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Babchenko's staged death and what Kyiv claimed
Summary
A reported killing in Kyiv was revealed within a day to be an operation by the Ukrainian Security Service.
What happened on 30 May 2018, when a journalist reported shot dead the day before appeared alive on live television? Arkady Babchenko, a Russian journalist, was reported on 29 May 2018 to have been shot dead near his home in Kyiv. On 30 May 2018 he appeared on live television and said the assassination had been staged.
The Ukrainian Security Service said the event was part of an operation to catch those who were trying to kill him. That account turned a reported murder into a security-service operation within roughly a day.
A region already on edge
The episode unfolded amid what was described as the Ukrainian crisis, and neighbouring states were also focused on security. On 28 May 2018, Poland's Minister of Defence, Mariusz Błaszczak, said he had recently talked with U.S. officials in Washington D.C. about permanently stationing thousands of U.S. troops in Poland as a deterrent against Russia.
The two items are separate. One concerned a targeted attack on a journalist in the Ukrainian capital, the other a defence discussion about deterrence. Together they show the range of security questions across the region at the end of May 2018.
