Russian journalist fatally shot in Ukrainian capital

Arkady Babchenko appeared at the news conference called by the head of the Ukrainian Security Service to thank everyone who was mourning his death, the Associated Press reported.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Vasily Gritsak, head of the Ukrainian Security Service, said the death had been staged in order to catch those who were trying to kill him.

It not immediately clear whether Babchenko’s wife and friend were aware of the security operation.

Babchenko died of his wounds in an ambulance after his wife found him covered in blood at their home, police said, according to Reuters.

A well-known Kremlin critic, he stood in unofficial elections organised by the opposition in 2012 and denounced Russia’s actions in Syria and eastern Ukraine. He left Russian Federation a year ago after receiving death threats and being denounced by pro-Kremlin politicians over his criticism of the Syrian and Ukrainian wars.

He worked as a military correspondent and wrote for several Russian media organizations, including the Moskovsky Komsomolets daily newspaper and Novaya Gazeta, as well as TV Tsentr, and Channel One TV.

“There was no other way”: Babchenko said he fled Russian Federation in 2017 after receiving death threats.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later echoed Lavrov’s comment, saying such allegations were part of an anti-Russian smear and demanded Ukraine conduct a “real” probe.

Babchenko called Russian Federation an aggressor, and accused the country of killing children in its air support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

Babchenko embraced a popular Kiev uprising that ousted a Kremlin-backed regime in 2014 and went to cover a conflict between Ukranian troops and pro-Russian insurgents in the east of the former Soviet country following the annexation of Crimea.

Babchenko had grown highly critical of the Russian government in recent years.

Babchenko also spoke about his time fighting in Chechnya, describing the philosophy of hate that he and his fellow soldiers were exposed to-that all Chechen men age 10-60 were enemies that Russian soldiers should “Kill, kill, kill”.

The Investigative Committee of Russian Federation said it had opened a criminal case into Babchenko’s death. The propaganda’s latest target?

Babchenko, 41, rose to fame as a war correspondent in Russian Federation.

“Ukraine is becoming the most unsafe country for reporters”, the Russian lawmaker Yevgeny Revenko said in remarks carried by RIA Novosti, the state news agency.

“Some called for me to be stripped of citizenship, others are making an online game where you can beat me to death”, he said.

Police, who said he had multiple gunshot wounds in his back, are working on the theory that he was killed because of his work.