A Moldovan woman aged 28 was shot dead in Odessa, while the man who accompanied her and who was allegedly her husband, was hospitalized. The attackers, who supposedly are also Moldovans, were arrested, the Ukrainian authorities reported.

The head of the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Europeans Integration of Moldova Ana Taban has told IPN that the relatives of the two were to travel to Ukraine today, while representatives of Moldova’s Consulate in Odessa will provide all the necessary assistance to them in repatriating the body. The killed woman was from Rezina district, while the hurt man, who is 45, is from Chisinau.

The incident happened on the night of January 14. The suspects, of 29 and 31, who are from Chisinau and Bender respectively, were arrested yesterday at the Cuchurgan checkpoint, when they tried to cross the border to return to Moldova.

According to the Ukrainian Ministry of the Interior, the man, who is an entrepreneur, travelled together with the woman in his car on the Odessa-Reni road. Near Cuchurgan, the victims met with the two attackers. One of them fired at the man and then at the woman. Putting the bodies in the injured man’s trunk, the suspects continued their way by the man’s car. The hurt man regained consciousness and managed to enter the car. Scared, the attackers stopped the car and ran away. The man announced the police. One of the arrested men told the police that he owed a large sum of money to the victim and wanted to get rid of the debt by killing the creditor.