Former Russian MP shot dead
Ukraine president says former lawmaker’s killing was Russian ‘state terrorism’
Denis Voronenkov was a key witness in treason case against Ukraine’s ousted leader Viktor Yanukovich |
Aformer Russian lawmaker and key witness in a treason case against Ukraine’s ousted leader Viktor Yanukovich was shot dead in broad daylight outside a hotel in central Kiev yesterday, police said.
Former MP Denis Voronenkov was killed by an assailant who is now in hospital after being wounded by Voronenkov’s bodyguard during the incident, police said.
Voronenkov fled to Ukraine with his wife last year and was helping authorities build a treason case against Ukrainian ex-president Yanukovich.
Spoken out
He has also spoken out against Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March 2014, although he voted for the move at the time. “A cynical murder of one of the witnesses involved in the state’s case against expresident Yanukovich,” said Ukraine’s General Prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko.
“In broad daylight in the centre of Kiev, former Russian lawmaker Denis Voronenkov was shot. He had provided investigators of the military prosecutor’s office with highly important (witness) testimony for the case. This was a typical show execution of a witness by the Kremlin.” Voronenkov had been placed on a Russian wanted list in connection with an alleged $5 million (Dh18.36 million) property fraud.
Yanukovich fled Ukraine during the 2013-2014 Maidan street protests, which he said were tantamount to a “coup” organised by armed nationalist radicals.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said yesterday that the fatal shooting was an act of Russian “state terrorism”.
Poroshenko said the killing “is an act of state terrorism on the part of Russia,” Poroshenko said.