A file picture provided on May 29, 2018 shows Russian journalist Arkadiy Babchenko on November 14, 2017 in Kiev. (AFP PHOTO)

KIEV, May 29 (Xinhua) -- Russian journalist Arkadiy Babchenko, who was working for the Ukrainian TV channel ATR, was killed in Kiev on Tuesday, Ukrainian authorities said.

Ukrainian lawmaker Anton Gerashchenko wrote on Facebook that Babchenko was shot in the back on the stairwell of his house and died in the ambulance on the way to hospital.

Kiev police chief Andriy Kryschenko told local media that Babchenko's professional activities as a journalist would be examined in the investigation to seek the motive of the murderer.

Babchenko, 41, had worked as a war correspondent in Moskovsky Komsomolets and several other Moscow-based media.

He moved from Moscow to Prague, capital of Czech Republic, in February 2017, citing unspecified threats. In August 2017, Babchenko moved to Kiev.

Babchenko is known as the author of several books on military themes, which have been translated into 16 languages.

His murder marked the second killing of a prominent journalist in Kiev in less than two years.

In July 2016, Pavel Sheremet, who was working for the online investigative newspaper Ukrainska Pravda, was killed in a car explosion in the center of the Ukrainian capital.