Ukraine has accused the killer of Kremlin critic, Denis Voronenkov, of being a trained Russian agent. Voronenkov was shot in the back of the head by an assassin in broad daylight in downtown Kyiv last week. The shooter was killed by the former Russian lawmaker’s bodyguard.
An advisor to Ukraine’s interior minister, Anton Gerashchenko, said the killer was 28-year-old Pavel Parshov who had been trained by Russian security services. “He underwent a special course at a school for saboteurs,” Gerashchenko wrote Friday in a Facebook post without explaining how that information was obtained, reports Associated Press.
Ukraine’s national guard said that Parshov had served in one of their units for two years before being fired for conduct. Ukraine’s chief prosecutor said Voronenkov was scheduled to testify at his office later that day in an undisclosed case.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko immediately called the killing an “act of state terrorism” by Russia. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the accusations were absurd. The Russian foreign ministry suggested Ukraine staged the hit to blame Moscow.
