2025 Odintsovo school attack

2025 Odintsovo school attack
Location	55°43′36″N 37°09′39″E / 55.72667°N 37.16083°E / 55.72667; 37.16083 Uspenskaya Secondary School, Gorki-2, Odintsovo, Moscow Oblast, Russia
Date	December 16, 2025 c.9:00 a.m. (MSK; UTC+03:00)
Target	Students & school staff
Attack type	Mass stabbing school stabbing child murder
Weapons	Knife Pepper spray Improvised explosive device (unused) Imitation Glock pistol (unused)
Deaths	1
Injured	3
Motive	Ethnic hatred Far-right ideology Christian Terrorism[1]
Accused	Timofey Kulyamov[2]

On 16 December 2025, a mass stabbing occurred at Uspenskaya Secondary School in Gorki-2, a suburb of Odintsovo city, Moscow Oblast.^[3] Students and school staff were attacked with a knife and pepper spray, killing a 10-year-old pupil of Tajik descent and injuring three others before being detained by law enforcement.^[3][4] A 15-year-old student, Timofey Kulyamov,^[2] was arrested and charged with murder and attempted murder.^[5]

A criminal investigation is currently being headed by the Investigative Committee of Russia.^[3] The suspect also recorded the attack using a phone mounted on a helmet.^[6]

Background

The attack followed a period of few attacks against schools in Russia, with the last notable one being the Bryansk school shooting in 2023. However, multiple, lesser known incidents had occurred in the months leading up to the attack.^[7]

A teenage student wounded four of his fellow pupils with a hammer in Chelyabinsk in 2024.^[7] A stabbing at a school in Saint Petersburg also occurred the previous day on December 15, showed a trend of violence at schools was rising in the country.^[8]

The Uspenskaya Secondary School began operation in only 2024, after a two year construction period. 550 student initially attended the school, eventually expanding to 1,332 attendees by the time of the attack.^[9]

Attack

Reports of a stabbing at Uspenska Secondary School were received at around 9:00 a.m.^[3][10] At approximately 8:50 a.m.,^[11] the assailant had entered the school armed with a knife; pepper spray; an imitation handgun; and an improvised explosive device.^[11][12][13] He went to the bathroom, started the livestream, got ready for the attack and after leaving the bathroom, he started searching for a specific teacher's office to plant the explosives for unknown reasons, but could not recall the location.^[11][14] Whilst wandering the building, another teacher would alert the school's security for suspicious behaviour.^[14] When asked what he was doing by a teacher, he replied "you will read about it on Wikipedia."^[13]

Later the perpetrator came across a group of students, asking them what their ethnicities are.^[12][15] Around the same time, a security guard, Dmitry Pavlov,^[2] arrived and approached the attacker, which prompted him to spray and stab the guard before charging at the students.^[4][13] While the students and a teacher quickly ran to hide in a classroom, one of the students, a 10-year-old fourth-grade pupil couldn't hide in time and the attacker began chasing him, eventually the pupil fell down the stairs and the attacker fatally stabbed him.^[12] The boy was later found to be a Tajikistan national.^[12] The attacker took multiple selfies with the body of the student.^[13]

Following this, the livestream ended and the assailant injured a further two people, one being a teacher,^[16] before taking another hostage in a barricaded room. They were swiftly arrested following the arrival of special forces, with the hostage found to be uninjured.^[12][15] The injured were transported and treated at Roshal center hospital.^[15] The attacker had filmed his attack and shared it to several Telegram channels.^[6]

Victim

Qobiljon Aliyev (often transliterated as Kobiljon in Russian)^[13] was a Tajikistani who had moved to Russia with his mother and younger brother. The victim's mother worked as a cleaner at the same school.^[17] The Tajik Foreign Ministry would become involved in the incident, request an impartial probe into the attack, and condemning the attack as "ethnic hatred."^[18][19]

On 17 December, his mother made the decision to return and bury her son's body in Tajikistan.^[17][20] She had been in contact with the Tajik Foreign Ministry via the Tajik embassy following the attack.^[20] They had planned to return to Tajikistan before the attack.^[16]

Suspect

Following the attack, the Investigative Committee of Russia (ICRF) announced that a criminal case against 15-year-old student Timofey Vladimirovich Kulyamov had been launched.^[2][10][21] Uspenskaya Secondary School described Kulyamov as a loner with no friends. Teachers did not notice unusual behavior from him, besides being quiet and his tendency to "cry over trivial matters".^[22]

A day prior to the attack, Kulyamov sent a manifesto entitled "My Wrath" (Russian: Мой гнев) to a class group chat. In the manifesto, he states his hatred for society, calling other humans "bio-garbage." Far-right and Neo-Nazi sentiment is also present throughout the writing, with Kulyamov showing a hatred for Muslims, LGBTQ people, Jews, anti-fascists, and liberals.^[14][16]

The clothing allegedly worn by Kulyamov on the day of the attack was also similar to previous far-right mass murderers. He wore a tactical vest with a Kolovrat imprinted on the chest area, similar to that worn by Brenton Tarrant and Payton Gendron, although their imprint included a Black Sun. He wrote certain far-right phrases on an imitation firearm and a helmet worn in the attack, some of which were attributed to Dylann Roof.^[13][14] The words "No Lives Matter" were found written on the suspect's t-shirt.^[13]

On the internet, Kulyamov would use to pseudonym "Refetor". He was active in the community of the video game GoreBox, apparently playing and discussing maps designed as recreations of various mass shootings, including the 2019 Bærum mosque attack. He also heavily discussed his aforementioned far-right views.^[2]

Investigation

According to the ICRD, Kulyamov confessed to the attack in custody. A search of the suspect's house yielded an inert explosive device.^[22]

Indonesian National Police would make a link to the attack and the Jakarta school bombing, which occurred a month earlier. The imitation pistol owned by Kulyamov had the words "2025 Jakarta Bombing" inscribed into it. It is possible that Kulyamov and the suspect in the Jakarta school bombing could have been radicalised via similar methods.^[23]

Aftermath

On 24 December 2025, Valery Fadeyev, head of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights publicly called for social media users to stop posting video footage of the attack in Odintsovo, particularly those depicting the killing of Qobiljon Aliyev.^[24]

On 29 December, Sergey Melikov, head of the Republic of Dagestan, awarded Alina Feyzullayeva, a Dagestani teacher at Uspenskaya Secondary School, the Medal "For Courage" for sheltering students in her classroom during the attack.^[25][26]

Subsequent attacks

In the months following the attack, several similar attacks across Russia would occur.^[27]

Nizhnekamsk school attack

On 22 January 2026, an custodian at Lyceum No. 37 in Nizhnekamsk, Tatarstan, was injured in a stabbing. A 13-year-old student was arrested and found to be carrying explosive devices, such as firecrackers and a flare gun.^[28]

Ufa school shooting

On the morning of 3 February 2026, a school attack occurred at Gymnasium No. 16 in Ufa, Bashkortostan. A ninth-grader came to school with a BB gun. He fired several shots at a teacher and three classmates.^[29]

Kodinsk school attack

On 3 February 2026, at School No. 4 in Kodinsk, Krasnoyarsk Krai, a 14-year-old seventh-grade student injured her peer with a kitchen knife.^[30]

Krasnoyarsk school attack

On the morning of 4 February 2026, a Molotov cocktail was used to set a fire at School No. 153 in Krasnoyarsk, followed by a hammer attack in which five students and a teacher were injured. A 14-year-old female eighth-grade student was arrested for attempted murder.^[27][31]

Bashkir State Medical University attack

On 7 February 2026 in Ufa, Bashkortostan, at a dormitory at the Bashkir State Medical University, six Indian students were injured in a mass stabbing. A 15-year-old named Alexander S. was arrested and the attack was investigated as likely racially motivated.^[32] The attack occurred just four days after another school attack in Ufa, in which a teenager set off a firecracker and also injured a teacher with an airsoft gun.^[27]

Anapa college shooting

On 11 February 2026, a 17-year-old teenager opened fire at the Anapa Technical College in Anapa, Krasnodar Krai. One security guard was killed. Two other victims were injured.^[33]

See also

• List of school attacks in Russia

References