Police: US citizen ordered killing of agriculture minister over business grudge

by Oleg SukhovNovember 18, 2021 11:00 pm

The American and his alleged Ukrainian accomplice were arrested and charged with attempted murder, Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky said at a press briefing on Nov. 18.

At the briefing, Agriculture Minister Roman Leshchenko alleged that the duo wanted to kill him over a business conflict from 2018, before he became a minister.

Without mentioning any names, Leshchenko referred to a January Kyiv Post report about U.S. farmer Kurt Groszhans, who was suing Leshchenko for allegedly stealing $250,000. Groszhans did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Oleg Sukhov

Political reporter

Oleg Sukhov is a political reporter at the Kyiv Independent. He is a former editor and reporter at the Moscow Times. He has a master's degree in history from the Moscow State University. He moved to Ukraine in 2014 due to the crackdown on independent media in Russia and covered war, corruption, reforms and law enforcement for the Kyiv Post.

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