On the morning of June 18, police arrested three suspects in the murder of Oles Buzyna, a Ukrainian journalist critical of authorities and an advocate of Kremlin policies, who was shot dead near his home in Kyiv on April 16.
Two of the suspects were identified
as Kyiv residents AndriyMedvedko and Denys Polishchuk, both 25, according to
Interior Minister ArsenAvakov. A third suspect was arrested later in the day
and his name wasn’t revealed.
If found guilty, they face life in
prison. Police haven’t name a motive for Buzyna’s murder.
Medvedko is a civic activist who
unsuccessfully ran for a Kyiv city council seat with the right-wing Svoboda
party in 2014. Polishchuk is also an activist. Both have combat experience in
Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The suspects were taken to the Kyiv
Shevchenkivsky District Court on June 18 and are expected to face pretrial incarceration.
Medvedko denied he took part in the
murder. He told journalists of Segodnya newspaper that police kidnapped his
girlfriend and stole some antiques from his apartment while performing a
search. Medvedko also complained that the police beat him during the arrest.
Polishchuk didn’t talk to
journalists and couldn’t be reached for comment.
Buzyna was briefly for three months editor-in-chief
of Segodnya daily newspaper, which belongs to Ukraine’s richest billionaire
Rinat Akhmetov. He was supporter of Russkiy Mir (the Russian World),
Russia-engineered political doctrine that justifies Russian military aggression
towards its former satellites in Europe and Asia through the idea of the unity
of Slavic nations. Buzyna was critical towards Ukraine’s authorities.
Anton Herashchenko, advisor to the
interior minister and a member of parliament, said in an interview to 112 TV
channel on June 16 that the murder of the journalist was organized by Russian
secret services to discredit Kyiv and “create an atmosphere of terror, hysteria
in Kyiv.”
Avakov says police have solid full
proof that the suspects took part in the murder, including DNA evidence.
Buzyna first became known to general
public in 2000 following the publication of his scandalous book “Taras
Shevchenko the Vampire,” that he described had taken took Ukraine’s most
acclaimed bard “down from the pedestal.”
Authorities said his book was “a
publication that incites ethnic hatred.”
Kyiv Post staff writer NataliyaTrach can be reached at [email protected].
