The Ukrainian Security Service is ready to help the National Police establish the whereabouts of Ihor Ustymenko, a former employee of the Ukrainian Security Service mentioned in the journalistic inquiry into the death of reporter Pavel Sheremet, Ukrainian Security Service chief Vasyl Hrytsak said.
“The National Police are investigating this case… We have spoken with the National Police head… and we are ready to assist… we will assist in the establishment of his [Ustymenko’s] whereabouts,” Hrytsak told a press briefing in Kyiv on May 15.
The Ukrainian Security Service is unable to question Ustymenko on its own, as the inquiry is being handled by the National Police, he said.
Hrytsak said in addition that Ustymenko “had no relation to the service” since 2014 and “had not been working for the Ukrainian Security Service” over that period.
President Petro Poroshenko said at a press conference in Kyiv on May 14 he was displeased with the fact that Sheremet’s killer had not been identified and found.
“Unfortunately, I have been expecting more, a better result, and I am displeased with the fact that we have not found the killer and have not held him accountable,” the president said.
Poroshenko said he had asked foreign embassies for assistance immediately after the murder and thanked those who provided the aid.
He also thanked the journalists who had investigated Sheremet’s death.
Poroshenko said he asked National Police chief Serhiy Knyazev to meet with the investigative journalists immediately after they made public their findings and to use all of their materials in the proceeding. “As far as I know, the meeting has taken place. At least, I have been told so,” he said.
Ihor Ustymenko, who is mentioned in the journalistic inquiry into Sheremet’s death, was summoned for questioning on May 15, Poroshenko said. “Mr. Ustymenko was summoned for questioning on May 15, and he will be questioned,” Poroshenko said.
The president said he had learned from Security Service chief Hrytsak that Ustymenko had resigned from the Security Service in April 2014 “along with 2,000 other employees.”
The president pledged a transparent probe into Sheremet’s murder. “I will not allow any stalling,” he said.
It had been reported earlier that a car belonging to Olena Prytula, the head of the Ukrayinska Pravda online publication, had been blown up while Sheremet was driving it at the intersection of Bohdan Khmelnytsky Street and Ivan Franko Street in central Kyiv at 7:45 a.m. on July 20, 2016. The journalist died on the spot soon after the explosion.
Detectives said on February 8, they believed that Sheremet was killed due to his journalistic activity in Ukraine and other countries.
An investigative film titled ‘Pavel’s Murder’, which was produced by journalists of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and the Slidstvo.Info portal and released on May 10, indicated that Ihor Ustymenko, who was in the Ukrainian Security Service’s employ until 2014, spent several hours near Sheremet’s house on the night when the explosives were attached to the car.
Ustymenko declined to comment on his affiliation with the Security Service and could not tell the investigative journalists what exactly he was doing near Sheremet’s house on the night before his murder.
The Ukrainian Security Service denied that any of its officers were present near Sheremet’s home and said that Ustymenko had been discharged on April 29, 2014.
