Ukraine points finger at Moscow over journalist killing

Ukraine's prime minister is laying the blame on Moscow for the killing of Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko in Kiev. The victim was a prominent critic of Vladimir Putin and had fled to Ukraine following threats in his homeland. He died of wounds in an ambulance after being shot outside his apartment on Tuesday. Friend and colleague, ATR TV director Ayder Muzhdabaev, has no doubts why Babchenko was killed: "It's a tragic loss, it's a huge loss for international journalism because he was one of the few who wrote the actual truth about what the Russian Federation is doing. And if it wasn't dangerous for them, if they did not care about it, they would not have killed him". At the United Nations, Ukraine's foreign minister Pavlo Klimkin told reporters his government is determined to establish who was responsible. "Look, of course, it is about finding out who was behind it. And as I have said, it is too early to say, we see simply, the Russian pattern there." But on his Facebook page, Ukrainian Prime Minister Vladimir Groysman left no doubt that he thinks Russia is behind the death. He referred to an incident four years ago when Babchenko was due to take a flight on a Ukrainian military helicopter. The aircraft was shot down and all the people on board were killed. He said the "Russian totalitarian machine cannot bear neither honest people, nor people with principles. May the killers be punished." In 2016 another journalist, Pavel Sheremet, died in an as yet unsolved case. A native of Belarus, he had worked for several Russian media outlets in the past, He died in a car bombing in central Kiev. And Oles Bouzina, a vocal critic of a current Kiev government, was shot to death in April 2015, when he was walking along the street. That crime was never solved either. Russia has called for an investigation into Babchenko's killing, although in a statement the country's Foreign Ministry said in that bloody crimes and total impunity have become routine in Ukraine.

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