On Sept. 16, a solidarity action was held in Kyiv to commemorate journalist Georgii Gongadze.
In 2000, Gongadze, a journalist and co-founder of Ukrainska Pravda news outlet, was killed allegedly by then-President Leonid Kuchma’s order.
Despite published audiotapes revealing the Kuchma’s order to silence Gongadze, the ex-President hasn’t been brought to justice. He’s still considered as the main suspect.
“He predicted everything that is happening today,” recalls Myroslava Gongadze, the murdered journalist’s widow on the anniversary of husband’s murder. “He constantly called for the demarcation of the border with Russia, about the importance of creating a security coalition of Eastern European countries from the Baltics to Georgia, about Russian threats, the bullets, and bombs of which he had tested on his body in Abkhazia.”
According to Myroslava Gongadze, her husband said during his lifetime that “everything would start with the Crimea” meaning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Today he is not with us physically, but his spirit and work live on,” said Myroslava.
You can read more below:
Documentary on Gongadze murder explains why Ukraine is what it is today and why journalism matters
Besides Georgii Gongadze, another two prominent Ukrainian journalists Pavlo Sheremet and Vadym Komarov were killed in 2016 and 2019 accordingly. Both crimes remain unsolved, and the guilty haven’t been punished.