Putin critic former Russian MP shot dead in Kiev

Denis Voronenkov, who testified to Ukrainian investigators and criticized Moscow’s illegal annexation of Crimea, was shot dead by an unidentified gunman near the entrance of an upscale hotel.

Kiev Police Chief Andrei Krishchenko said the murder was likely a contract killing, the Meduza news site reported.

Former Russian parliamentarian Denis Voronenkov (Photo: TASS)

According to Meduza, Voronenkov was leaving the hotel with his bodyguard when he was shot. The bodyguard returned fire and wounded the shooter. The alleged assassin was subsequently taken to a Kiev hospital. The bodyguard also sustained injuries in the shootout, The Moscow Times reported.

Both were hospitalised but Ukrainian media cited hospital doctors later in the day as saying the gunman had died.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said the killing “clearly shows the handwriting of Russian special services shown repeatedly in various European capitals in the past,” The Independent reported.

In a statement released by his spokesman, Svyatoslav Tsegolko, Poroshenko described the victim as a key witness who gave testimony about “Russian aggression” to the Ukrainian authorities.

Ilya Ponomaryov, another former Russian lawmaker and Kremlin critic living in exile in Kiev, wrote on Facebook that Voronenkov was killed at 11:25 a.m. while heading to a meeting with him.

Voronenkov was "an investigator who was deadly dangerous for the security agencies," Ponomaryov wrote.

Voronenkov served in the State Duma until October 2016, when he lost his seat in parliamentary elections. Having lost parliamentary immunity, he fled a corruption investigation, escaping to Kiev with his wife, former United Russia lawmaker Maria Maksakova.

In December 2016, Voronenkov received Ukrainian citizenship. The next month, he testified against ousted former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych before the country’s Prosecutor General.

In addition to criticising Moscow’s annexation of Crimea, he had been due to testify against ex-President Viktor Yanukovych, a firm ally of President Vladimir Putin.

In February, Russia launched large-scale fraud charges against the former parliamentarian after he gave a provocative interview to the Ukrainian media outlet Censor.net.ua.

During the interview, he said that Russia was in the grip of a "pseudo-patriotic frenzy” similar to Nazi Germany, and claimed that it was a “mistake” for Russia to annex the Crimean peninsula.

Ukraine’s chief prosecutor, Yuriy Lutsenko, said Voronenkov was shot in the head, neck and stomach and died on the spot.