Igor Volobuyev, a former vice president of Gazprombank, is the first company executive to speak out against the war in Ukraine, saying he could no longer bear to live in Moscow. Mr Volobuyev, who is of Ukrainian descent, revealed that he was willing to take up arms to defend his homeland. “I could not stay with these people, shake their hands, watch the war on my phone as if it were a horrible movie and pretend I did not care,” he told Ukrainian media outlet Liga.net in Kyiv. “My father spent a month in a cold basement. “People I know from my childhood told me they were ashamed of me.” Asked about the unexpected death of another Gazprombank executive, who allegedly killed his wife and child before committing suicide in Moscow earlier this month, Mr Volobuyev said it was hard to believe that Vladislav Avaev had committed suicide. “I do not think he could have killed his wife and daughter. “I think it was set up,” he said. “Why? It’s hard to say. Maybe he knew something and it was dangerous.” Mr. Volobuyev spent 16 years at Gazprombank, where he was head of the press office most of the time. The 50-year-old executive said he packed a bag and left Russia a week after the start of the war. His hometown of Okhtyrka, on a major road junction between Kiev and Kharkiv, was heavily bombed in the first month of the war.
