Ballet star Vladimir Shklyarov who criticised Putin’s Ukraine invasion dies in fall from building in St Petersburg

Vladimir Shklyarov, 39, died after falling from the fifth floor of an apartment building on Saturday.

The fall was said to have been ‘accidental’.

Local reports suggest he was trying to escape from his apartment - after his ex-wife locked him in there at his request to stop him from buying drugs.

However other claims have emerged that this version of events reported locally is malicious and inaccurate.

Shklyarov was among the world's premier ballet dancers and had starred at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Royal Opera House in London.