Israeli volunteer Bari Bonen, who came to Ukraine almost one and a half years ago and helped the Ukrainian army, was found dead in Kyiv on Sept. 10.
According to an initial statement by the National Police, Bonen, 36, committed suicide.
In a Facebook post published around 6 a.m. on Sept. 10, Bonen said goodbye to everyone he knew.
“I’m a broken soul, and I didn’t show it very much to most of you. I can no longer tolerate this internal pain,” his post reads.
Bonen moved to Kyiv at least a year-and-a-half ago, when he started working at Comodo Ukraine, a security software company.
In May he joined the Georgian Legion, a group organized by soldiers who fought in the country’s east after Russia unleashed war there in 2014. Bonen was the group’s press officer.
The National Police reported on Sept. 10 that the owner of the apartment that Bonen rented in Kyiv found him there showing no signs of life.
According to the police, Bonen had a gunshot wound in the temple and a starting pistol that had been converted to fire live ammunition had been found in the apartment.
The police also reported that acquaintances of Bonen whom they questioned said he had recently become withdrawn.
With the forensic medical examination still in process, the police have said they are operating on the assumption that Bonen’s death was a suicide.
However, some of Bonen’s friends say he wasn’t the type to end his own life.
Mamuka Mamulashvili, the commander of the Georgian Legion, said Bonen had served in the Israeli army and was an open and outgoing person.
“I doubt this person (Bonen) could commit suicide,” Mamulashvili told the Kyiv Post.
He said he last saw Bonen around a month ago. In recent phone calls, Bonen told Mamulashvili that Ukraine’s SBU security service had forbidden him to communicate or meet members of the Georgian Legion.
The SBU didn’t immediately comment on the claim.
Mamulashvili believes the Russian secret services might be responsible for Bonen’s death, as the Georgian Legion fights against Russia in Ukraine’s east.
“It’s Russia’s message to the Georgian Legion,” he said.
Mamulashvili said Bonen’s death could be a part of “the war to discredit the Georgian Legion.”
He said that over the last six months all of the group’s 50 fighters had been fired from the Armed Forces of Ukraine “because of their ethnicity.”
