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Suspect in journalist’s murder in Ukraine says ready to cooperate with investigation

Last Thursday, Ukrainian law enforcers named five suspects in the assassination of Pavel Sheremet

KIEV, December 17. /TASS/. Yulia Kuzmenko, a suspect in the high-profile murder of journalist Pavel Sheremet in Ukraine, is ready to cooperate with the investigation, but denies any involvement, her lawyer Vlad Dobosh said on Monday.

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"Here is the message that Yulia Kuzmenko asked to convey to the public: I’m ready for all cooperation and contacts with the investigation. I’m ready for questioning, all kinds of forensic examination and other investigative measures," the lawyer said in a Facebook post.

"I have nothing to be afraid of, because I did not commit this heinous crime and I know that I’m right," Kuzmenko was quoted as saying. "I’m sure that the public will not let them falsify the case against me."

Last Thursday, Ukrainian law enforcers named five suspects in the assassination: Andrei Antonenko, Yulia Kuzmenko, Yana Dugar, and the Grishchenko couple - Vladislav and Irina. All of them are nationalists who participated in the military operation in Donbass. They are suspected of committing the murder with the aim of political destabilization in Ukraine.

During the court hearings that began last Friday and lasted until Saturday morning, the Pechersky district court in Ukraine’s capital Kiev ruled to place Kuzmenko and Antonenko in custody for two months. Dugar was placed under house arrest.

Pavel Sheremet was a Belarussian, Russian and Ukrainian journalist. For the last five years before the assassination, he lived in Kiev, where he worked for the daily Ukrainskaya Pravda and the Vesti radio station. He was killed in Kiev on July 20, 2016 on the way to the Vesti studio for a morning broadcast. A bomb went off in his car. He had kept a blog in the Ukrainskaya Pravda online portal, launched a popular scientific website Historical Truth and hosted a project called Dialogues on Ukraine’s '24' TV channel.

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