Segun Atanda & MailOnline/
Russian journalist, Arkady Babchenko, who had been reported shot and killed in the Ukrainian capital Kiev on Tuesday, turned up alive at a news conference about his own ‘murder’, today.
The news conference was being held by Vasyl Gritsak, head of the Ukrainian Security Service, SBU, who had announced that they had solved Babchenko’s slaying.
He then shocked the crowd by inviting Babchenko, 41, into the room.
Babchenko, who has previously said he feared a Russian assassination attempt, apologised to friends and family who had begun mourning for him – including his own wife.
On Tuesday, Kiev and national police had said Babchenko, a strong critic of the Kremlin, had been shot multiple times in the back at his apartment building and been found bleeding by his wife. They even issued a picture purportedly showing his bullet-riddled body.
Kiev had been quick to blame Russia for Babchenko’s murder, which the Kremlin denied.
Moscow has now said that Ukraine had used Babchenko as a propaganda tool. The two nations have been in an ongoing conflict since Putin invaded the Crimean peninsula in 2014.
At today’s press conference Gritsak said the reason for SBU’s elaborate plan to fake Babchenko’s death had been to catch the Ukrainian man hired to kill him, and his Russian paymasters.
Gritsak said investigators had identified a Ukrainian citizen who had been recruited and paid $40,000 by the Russian security service to organize the killing.
The unnamed Ukrainian had in turn hired an acquaintance as the gunman, who they had also identified, and both men had been arrested.
However, Gritsak did not reveal how the SBU had been able to trace the chain of events from the two unnamed Ukrainian men, back to the Russians, nor how they could prove that they were the ones responsible for paying them.
The SBU later released a video purportedly showing them arresting a man in Kiev today, who they claim is a suspected Russian agent who they say ordered the hit on Babchenko. They did not identify the man and gave no extra detail.
When Babchenko, who has six daughters, five of whom are adopted, was ushered into the room he said: “Apologies to my wife, Olechka (Olga). I’m sorry, but there were no other options. The operation was being prepared for two months. They told me a month ago. As the result of the operation, a man is taken, he is in custody.”
One Ukrainian minister compared the operation to a Sherlock Holmes plot, where the fictional detective had staged his own death.
Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko has said they will provide protection to Babchenko and his family.
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said: “The fact that Babchenko is alive is the best news,’ but added that Ukraine was using the case for ‘propaganda.”
Likewise, Russian senator, Sergey Kalashnikov, claimed Ukraine was guilty of “continuous fake information on all issues”.
Babchenko, a former soldier in the Chechen war, who became one of Russia’s best-known war correspondents, had left his homeland, fearing for his life after criticising Russian policy in Ukraine and Syria.
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