Russian journalist shot dead in Kiev

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A prominent Russian journalist was shot dead on Tuesday in Kiev, the Ukraine’s capital, police said.

Arkadi Babchenko, 41, died in an ambulance en route to the hospital after being found bleeding by his wife, said the police.

Osman Pashayev, a colleague of Babchenko, wrote on Facebook that Babchenko had received 3 gunshots to the back in the stairwell of his building.

Policemen stand guard at the entrance of the building where journalist Arkadi Babchenko was shot dead in his apartment, May 29, 2018. /VCG Photo

Babchenko fled to Kiev after criticizing Moscow’s role in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, and he was the second Kremlin critic living in Kiev to be killed in less than 2 years.

Pavel Cheremet, a dual Russian and Belarusian citizen, died when his car exploded in the center of Kiev in July 2016.

When asked about the possible reason behind the murder of Babchenko, “The first and the most probable version is his professional activity,” Kiev police chief Andriy Kryshchenko said.

The police are not able to speak to Babchenko’s wife because she is in a state of shock, said the police chief. And Ukrainian authorities released a drawing of the suspect, a man with a grey beard and a cap who is around 40-45 years old.

Journalists are at work at the entrance of the building where journalist Arkadi Babchenko was shot dead in his apartment, May 29, 2018. /VCG Photo

Babchenko is a former soldier in Chechnya’s two separatist wars and then became one of Russia’s well-known war correspondents, who was quite critical of the Kremlin.

Babchenko left his homeland in February 2017 after allegedly receiving threats, living in the Czech Republic and Israel first.

“Putin’s regime takes aim at those who cannot be broken or intimidated,” Anton Gerashchenko, a Ukrainian lawmaker and adviser to the interior minister wrote on Facebook.

But the Russian foreign ministry said journalists were being killed with impunity in Ukraine in a statement, “Bloody crimes and total impunity have become routine for the Kiev regime. We demand that the Ukrainian authorities make every effort to promptly investigate.”

Meanwhile, the Investigative Committee of Russia said it had opened a criminal case into Babchenko’s death.

(With input from agencies)

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