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Murder of Ukrainian journalist likely work-related: official

Xinhua, July 20, 2016 Adjust font size:

The murder of a well-known Ukrainian journalist is most likely work-related, a senior Ukrainian Interior Ministry official said Wednesday.

Pavel Sheremet, who wrote for the online investigative media outlet Ukrainska Pravda, was killed Wednesday morning in Kiev on his way to work when an explosive device planted inside his vehicle went off at about 7:45 a.m. local time (GMT 0445).

According to the Interior Ministry, the device, equivalent to 400-600 grams of TNT, was planted near the driver's seat.

"The major version of Sheremet's murder is his professional activities as a journalist," said Zoryan Shkiryak, an adviser to Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov.

"Personal enmity" is being examined as another possible motive behind Sheremet's death, Shkiryak added.

Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yury Lutsenko said that the murder of the journalist could be aimed at "destabilization of the situation in Kiev."

Nadiya Maksymets, spokesperson for the Kiev prosecutor's office, confirmed that the car belonged to Alyona Pritula, the co-founder, owner and editor-in-chief of the Ukrainska Pravda newspaper. She was not in the vehicle at the time of the blast.

While speaking with the local 112 TV-channel, Maksymets said that Kiev criminal experts considered the possibility that the attack was targeted at Pritula.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has ordered the country's law enforcement agencies to promptly investigate the death of Sheremet and provide protection to Pritula.

The 44-year-old Sheremet was a Minsk-born journalist and political analyst who had worked in Belarus and Russia before moving to Ukraine five years ago.

Besides his work at Ukrainska Pravda, Sheremet was also an anchor for the morning show at Radio Vesti.

A number of international organizations, including the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, have condemned the murder and urged immediate actions from the Ukrainian government to investigate the incident. Endi