police operation to catch a suspected theft ring ended in the shooting deaths of five police officers who fired on each other by mistake in Knyazhychi village, some 15 kilometers west of Kyiv.



The tragedy took place around 4 a.m. as Kyiv criminal police operatives were preparing to catch a group of people suspected in a number of robberies in Kyiv and in Kyiv Oblast. The police learned of a plan to rob a house in Knyazhychi. Officers set up a trap nearby to catch the suspects.



But something went wrong and events unfolded as no one expected. Two criminal police operatives were hiding in an unfinished house, preparing to signal the rapid reaction units to start the operation when the suspects appear. But, unexpectedly, a security alarm in a neighboring place went off, triggering the arrival of a team of protection police, a division of national police that provides security services to people and businesses.



The protection police officers who came saw and followed the fresh footprints in the snow leading to the neighboring unfinished house, thinking the burglars who triggered the alarm were hiding there. They found two men there – two criminal police operatives – and detained the duo, confusing them with criminals.