Belarusian journalist Pavel Sheremet was killed in Kyiv today by a vehicle bomb, an incident that may have been an act of premeditated murder.
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Sheremet wrote for one of Ukraine’s award-winning independent news publications, website Ukrainskaya Pravda, which is now posting tributes to him from President Petro Poroshenko, chief prosecutor Yury Lutsenko and other Ukrainian politicians. He worked as a television host and journalist in Russian Federation before moving to Kiev about five years ago.
Originally from Belarus, Sheremet had worked in Russian Federation but was based in Ukraine for the past five years.
He hosted a morning news show on Radio Vesti and reported for Ukrayinska Pravda, a popular news website.
Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Khatiya Dekanoidze, head of Ukraine’s National Police has said she will personally supervise the investigation.
While working at Ukrainska Pravda, Sheremet investigated the role of Russian special services in Ukraine’s crisis in the east after the assassination of his friend Boris Nemstov, a Russian Opposition leader, last year.
An adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, Zoryan Skiryak, said investigators were examining whether Sheremet’s professional work or possible personal relations could have been a motive for his murder.
Sheremet won the Committee to Protect Journalists’ International Press Freedom Award in 1999 and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Prize for Journalism and Democracy in 2002.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and other high-ranking government officials took to social media and raised calls for a full, swift investigation and to bring the culprits to justice, a call that IPI echoed.
Ukraine’s media community was deeply affected by the brutal killing of Ukrainska Pravda founder Heorhiy Gongadze in 2000.
“Unfortunately, his move to Ukraine proved to be fatal for him. Every time I go to Moscow, it’s like I’m in a minefield”, he said in an interview.
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“This morning’s gruesome incident reminds us all that the safety situation for journalists in Ukraine must be addressed effectively and timely”, Mijatović said.
