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UN urges thorough investigation into recent murders in Kiev

Two Ukrainian journalists, Sergey Sukhobok and Oles Buzina, were killed on April 13 and April 16, respectively, and a former Ukrainian lawmaker, Oleg Kalashnikov, was murdered on April 15

© EPA/STEPHEN MORRISON

GENEVA, April 17. /TASS/. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is calling for a thorough investigation into the murders committed in Kiev this week.

Two Ukrainian journalists, Sergey Sukhobok and Oles Buzina, were killed on April 13 and April 16, respectively, and a former Ukrainian lawmaker, Oleg Kalashnikov, was murdered on April 15.

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An official spokesman for the UN agency told reporters at a briefing in Geneva on Friday that these crimes in Ukraine arouse great concerns and those guilty should be brought to justice.

According to the Swiss non-governmental organization, The Press Emblem Campaign, calling for defending the rights of journalists in hot spots, Buzina is the 12th reporter killed in Ukraine since the start of the civil disturbances.

The recent wave of murders in Ukraine comes following strange suicides committed by the representatives of the former ruling party - ex-MP Mikhail Chechetov and ex-chairman of the Zaporozhye regional administration Alexander Peklushenko. In March, former lawmaker Stanislav Melnik was also found dead.

Last year saw a wave of deaths among reporters working in Ukraine. Those killed are Vesti newspaper reporter Vyacheslav Veremiy, Italian journalist Andrea Rocchelli, interpreter Andrei Mironov, Russia’s VGTRK TV crew - Anton Voroshin and Igor Kornelyuk, Channel One cameraman Anatoly Klyan and Andrei Stenin, a photojournalist of Russia's news agency Rossiya Segodnya.

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