Europol and the FBI are to assist Ukraine in investigating the murder of journalist Pavel Sheremet, the Ukrainskaya Pravda news site reported Wednesday.
Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko announced that he had requested American assistance in order to maintain the investigation’s transparency and FBI officials were due to arrive in Kiev on July 21 or 22, the TASS Russian News Agency reported. Foreign Minister Pavel Klimkin to enlist Europol in the investigation.
Poroshenko has also ordered law-enforcement agencies to ensure the protection of Sheremet’s colleague, Ukrainska Pravda editor Olena Prytula, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported. The car in which Sheremet was killed belonged to Prytula, and both journalists regularly used the vehicle.
Khatia Dekanoidze, head of Ukraine’s national police force, announced that she would personally take charge of the case. Her deputy, Alexander Fatsevych, said that investigators were currently viewing surveillance camera footage and interviewing colleagues and witnesses to come to a better understanding of the situation, Ukrainska Pravda reported.
Pravda Sheremet, a journalist who working for Ukrayinska Pravda and the Vesti radio station, was killed by a car bomb as he drove to work on Wednesday morning in central Kiev. Information released by the Interior Ministry found that the car was destroyed by an improvised shell-less explosive device, which was likely to have been detonated remotely.
The motivation behind the attack remains unclear.
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