The Murder of Journalist Pavel Sheremet: The Case Has Been Dragging On for 10 Years
Today marks 10 years since the murder of journalist Pavel Sheremet. On July 20, 2016, in downtown Kyiv, his car was remotely detonated with a homemade explosive device. Sheremet was alone in the car and died a few minutes later in an ambulance.
At the time, Pavel Sheremet hosted the morning show on Radio Visti and worked for the online publication Ukrainska Pravda.
Pavlo was originally from Minsk. Before moving to Kyiv, he worked in Belarus and Russia.
“Ukrainska Pravda” had already reported on a Belarusian connection to Sheremet’s murder back in 2021. At that time, in particular, the publication’s journalists cited recordings of conversations among intelligence officials, which allegedly revealed that as early as 2012, Belarusian intelligence services, acting on Lukashenko’s orders, had discussed the possibility of blowing up journalist Pavlo Sheremet with explosives.
In December of that same year, during a press briefing, the police named the suspects in the murder. They are Andriy Antonenko, leader of the band Riffmaster; Yulia Kuzmenko, a cardiac surgeon and volunteer; and Yana Dugary, a military nurse.
According to investigators, Kuzmenko and Antonenko planted the explosives under Sheremet’s car. Volunteer Yana Dugary conducted reconnaissance at the crime scene. Vladislav Gryshchenko, a former ATO veteran with a prior criminal record, is suspected of manufacturing the explosives. His wife, Inna, is also implicated in the case.
Court hearings in this case have not been held since February 21, 2022, and no pretrial measures have been imposed on the defendants.
