MINNEAPOLIS — A suburban Minneapolis man charged with killing his pregnant wife and their prematurely born child told police she was going to take his children away from him and that he saw no other way out, according to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday.

Yevgeniy Savenok, 30, of Eden Prairie remained jailed Tuesday with bail set at $5 million.

He’s charged with two counts of first-degree premeditated murder in the fatal stabbing of Lyuba Savenok, 23, and the child’s death. A court appearance is scheduled for Wednesday.

The autopsy found that Lyuba Savenok was stabbed around 12 times and bled to death, while her child died during an emergency cesarean section.

“He stabs her in the stomach and in the chest, knowing she’s carrying his baby. It passes all understanding, how one human being can do that to another human being,” Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman told reporters as he announced the charges.

The complaint says Lyuba Savenok’s sister witnessed the stabbing Saturday morning at the family’s home and called 911 as Yevgeniy Savenok drove off with his two children, ages 3 and 4. He and the children ended up at a St. Paul hospital about 2½ hours later.

He told hospital security guards that he had just killed his wife, the complaint says, and that she had driven him to do it. Police soon arrived and arrested him.

The complaint says he told investigators he started thinking about using a knife to kill her the night before on a return trip from Chicago, and that he thought killing her was “probably like my only way out.”