MP Tymchuk shot dead, journalist Komorov dies after coma

Dmytro Tymchuk, a member of parliament who organized
an international information campaign about the war in Donbas, died on June 19
from a gunshot wound to his head, as reported by the sprotyv.info news site
that he launched. Initially, fellow party member and MP Anton Gerashchenko
reported that Tymchuk suffered the fatal wound while cleaning a gun. Yet he
deleted this Facebook post soon afterwards. Police are considering the
possibility he was murdered, along with negligence with his gun or other
accident, National Police Head Serhiy Kniazev told journalists. An individual
was with Tymchuk in the apartment when he was shot, the police also reported,
and jewelry was found to be missing from his residence. Police have yet to
confirm how many times he was shot. Andriy Teteruk, the first deputy head of
the People’s Front faction, said he doesn’t believe Tymchuk shot himself and
could have been murdered.

A military journalist by profession, Tymchuk launched
the Information Resistance news site (sprotyv.info) once warfare in Donbas
began in March 2014. It immediately became among the key sources of reliable
information about the war, publishing in the Russian and English languages for
the global community. Tymchuk also served in Ukraine’s Armed Forces reserves as
a lieutenant colonel, the sprotyv.info news site said. “Owing to his human and
professional qualities, Dmytro was able to gather like-minded people, who
defended Ukraine on the information front from the very start of Russian
aggression, and before that day.”

Vadym Komorov, a journalist who was beaten on May 4,
died on June 19 after being in a coma since then. Komorov was attacked in the
center of Cherkasy, a mid-sized city where he worked to expose city council
corruption, theft of budget funds, illegal construction, among others topics.
He was also shot at in 2016. “He was inconvenient for many local politicians,”
said after his death Serhiy Tomilenko, the head of the National Journalists
Union. He called for parliamentary hearings to address the safety of
journalists in Ukraine. A criminal case has been opened for “intentional severe
bodily harm.”

Zenon Zawada: It’s too
early to say what caused Tymchuk’s death, but these incidents offer evidence
that it’s not safe to be an investigative journalist in Ukraine. That’s the
case whether it’s journalists reporting on the warfront in Donbas, or what
President Zelensky aptly described as Ukraine’s second warfront, against
corruption. The rising number of attacks against civil activists and
journalists was addressed in September 2018 by MP Mustafa Nayyem, who called
for hearings in parliament and the National Security and Defense Council. It’s
unclear what measures the new government will take to address this problem.