The latest on the killing of former Duma Deputy Denis Voronenkov in downtown Kyiv:
Brazen Killing In Kyiv Leaves Exiled Kremlin Critic Dead
By Christopher Miller
KYIV -- A former Russian lawmaker who defected to Ukraine and aired damning criticism of Russia's leadership has been gunned down in broad daylight in the heart of Kyiv in what Ukraine's president called "an act of state terrorism by Russia."
A city police spokesman told RFE/RL that ex-Duma Deputy Denis Voronenkov was killed by a gunman as he and his bodyguard were approaching the five-star Premier Palace Hotel on March 23.
An Interior Ministry spokesman at the scene, Artem Shevchenko, said the attacker fired at least eight shots at the 45-year-old Voronenkov with an "old Soviet pistol." He said the incident was caught on security cameras.
The attacker was shot in the ensuing gunbattle with Voronenkov's lone bodyguard and apprehended by police on the street nearby. He later died in hospital, officials said, but there was initially no word on his identity.
The Interior Ministry spokesman said the bodyguard, who was wounded in the exchange of gunfire with the assailant, was provided by Ukrainian authorities in the past month because there was "reason to fear" that Voronenkov's life might be in danger.
Poroshenko: Killing was Russian "state terrorism":
By RFE/RL
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says the killing of a former Russian lawmaker in Kyiv was "an act of state terrorism" by Russia.
Poroshenko made the statement on Facebook and Twitter hours after Denis Voronenkov, who moved to Ukraine last year and had criticized the Russian government, was shot dead in central Kyiv on March 23.
The killing was an "act of state terrorism on the part of Russia, which [Voronenkov] had to leave for political reasons."
He said the killing bore the "clear hallmarks of the Russian special services."
"Voronenkov was one of the main witnesses of Russian aggression against Ukraine, and especially of [former President Viktor] Yanukovych's role as regards the entrance of Russian troops into Ukraine."
He said he believed it was "no accident" that the killing took place on the same day as blasts and a fire at a munitions depot in the Kharkiv region, which he called "sabotage."