Shot dead in Ukraine

Putty critic Denis Voronenkov shot dead in Ukraine

By Victoria Butenko and Jason Hanna

A former Russian lawmaker and Kremlin critic who fled to Ukraine last year was shot dead Thursday in Ukraine's capital, an official said.

Denis Voronenkov, who had been a Communist member of Russia's lower legislative house before he attained Ukrainian citizenship, was fatally shot in Kiev, Ukrainian Interior Ministry spokesman Artem Shevchenko said.

A suspect in the shooting is wounded and has been taken to a hospital, Kiev police chief Andriy Krischenko said. Details about the suspect's identity and who injured him weren't immediately available.

Denis Voronenkov, a former Communist legislator in Russia's lower legislative house, was shot dead in Kiev on Thursday, Ukrainian authorities say.

Pictures distributed by Agence France-Presse show police standing over the bloodied body of Voronenkov, lying face-up on a Kiev sidewalk.

Voronenkov and his wife, former Russian lawmaker Maria Maksakova, sharply criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin after they left Russia for Ukraine in October.

In a February interview with Radio Free Europe, Voronenkov called Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea a "mistake," and that the couple left the country because of pressure from Russian security services.

He said he thought his criticisms led Russian authorities to charge him in absentia with fraud in February, Radio Free Europe reported. He called the charges "fake" and "political," the report said.

Russia's state-run Sputnik news service cast Voronenkov's flight as an attempt to flee from investigation, citing the Russian Investigative Committee.