Ukrainian border guards shot a deserter from the country's armed forces, DPA reported, citing reports in the Ukrainian media, quoted by BTA.
Border service spokesman Andriy Demchenko said the defector was shot dead after attacking a border guard.
The murdered man was part of a group of four deserters. They were stopped at a checkpoint about 15 km from Ukraine's border with Moldova. Two try to escape and one is shot dead after failing to stop when a warning shot was fired.
Investigators say the group fled a test site in the southern Odesa region in a taxi and traveled to the breakaway Moldovan region of Transnistria, controlled by pro-Russian separatists. The rest of the group is detained.
According to military law, Ukrainian men between the ages of 18 and 60 can leave the country only in exceptional circumstances. In response, Kiev is erecting barbed wire fences along the country's borders and building checkpoints near the border areas.