Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko turned up at a news conference in the Ukrainian capital Wednesday less than 24 hours after police reported he had been shot and killed at his Kiev apartment building. The country's security services said Babchenko's death was faked to foil a plot to take his life.

Ukrainian police said Tuesday that Babchenko, a strong critic of the Kremlin, was shot multiple times in the back Tuesday and found bleeding there by his wife. Authorities said they suspected he was killed because of his work.

Vasyl Gritsak, head of the Ukrainian Security Service, announced at a news conference Wednesday that the security agency and the police had solved Babchenko's slaying. He then startled everyone there by inviting the 41-year-old reporter into the room.

To the applause and gasps of the press, Babchenko took the floor and apologized to the friends and family who mourned for him and were unaware of the plan.

"I'm still alive," he said.

Before ushering Babchenko into the room, Gritsak said investigators had identified a Ukrainian citizen who had been recruited and paid $40,000 by the Russian security service to organize and carry out the killing. The unidentified Ukrainian man in turn hired an acquaintance who had fought in the separatist war in eastern Ukraine as the gunman.

Babchenko, one of Russia's best-known war reporters, fled the country in February 2017 after receiving death threats. He spoke and wrote about leaving the country because of the threats against him and his family.. He said his home address was published online and the threats he received were made by phone, email and social media.

Ilya Ponomarev, a former Russian lawmaker who also moved to Ukraine, said Wednesday that Babchenko continued being threatened after he settled last fall in Kiev, where he worked as a host for the Crimean Tatar TV station. Babchenko did not take the intimidation too seriously, according to Ponomarev.

Moscow's annexation of Crimea and support for separatist insurgents in eastern Ukraine were topics on which the journalist was scathingly critical of the Kremlin.

Ayse Wieting in Istanbul and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>This is a photo taken on Nov. 14, 2017 in Kiev, Ukraine of Russian opposition journalist Arkady Babchenko. A Russian journalist harshly critical of the Kremlin was shot and killed in the Ukrainian capital Tuesday, May 29, 2018 and the national police said he apparently was targeted because of his work.

UPDATE: Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko is alive. The Ukrainian Security Service told a news conference on Wednesday the agency faked Babchenko's death to catch those who were trying to kill him. Read the story here.

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Below is the earlier story, based on fabricated information from Ukrainian authorities:

A Russian journalist harshly critical of the Kremlin was shot and killed in the Ukrainian capital Tuesday, and the national police said they are assuming he was targeted because of his work.

Ukrainian police said Arkady Babchenko's wife found him bleeding at their apartment building in Kiev and called an ambulance, but Babchenko died on the way to a hospital.

Police said he had multiple gunshot wounds on his back.

"The first and the most obvious version is his professional activities," Kiev Police Chief Andriy Krishchenko said in televised comments.

Harlem Desir, the media freedom representative at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said he was "horrified" by Babchenko's death.

"I call on Ukraine authorities to conduct immediate & full investigation," he tweeted.

The Committee to Protect Journalists in New York said on Twitter that "Ukrainian authorities should conduct a swift and thorough investigation" into Babchenko's murder.

Babchenko, 41, was scathingly critical of the Kremlin's policies, assailing Moscow's annexation of Crimea, its support for separatist insurgents in eastern Ukraine and the Russian campaign in Syria.

Ukrainian and Russian officials immediately traded finger-pointing over his death.

Anton Gerashchenko, a Ukrainian lawmaker who serves as an adviser to the interior minister, said on Facebook that investigators would be looking at "Russian spy agencies' efforts to get rid of those who are trying to tell the truth about what is going on in Russia and Ukraine."

Gerashchenko said Babchenko's killer was waiting for him on the staircase inside the journalist's building and shot him in the back as he was going out to buy bread.

Ukrainian police released a sketch of a suspect based on witness descriptions of a gray-bearded man in his 40s wearing a baseball cap. They said the gunman may have had accomplices.

In Moscow, officials and lawmakers criticized Ukrainian authorities for their alleged failure to protect journalists.

Mikhail Fedotov, the head of the Kremlin Human Rights Council, said Babchenko's slaying was a "clear provocation." The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that "bloody crimes and total impunity have become routine" in Ukraine.

Another renowned journalist, Pavel Sheremet, a native of Belarus who had worked for Russian media outlets in the past, was killed in a car bombing in central Kiev in July 2016. The case has remained unsolved.

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

In March 2017, renegade Russian lawmaker Denis Voronenkov was shot and killed at the entrance of an upscale hotel in Kiev. Ukrainian prosecutors alleged that Voronenkov, who had toed the Kremlin line while serving as a Russian lawmaker but turned into a Kremlin critic after his 2016 move to Ukraine, was killed on orders from a Russian crime lord.

Babchenko served in the Russian army and fought during the first separatist war in Chechnya during the 1990s. He later became a journalist and worked as a military correspondent for several Russian media outlets. He also published several books based on his wartime experiences.

Some of his articles and posts outraged many Russians. In one, he said he felt no regret about the deaths of Russian army choir members and others from a December 2016 plane crash as they were heading to perform before Russian troops in Syria. Several Russian lawmakers even called for stripping Babchenko of his citizenship over the comment.

Babchenko left Russia in February 2017, saying he was receiving threats and concerned he might be jailed.

He moved to Kiev last fall, where he worked as a host for the Crimean Tatar TV station, ATR.

Just hours before he was shot, Babchenko wrote on Facebook that he narrowly escaped death exactly four years ago when the Ukrainian military refused to take him on a helicopter heading to the front line in eastern Ukraine. The aircraft was shot down minutes later.

"I was lucky, it was my second birthday," he wrote Tuesday.

Copyright Associated Press</s>MOSCOW -- Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko turned up at a news conference in the Ukrainian capital Wednesday less than 24 hours after police reported he had been shot and killed at his Kiev apartment building. The country's security services said Babchenko's death was faked to foil a plot to take his life.

Ukrainian police said Tuesday that Babchenko, a strong critic of the Kremlin, was shot multiple times in the back Tuesday and found bleeding there by his wife. Authorities said they suspected he was killed because of his work.

Vasyl Gritsak, head of the Ukrainian Security Service, announced at a news conference Wednesday that the security agency and the police had solved Babchenko's slaying. He then startled everyone there by inviting the 41-year-old reporter into the room.

To the applause and gasps of the press, Babchenko took the floor and apologized to the friends and family who mourned for him and were unaware of the plan.

"I'm still alive," he said.

Before ushering Babchenko into the room, Gritsak said investigators had identified a Ukrainian citizen who had been recruited and paid $40,000 by the Russian security service to organize and carry out the killing. The unidentified Ukrainian man in turn hired an acquaintance who had fought in the separatist war in eastern Ukraine as the gunman.

Babchenko, one of Russia's best-known war reporters, fled the country in February 2017 after receiving death threats. He spoke and wrote about leaving the country because of the threats against him and his family. He said his home address was published online and the threats he received were made by phone, email and social media.

Ilya Ponomarev, a former Russian lawmaker who also moved to Ukraine, said Wednesday that Babchenko continued being threatened after he settled last fall in Kiev, where he worked as a host for the Crimean Tatar TV station. Babchenko did not take the intimidation too seriously, according to Ponomarev.

Moscow's annexation of Crimea and support for separatist insurgents in eastern Ukraine were topics on which the journalist was scathingly critical of the Kremlin.

This is a developing story and will be updated.</s>Dozens of journalists descended upon the central square in Kiev late Wednesday, laughing, hugging and quaffing sparkling wine as they celebrated the “resurrection” of their Russian colleague and Kremlin critic Arkady Babchenko.

Ukraine authorities had announced the “murder” of Babchenko late Tuesday, prompting an outpouring of grief and condemnation, and mutual accusations between Kiev and Moscow.

Then on Wednesday the Ukraine security services revealed that Babchenko was alive and well and that his “murder” had been staged as a sting to catch the masterminds behind a real plot to assassinate him on orders of the Russian security services.

“It’s an incredible story of a resurrection,” joked Russian journalist Pavel Kanygin who like several of his Russian colleagues had rushed to Kiev to cover the story.

“It’s a miracle, but a miracle that turned out to be a staged drama”.

Babchenko himself was in a meeting with Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko as the group of journalists from local and international media popped corks and took selfies.

“We were preparing for the funeral, Many of us didn’t sleep last night. We bought plane tickets for the first flight to Kiev,” said Kanygin, who works for the investigative Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta.

He was at the offices of the Ukrainian private television ATR, where Babchenko works, when the “murdered” journalist made his surprise reappearance.

“Everybody just erupted, shouting ‘hooray, he’s alive,’ it was an incredible moment,” he said.

Igor Solovey, international editor for the Ukrainian LB.ua news website, was all smiles as he stood in the square with a cigarette in his mouth and a plastic glass of bubbly in his hand.

“I just turned on the TV and saw his magical appearance,” he said. “It was a shock. I was standing, I had to sit down. I couldn’t even speak!”

Some in the news business wondered about the impact that Ukraine’s ruse will have on the media, in particular in public confidence in their work.

“Obviously some think this will damage confidence in the special services, the security services and the media,” said Kanygin.

“Our readers or viewers are of course going to ask questions when we cry wolf”.

Solovey was looking on the bright side; “It’s to the credit of Ukraine’s special services that they saved a good man’s life.”</s>Earlier on Tuesday, the Ukrainian police said it had opened a criminal investigation into the murder of TV journalist and Russian citizen Arkady Babchenko, who was shot dead in the Ukrainian capital Kiev.

"Independent and opposition [reporters are] being killed in Ukraine, but Ukraine [is]… not investigating it," Nebenzia said on Tuesday. Nebenzia also said he assumed the Ukrainian government will accuse Russia for the Babchenko murder.

Nebenzia accused the Ukrainian authorities for the "cleansing and closing" of independent media outlets in their country.

Nebenzia also said that "Ukraine lives in a parallel reality thanks to its authorities."

Later, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavel Klimkin told the UN Security Council that it is too early to tell who is responsible for the murder of Arkady Babchenko. Klimkin also claimed that Babchenko was a well-known opponent of the Russian government who was compelled to leave and has been considered as an enemy by Moscow.

On May 15, the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) broke into the office of the RIA Novosti Ukraine in Kiev. The SBU detained Vyshinsky on charges of treason and accuses him of supporting the self-proclaimed people's republics of Donetsk and Lugansk in Ukraine's southeast. On May 17, a court in the Ukrainian city of Kherson ruled that Vyshinsky should be arrested for 60 days without bail.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Russia is outraged over Kiev’s decision to impose sanctions against the Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency and RIA Novosti Ukraine portal, and considers the moves to be an act of censorship.

Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Representative on media freedom Harlem Desir, as well as the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Human Rights Watch said that foreign media should not be included on sanctions lists.</s>A Russian journalist who was reportedly gunned down in Ukraine's capital strolled into a news conference that authorities called Wednesday to discuss the investigation of his death, revealing that the slaying had been staged to foil an alleged Kremlin hit plot.

"I'm still alive," Arkady Babchenko, 41, told startled fellow reporters at the news conference held less than 24 hours after police reported he had been shot and killed at his Kiev apartment building.

Ukrainian police said Tuesday that Babchenko, a strong critic of the Kremlin, was shot multiple times in the back Tuesday and found bleeding there by his wife. Authorities said they suspected he was killed because of his work.

Babchenko apologized to his wife, who he said was not briefed on the scheme in advance, "for the hell she had to go through in the past two days. There was no choice there, either."

Neither he nor Vasyl Gritsak, head of the Ukrainian Security Service, provided details of how they staged Babchenko's injuries or made his wife believe he was dead.

The movie-like twist came as Gritsak convened the news conference to announce that the security agency and the police had solved Babchenko's reported slaying. He then confused everyone there by inviting the supposed slaying into the room.

To applause and gasps, Babchenko took the floor and apologized to the friends and family who mourned for him and were unaware of the plan.

"I'm still alive," he said. "I know that sickening feeling when you bury a colleague. I'm sorry you had to go through this but there was no other way."

Before ushering Babchenko into the room, Gritsak said investigators had identified a Ukrainian citizen who allegedly was paid $40,000 by the Russian security service to organize and carry out the hit. The unidentified Ukrainian man in turn allegedly hired an acquaintance to be the gunman, Gritsak said.

The man allegedly paid to organize Banchenko's killing was detained Wednesday, he said, showing a video of the arrest.

Gritsak said killing Babchenko was part of a larger alleged plot by Russian security services. The Ukrainian man was also supposed to procure large quantities of weapons and explosives, including 300 AK-47 rifles and "hundreds of kilos of explosives," to perpetrate acts of terror in Ukraine, he said.

Babchenko said he was not allowed to go into the details of the sting operation, but said Ukrainian law enforcement had been aware of a contract on his head for two months. He said he was approached by the Ukrainian Security Service, the SBU, a month ago.

"The important thing is my life has been saved and other, bigger terrorist attacks have been thwarted," he said.

Babchenko, one of Russia's best-known war reporters, fled the country in February 2017 after receiving death threats. He spoke and wrote about leaving the country because of the threats against him and his family. He said his home address was published online and the threats he received were made by phone, email and social media.

Ilya Ponomarev, a former Russian lawmaker who also moved to Ukraine, said Babchenko continued being threatened after he settled last fall in Kiev, where he worked as a host for the Crimean Tatar TV station. Babchenko did not take the intimidation too seriously, Ponomarev said Wednesday before the fact that the slaying was staged came out.

Moscow's annexation of Crimea and support for separatist insurgents in eastern Ukraine were topics on which the journalist was scathingly critical of the Kremlin.

Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuri Lutsenko lashed out Wednesday at Ukrainian politicians and civil groups who accused the government following Babchenko's faked assassination of allowing contract killings to happen.

Ayse Wieting in Istanbul and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>A Russian journalist who had reportedly been shot dead in Kiev has turned up alive at a news conference in Ukraine. Russia had denied any involvement in the reported killing of anti-Kremlin reporter Arkady Babchenko. The head of Ukraine's security services says they faked his death to foil a real plot to kill him.</s>Police in the capital of Ukraine say a Russian journalist has been shot and killed at his Kiev apartment

MOSCOW (AP) — Police in the capital of Ukraine say a Russian journalist has been shot and killed at his Kiev apartment.</s>By DMYTRO VLASOV and NATALIYA VASILYEVA, Associated Press

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian journalist who was reportedly gunned down in Ukraine’s capital strolled into a news conference that authorities called Wednesday to discuss the investigation of his death, revealing that the slaying had been staged to foil an alleged Kremlin hit plot.

“I’m still alive,” Arkady Babchenko, 41, told startled fellow reporters at the news conference held less than 24 hours after police reported he had been shot and killed at his Kiev apartment building.

Ukrainian police said Tuesday that Babchenko, a strong critic of the Kremlin, was shot multiple times in the back Tuesday and found bleeding there by his wife. Authorities said they suspected he was killed because of his work.

Babchenko apologized to his wife, who he said was not briefed on the scheme in advance, “for the hell she had to go through in the past two days. There was no choice there, either.”

Neither he nor Vasyl Gritsak, head of the Ukrainian Security Service, provided details of how they staged Babchenko’s injuries or made his wife believe he was dead.

The movie-like twist came as Gritsak convened the news conference to announce that the security agency and the police had solved Babchenko’s reported slaying. He then confused everyone there by inviting the supposed slaying into the room.

To applause and gasps, Babchenko took the floor and apologized to the friends and family who mourned for him and were unaware of the plan.

“I’m still alive,” he said. “I know that sickening feeling when you bury a colleague. I’m sorry you had to go through this but there was no other way.”

Before ushering Babchenko into the room, Gritsak said investigators had identified a Ukrainian citizen who allegedly was paid $40,000 by the Russian security service to organize and carry out the hit. The unidentified Ukrainian man in turn allegedly hired an acquaintance to be the gunman, Gritsak said.

The man allegedly paid to organize Banchenko’s killing was detained Wednesday, he said, showing a video of the arrest.

Gritsak said killing Babchenko was part of a larger alleged plot by Russian security services. The Ukrainian man was also supposed to procure large quantities of weapons and explosives, including 300 AK-47 rifles and “hundreds of kilos of explosives,” to perpetrate acts of terror in Ukraine, he said.

Babchenko said he was not allowed to go into the details of the sting operation, but said Ukrainian law enforcement had been aware of a contract on his head for two months. He said he was approached by the Ukrainian Security Service, the SBU, a month ago.

“The important thing is my life has been saved and other, bigger terrorist attacks have been thwarted,” he said.

Babchenko, one of Russia’s best-known war reporters, fled the country in February 2017 after receiving death threats. He spoke and wrote about leaving the country because of the threats against him and his family. He said his home address was published online and the threats he received were made by phone, email and social media.

Ilya Ponomarev, a former Russian lawmaker who also moved to Ukraine, said Babchenko continued being threatened after he settled last fall in Kiev, where he worked as a host for the Crimean Tatar TV station. Babchenko did not take the intimidation too seriously, Ponomarev said Wednesday before the fact that the slaying was staged came out.

Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and support for separatist insurgents in eastern Ukraine were topics on which the journalist was scathingly critical of the Kremlin.

Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuri Lutsenko lashed out Wednesday at Ukrainian politicians and civil groups who accused the government following Babchenko’s faked assassination of allowing contract killings to happen.

Vasilyeva reported from Moscow. Ayse Wieting in Istanbul and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.</s>KIEV (Reuters) - A prominent Russian journalist and critic of President Vladimir Putin was shot dead in Ukraine where he had fled into exile following threats, police said on Tuesday.

Arkady Babchenko, 41, died of his wounds in an ambulance after his wife found him covered in his blood in their home, police said, adding they suspected the murder was due to Babchenko’s professional activities.

Babchenko, a former soldier in the Chechen war who became one of Russia’s best-known war correspondents, had left his homeland fearing for his life after criticizing Russian policy in Ukraine and Syria.

He had been denounced by pro-government politicians in Russia over comments on social media about the Russian bombing of Aleppo in Syria’s war, and over his characterization of Russia as an aggressor toward Ukraine.

“The first and the most probable version is his professional activity,” Kiev police chief Andriy Kryshchenko said at a televised press briefing when asked what police suspected lay behind the murder.

Babchenko’s wife is in a state of shock and police are unable to speak to her, he said. Ukrainian authorities released a drawing of the man they suspect is Babchenko’s assassin, around 40-45 years old, with a grey beard and wearing a cap.

Two years ago Pavel Sheremet, a Belarussian journalist known for his criticism of his home country’s leadership and his friendship with the slain Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, was blown up in a car bomb in central Kiev.

FILE PHOTO: Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko attends an interview in Kiev, Ukraine November 14, 2017. REUTERS/Vitalii Nosach

“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.

Babchenko’s house had run out of bread and he had gone to the shops to buy some, Gerashchenko said. He was gunned down on Tuesday by someone waiting for him in the stairwell at the entrance to his home. He was shot him in the back several times.

“Today in Kiev on the threshold of the apartment where he lived, famous Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko was shot and killed, a consistent opponent of the Putin regime and a friend of Ukraine.”

In a statement, the Russian foreign ministry said journalists were being killed with impunity in Ukraine.

“Bloody crimes and total impunity have become routine for the Kiev regime. We demand that the Ukrainian authorities make every effort to promptly investigate,” it said on Facebook.

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

Babchenko took part in the war in Chechnya as a soldier. He then he became a war reporter for several Russian newspapers. On Feb. 27 last year, he wrote on Facebook that he had left Russia.

Slideshow (11 Images)

He reported on Russia sending private military contractors to Syria and the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH-17 in July 2014 in eastern Ukraine, for which investigators last week held the Russian state responsible. Russian authorities again denied any connection with the plane’s downing over an area of Ukraine held by pro-Russian separatist forces.

In his last Facebook post before he was killed, Babchenko recalled an incident four years ago when he was meant to fly in a Ukrainian military helicopter in Ukraine’s embattled Donbass region. The helicopter was overloaded and he was not permitted to fly. It was shot down and 14 people on board were killed.

“And I was lucky. Second birthday, it turns out,” he wrote.
It is reported that Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko is shot dead near his home in Kiev, Ukraine. The day after, the event is revealed by the Ukrainian Security Service to have been staged as part of an operation to catch those who were trying to kill him.