Babchenko was shot and killed in Kiev where he had been living since fleeing Russia | Inna Sokolovska/EPA Moscow denies involvement in murder of anti-Kremlin journalist Russian foreign minister says his country’s secret services had nothing to do with the killing of Arkady Babchenko.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov described the murder of anti-Kremlin journalist Arkady Babchenko as "very sad" and said Russia had nothing to do with it, AFP reported.

Babchenko was shot and killed Tuesday evening in Kiev, Ukraine where he had been living since fleeing Russia. He had faced political harassment after writing a Facebook post critical of Russia’s military action in Syria and describing the “indifference” he felt upon learning of a plane crash that killed members of a famous military choir.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman accused Moscow of being behind the murder, saying he is "convinced that Russia's totalitarian regime" was responsible. Groysman added that Babchenko was "a true friend of Ukraine," due to his commitment to reveal "the truth about Russian aggression."

Ukraine's allegations prompted Moscow to hit back. Russian authorities denied any involvement in the murder, with Lavrov criticizing the Ukrainian prime minister for trying to blame Russian secret services. "This fashion of conducting international affairs is very sad," Lavrov told reporters.

Investigators in Moscow are set to begin their own probe into the killing, vowing not to "turn a blind eye" to crimes committed against Russian citizens.

Babchenko, 41, was found dead in a stairwell in his apartment building in Kiev, having been shot in the back three times.

He was a former Russian soldier who fought in the country’s two wars in Chechnya, the predominantly Muslim republic in the Caucasus where the Kremlin waged brutal campaigns to suppress separatists.

In Ukraine, Babchenko worked for the Crimean Tatar television network, ATR, and reported frequently on Russia’s support for separatist militants in eastern Ukraine.