Kiev's Accusation of Ukraine Officer's Death 'Imagination' - Russian Lawmaker

The first deputy chairman of Russia's Federation Council's foreign affairs committee said that Kiev's allegations that Russian security services could be involved in a blast that killed Col. Maksym Shapoval, who was a member of the Ukrainian intelligence service, are "the product of fevered imagination".

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Kiev's allegations that Russian security services could be involved in a blast that killed Col. Maksym Shapoval, who was a member of the Ukrainian intelligence service, are "the product of fevered imagination," Vladimir Dzhabarov, the first deputy chairman of Russia's Federation Council's foreign affairs committee, told Sputnik on Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, Shapoval was killed in a car explosion in Kiev. A number of Ukrainian officials, including prosecutors and an adviser to the Ukrainian interior minister said that Russian security services could be behind the incident.

"Kiev accuses Russia and Russian security services in any breaches of law in Ukraine… All these accusations are only the product of fevered imagination," Dzhabarov said.

According to the Russian official, people making the statements similar to the ones of the Ukrainian officials could be brought to justice for defamation.

The lawmaker reminded that Ukrainian officials had falsely accused Russia of assassination of former Russian lawmaker Denis Voronenkov, however no one had apologized for the allegations.

Voronenkov was fatally shot in the Ukrainian capital on March 23. The Ukrainian authorities immediately claimed there was a "Russian trace" in the murder. On June 16, Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine announced that the country's law enforcement officers detained a person suspected of complicity in Voronenkov's murder in the eastern Ukrainian city of Pavlohrad.