A top Russian defense official was found dead Wednesday after falling 16 floors from an apartment building window.
Russian media reported that Marina Yankina, 58, was found by a passerby at the entrance of a high-rise in St Petersburg.
A preliminary investigation said it was believed Yankina committed suicide. The Russian Investigative Committee confirmed Yankina's death and is leading the probe into the circumstances.
Yankina was a key figure in the funding of Russian President Vladimir Putin's unprovoked war in Ukraine. She headed of the financial support department of the Ministry of Defense for the Western Military District, which is closely involved in the invasion.
She's the latest of many prominent Russian officials and businessmen to have died under mysterious circumstances since the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022.
Yankina's personal belongings and documents were found on a 16th-floor balcony.
Yankina called her ex-husband a few minutes before allegedly taking her own life, and told him what she was about to do, Telegram channel Mash reported.
She also asked the man to summon police to the building.
Mash reported that Yankina was said to have been struggling with health problems.
Yankina previously worked in the Federal Tax Service, and also served as deputy chairman of the Property Relations Committee of St. Petersburg.
Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine's minister of internal affairs, commented on Yankina's death on Twitter.
"Marina Yankina, head of the financial department at Russian ministry of defense, was found dead. She fell out of a window," he tweeted. "Her death is not the first among Russian high-ranking officials in the past year."
The New York Post reported that Russian Ministry of the Interior Maj. Gen. Vladimir Makarov, 72, died of an apparent suicide this week in a Moscow suburb.
Makarov allegedly had fallen into a "deep depression" after being removed by Putin in January.
Col. Vadim Boyko, 44, deputy head of the Makarov Pacific Higher Naval School in Vladivostok, in November was found dead from multiple gunshot wounds. His death is being described as a suicide.
According to witnesses, Boyko was seen entering his office before "five shots" were heard from inside the room. A subordinate who went to check out the noise discovered Boyko's body.
Sausage tycoon Pavel Antov, who criticized the invasion of Ukraine, plunged to his death from a luxury hotel in India in In December, the Post reported.
Antov's death came three days after a friend lost his life on the same trip.
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