Police in the Netherlands said on March 29 that a man suspected of a stabbing rampage that wounded five people in Amsterdam is a Ukrainian national from the eastern Donetsk region.
The 30-year-old man is suspected of using multiple knives to randomly stab five people in a busy shopping area in central Amsterdam on March 27 and is set to appear in court on April 1, police said in a statement.
The motive for the attack remains unclear, and the investigation remains ongoing, police said.
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhiy Tykhiy said Kyiv’s Embassy is “close contact with the law enforcement agencies of the Netherlands” and seeking additional information.
He added that the embassy is attempting to determine how the suspect arrived in the country and that it plans to work closely with Dutch authorities.
"We wish a speedy recovery to the victims. Such violence has no justification, and the perpetrator must be held accountable," Tykhiy added.
Two US citizens -- a 67-year-old woman and a 69-year-old man -- were among the victims of the attack, as were a 26-year-old man from Poland, a 73-year-old Belgian woman, and a 19-year-old woman from Amsterdam, police said.
They said the Polish man had been released from hospital, while the other victims remained hospitalized but in a stable condition.
Police said in the statement that the man checked into an Amsterdam hotel on March 26, the day before the attack. They did not release further details about his identity or arrival in the country.
A bystander wrestled the assailant to the ground during the attack and held him until police arrived.
Much of the Donetsk region, where Dutch police said the alleged assailant hails from, is occupied by Russia following the Kremlin’s armed incursion into eastern Ukraine in 2014 and the full-scale invasion of Ukraine that Russia launched in February 2022.
