Russian journalist shot and killed in Kiev; not us, says Russia

A Russian journalist who was a vocal critic of President Vladimir Putin succumbed to his injuries on Tuesday, May 29, after being shot at in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine.

The local police said the victim, Arkady Babchenko, died on way to the hospital after he was picked from the apartment building in a bleeding condition. He was first seen by his wife who then raised an alarm.

Fourty-one-year-old Babchenko, a prominent journalist, was shot multiple times on his back. Investigators said he was attacked in connection with his work.

"The leading and obvious line of inquiry is that of his professional activities," Andriy Kryshchenko, Kiev police chief, told Interfax Ukraine news agency, Al Jazeera reported.

Babchenko, one of Russia's renowned war correspondents, left his country last year after facing threats. Having served in the Russian military during the Chechnya war in the 1990s, Babchenko became a journalist later and worked for various Russian media outlets. He first moved to Prague and then to Kiev where he worked as the host for ATR, a Crimean Tatar TV station. He was a vocal critic of Russia's military actions in Syria.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman condemned the incident and said he was convinced that "the Russian totalitarian machine" had not forgiven the journalist for his honesty, the Al Jazeera report said. He also sought strict punishment for the criminals.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the allegations were untrue and called it a part of anti-Russian campaign, Al Jazeera cited TASS news agency as saying.