Ukrainian journalist killed in Kiev

Vyacheslav Veremiy, a journalist from the Ukrainian newspaper Vesti, was shot by masked assailants while in a taxi on the way home from work, Vesti wrote on Feb. 19.

“On the evening of Feb. 18 Vyacheslav Veremiy and his colleague, an IT-specialist called Alexey Lymarenko, were going home in a taxi, when men in black masks with bats and other weapons attacked them,” the newspaper reported.

When the car stopped at a traffic light the assailants started threw Molotov cocktails at it. The journalist, his friend and the driver were then pulled out of the car and severely beaten.

The driver suffered serious leg injury and Lymarenko’s face was disfigured. Vyacheslav Veremiy was shot in the chest and later died in hospital.

Veremiy had just came back to work after suffering an eye injury, and partially losing his vision, during clashes between the police and protestors at the start of the year in Kiev.

The night of the attack on Veremiy is being referred to by the international media as the bloodiest night in Ukraine so far. Some 27 journalists suffered injuries during the ongoing clashes at Maidan Square in the center of Kiev.