A leading figure in Ukraine’s agribusiness, tycoon Oleksiy Vadaturskyi, and his wife Raisa Vadaturska were killed by a Russian strike that hit their home in the southern city of Mykolaiv Sunday morning.
The 74-year-old businessman was the founder of Nibulon, one of Ukraine’s largest agricultural holdings, specializing in the production and export of a variety of products, including grain, wheat, and corn.
In 2021, Vadaturskyi’s net worth was $430 million, according to Forbes Ukraine.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Office, said Russia had deliberately targeted the businessman, Kyiv Independent reports.
“In my opinion, the death of Oleksiy Vadaturskyi was not an accident, but a thought-out deliberate murder,” he said.
According to Podolyak, the Russian missile struck the bedroom of Vadaturskyi’s house, indicating that the attack was a premeditated assassination.
Videos from the scene show the strike hit precisely the wing where the couple’s bedroom was. Their house was the only building in the neighborhood hit by a Russian rocket.