Journalists Killed in 2014 - Motive Confirmed: Vyacheslav Veremiy

Vesti
February 19, 2014, in Kiev, Ukraine

Veremiy, 32, reporter for the Kiev-based daily newspaper Vesti, died at a Kiev hospital where he was treated for severe blood loss after being shot in the chest the day before, his employer reported. According to news reports, the journalist was assaulted by a group of armed and masked men whom he had reportedly filmed from a car at an intersection in downtown Kiev.

Vesti said the assailants stopped the taxi that Veremiy and Aleksei Lymarenko, his colleague at the news outlet, were taking home from work late on February 18. The assailants forced the journalists and the driver out of the vehicle and brutally attacked them with baseball bats. They also shot Veremiy in the chest.

Vesti, which carried out an independent probe into the attack, cited statements by the driver and Lymarenko in its report that stated Veremiy was targeted because he started filming the assailants from the taxi.

A local news website TSN published a video of the attack on Veremiy, which had been recorded by the witnesses. The footage showed several men beating Veremiy with baseball bats until he was able to escape and seek help from the passers-by.

Vesti reviewed videos taken at the scene and suggested that Vermiy was killed by a group of pro-government protesters, who are known locally as "titushki."

Kiev police opened the probe into the killing.

Vesti reported that Veremiy had been injured while covering protests in Kiev in January. The journalist was wounded in his left eye and left arm when a stun grenade exploded near him, the reports said.