Award Winning Journalist Pavel Sheremet killed by Ukraine car bomb Wednesday July 20,2016

Award-winning journalist Pavel Sheremet has been killed in a car bomb explosion in Ukraine's capital, Kiev.

In 2002, Sheremet won a journalism prize from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) for his reports on human rights violations in Belarus, including the disappearances of opposition politicians and journalists.

In 2013, Sheremet began working for a new Russian broadcaster, Public TV and Radio (OTR), but quit in 2014 in protest at what he saw as the Kremlin's propaganda in coverage of the Ukrainian crisis.

He openly accused Russia of illegally annexing Crimea and supporting pro-Moscow separatists battling government forces in Ukraine's east.

Pavel Sheremet, a Belarusian-born journalist with popular news website Ukrayinska Pravda, was killed on Wednesday morning  July 20,2016 while driving a car owned by his partner, Olena Prytula, who is the publication's owner.

Award-winning journalist Pavel Sheremet was on his way to work to anchor a talk show on Vesti Radio when the bomb went off.
The 44-year-old was known for his outspoken criticism of the leadership of his home country, Belarus. He was also a close friend of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was shot dead close to the Kremlin last year

Ukranian President Petro Poroshenko offered his condolences to Sheremet's friends and family, adding that he had instructed law-enforcement agencies to conduct "a speedy investigation into this crime".

Anton Gerashchenko, a member of parliament and adviser to the interior ministry, referred to the killing of Sheremet as a "cynical murder", adding that it could be used to "to destabilise the internal political situation in Ukraine".