Izhevsk School Shooting

On the morning of 26 September 2022, at around 10:52 a.m., a mass shooting took place at School No. 88 in Izhevsk, Udmurtia, Russia. The attacker, identified by investigators as 34-year-old Artyom Kazantsev, a former student of the school, entered the building armed with two pistols and 44 magazines containing 352 rounds of ammunition.

Kazantsev first opened fire near the entrance, killing one security guard and a cloakroom attendant, and fatally wounding a cleaner. He then fired into a room at the end of a hallway, killing an art teacher and three first-graders, all aged 7. He returned to the entrance and went to the second floor, where he killed a second guard who had already reported the shooting and was attempting to warn teachers on upper floors. On the second and third floors, he fired indiscriminately into several classrooms, killing three students aged 9, 10, and 11, and a math teacher. A third-grade witness reported that Kazantsev shouted at children hiding under desks. He then entered room 403 on the fourth floor, killing five students aged 14–15 and an English teacher, before fatally shooting himself. In total, 18 people were killed, including 11 students aged 7 to 15, two security guards, three teachers, a cloakroom attendant, and a cleaner. Twenty-three people were wounded, including 22 children. An 18th fatality, 67-year-old Lyudmila Fedotova, died from her injuries on 8 November 2022. Eleven injured children were left disabled. One student shot in room 403, Robert Burkhanov, remained in a paralyzed and unconscious state years later, with his mother stating doctors gave no chance of recovery.

Investigators searched Kazantsev's residence and examined reports of a possible neo-fascist or neo-Nazi ideology; he was reportedly wearing a T-shirt with Nazi symbols and a balaclava, and his weapon magazines were decorated with keychains referencing the perpetrators of the Columbine massacre. Udmurtia's regional head, Aleksandr Brechalov, stated Kazantsev had been registered as an outpatient at a mental health facility with a schizophrenia diagnosis since 2011, with his last psychiatric appointment in mid-September 2022. Kazantsev had previously been brought before a court following a December 2008 knife attack on two people; a forensic psychiatric examination found him legally insane at the time, and in May 2009 the court closed the criminal case without applying compulsory medical treatment. Investigators noted he had legally purchased empty ammunition magazines from stores on four occasions and may have obtained ammunition illegally or via forged documents. Kazantsev left behind a document referred to as a "manifesto," which authorities were barred from publicizing; in it he reportedly expressed hatred toward state authorities and specific figures, and had considered killing his mother before deciding this could jeopardize his plan to attack the school.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the attack as a terrorist act by a person "apparently" belonging to a neo-fascist organization. Brechalov declared three days of mourning. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, along with foreign leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping, the United Nations, the European Union, and others, expressed condolences.