Well-known journalist Pavel Sheremet has been killed in Kiev. The car he was driving blew up minutes after it started.
Photo: AP / Sergei Chuzavkov
Famous journalist and political analyst Pavel Sheremet has been killed in Kiev. The car he was driving blew up minutes after it started. The vehicle belonged to his employer, the head of Ukrainskaya Pravda newspaper.
According to the Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office, a bomb was planted in the car that the journalist was driving.
“No doubt the blast was caused by an explosive device implanted by malefactors. Evidently, the bomb had either a frequency-induction fuse or clock-operated bomb,” a Ukrainian MP and aide to the interior minister, Anton Gerashchenko, told 112 Ukraine channel.
The incident occurred at about 7:45 am. Pavel Sheremet got into the car, started the engine and drove several meters. He was killed instantly. The vehicle has completely burnt out.
The owner of the car was Alyona Pritula, the founder and chief editor of Ukrainskaya Pravda media outlet. She was not inside the vehicle at the moment of explosion.
The Interior Ministry has three main theories about Pavel Sheremet’s murder: his professional activities, a personal grudge and the “Russian trail.”
According to Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova, the Ukrainian system has become a “mass grave” for journalists.
“Ukraine (not as a country, but as a system) is becoming a collective grave for journalists and journalism,” Zakharova said.
According to the Ukrainian mass media, 15 journalists have died in Ukraine since early 2014.