You're reading: Ukrainians mourn Nemtsov, friend of Ukraine

Dozens of Ukrainians brought flowers and lit the candles in Kyiv, expressing grief over the killing of the Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who has been assassinated in Moscow late at night on Feb. 27.


Nemtsov, a critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his politics, was seen as a friend of Ukraine.

A small demonstration on Maidan Nezalezhnosti Square in Kyiv on Feb. 28 openly accused Putin of the Nemtsov murder.

“Putin killed my friend,” read a banner which several activists were holding as they stood by the portraits of Nemtsov and red roses lying on the ground in the middle of Maidan Nezalezhnosti.

“I didn’t think Putin was ready to kill Boris,” demonstration participant Viktor Maistrenko, Russian opposition activist exiled to Ukraine, told Channel 5.

"Putin must die," reads a poster brought to the Russian Embassy in Kyiv on Feb. 28.

People also brought flowers and candles to the building of Russian embassy in Kyiv.

Nemtsov embassy

President Petro Poroshenko said that Nemtsov “one of the few who could be called a friend.”

“He was a bridge between Ukraine and Russia. It has been destroyed by a bullet of the killers. It wasn’t a coincidence,” Poroshenko wrote on Facebook.

Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk reacted to the murder too, calling Nemtsov “a patriot of Russia and a big friend of Ukraine.”

Nemtsov supported Ukrainian people both during Orange Revolution in 2004 and EuroMaidan Revolution in 2013-2014. He was one of the few members of Russian opposition who always opposed both Russian annexation of Crimea and invasion of eastern Ukraine.

In one of his last interviews to Radio Vesti he spoke in defense of Ukrainian military pilot Nadiya Savchenko, a prisoner in pre-trial jail in Russia, who has been on hunger strike for over 70 days.

“Life of Nadiya Savchenko is more valuable than life of Vladimir Putin,” he said.

One of Nemtsov’s allies, activist and journalist Kseniya Sobchak said he was planning to publish the evidence of Russian troops fighting on the side of self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic against Ukraine.

“If there wasn’t a direct order to ‘eliminate’ (Nemtsov), the hatred present in the society could provoke the bastards,” Sobchak wrote on her Facebook page.

Political analyst Taras Berezovets said Nemtsov’s plans to report about Russia’s direct involvement into war in Ukraine could provoke his killing and Ukraine owes him for his brave stance against Putin.

“I think someone from Ukrainian government, for example the minister of foreign affairs, should go to his funeral,” he said.

Berezovets added that after Nemtsov’s murder Ukraine will lack communication with Russian establishment as even within opposition the majority of politicians support annexation of Crimea.

But those who still have an open anti-Putin stance, including Sobchak or popular rock singer and activist Andrey Makarevich, will have to live in Russia under severe pressure and risk for their lives.

“I think many activists will have to leave Russia soon, as now it is a very serious (danger),” Berezovets said.