Russian journalist critical of Kremlin shot dead in Ukraine
Arkady Babchenko had been living in Ukraine since fleeing Russia.
By David M. Herszenhorn | 5/29/18, 11:08 PM CET | Updated 5/30/18, 7:53 AM CET
Arkady Babchenko was a critic of the Kremlin's military intervention in Ukraine | Andreas Rentz/Getty Images
Arkady Babchenko, a Russian journalist who was a critic of the Kremlin's military intervention in Ukraine, was shot and killed Tuesday evening in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital.
Babchenko had been living in Kiev since fleeing Russia where he had faced political harassment after writing a post on Facebook critical of Russia's military action in Syria and describing the "indifference" he felt upon learning of a plane crash that killed members of a famous military choir.
Babchenko had written about the harassment campaign against him in an article in The Guardian.
His murder was reported on Facebook by Anton Gerashchenko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament, who called Babchenko "a consistent opponent of the Putin regime and friend of Ukraine."
Geraschenko and local news reports said Babchenko had been shot several times in the back after returning to his apartment from a grocery store. He died in an ambulance before reaching hospital, according to the accounts.
Babchenko was a former Russian soldier who fought in the country's two wars in Chechnya, the predominantly Muslim republic in the Caucasus where the Kremlin waged brutal campaigns to suppress separatists.
In Ukraine, Babchenko worked for the Crimean Tatar television network, ATR, and reported frequently on Russia's support for separatist militants in eastern Ukraine.
Garry Kasparov, the former chess champion and outspoken Kremlin critic, faulted Western leaders, particularly French President Emmanuel Macron who attended an economic forum in St. Petersburg last week, for continuing to engage with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Investigative journalist shot in Montenegro
Ginger Hervey
Slovak police detain man named in slain journalist's report
Aleksandra Wróbel
Posting on Twitter, Kasparov connected Babchenko's murder with the downing of a Malaysian Airlines flight which killed 298 people. A Dutch-led international investigative team said last week that it had tied the destruction of the airliner to a missile from a specific Russian military unit.
Another prominent journalist, Pavel Sheremet, was killed in a car bombing in central Kiev in July 2016. That murder has not been solved.
Tags: Crisis in Ukraine, Russian politics
Putin: Donald Trump is 'a talented person'
4 suspects charged in MH17 investigation
Russian journalist freed following international outcry
Russia condemned over journalist's arrest
Zelenskiy reinstates Georgian ex-leader Saakashvili's Ukrainian citizenship