“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. 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. —

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