Just yesterday Pavel Sheremet had written an article about the new memorial monument recently erected in the closed nuclear city of Zheleznogorsk (Russia) . On Wednesday morning he started his car and pulled out of the parking lot where he lived with fellow-journalist Olena Prytula. On the way to his new radio show, his car was idling at a traffic light in the centre of Kyiv (Kiev) when a bomb exploded, killing him instantly.
Just recently he had left Russian Television Channel ORT after mounting complaints on the content of his show from the Kremlin for his reporting on the annexation of Crimea, and the presence of Russian troops fighting with rebels in Eastern Ukraine.
He had been beaten and imprisoned due to his reports on the freedom protests in Belarus. Yet, Pavel was the kind of investigative journalist who seemed to fear nothing. He was unafraid of issuing critical reports which often angered the Kremlin in Russia, the dictatorship in his native home (Minsk) in Belarus, and the corrupt regime of former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich.
Sheremet had received numerous awards including the prestigious freedom award from the Committee to Protect Journalists, and the prize for journalism and democracy from the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation).
RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty is reporting that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has asked the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to assist Ukrainian investigators in the murder investigation in order to ensure "maximum transparency."
Pavel will be missed. Memory eternal! Вечная память!
