Ukrainian police detain suspects in Pavel Sheremet killing

Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov

KIEV, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- The National Police of Ukraine detained suspects in the murder of famous journalist Pavel Sheremet, Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said on his social media page on Thursday.

"The National Police have just detained and, with the consent of the Prosecutor General's Office, served suspects in the murder of journalist Pavel Sheremet with the notice of charges," Avakov wrote.

"This is the result of very complicated and persistent work of real professionals and an important step towards the solving of this case," he wrote on his Facebook page.

Yevgeny Koval, deputy head of the National Police, said the motive for the murder of the journalist was an attempt to destabilize the socio-political situation in Ukraine.

In 2016, Sheremet, a journalist with Ukraine's online investigative newspaper Ukrainska Pravda, was killed by a car bomb in central Kiev.