High-Profile Attack on Foreign Fighter in Kyiv, Explained

In Kyiv, a man, who introduced himself as a French journalist, shot a Chechen refugee, who along with his wife Amina Okuyeva,served in the police battalion, "Kyiv-2"in eastern Ukraine. Later, Ukraine's Ministry of Internal Affairs confirmed that the shooter had the Ukrainian passport.

Currently, Adam Osmayev and the shooter are alive and in hospital, both in intensive care.

Hromadske has gathered the most important facts about the attack.

The Shooter Introduced Himself As A Foreign Journalist

The director of the department of communications at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Artem Shevchenko, wrote about this.

According to Shevchenko, the attacker was disguised as a foreign journalist wanting to interview Adam Osmayev and his wife Amina Okuyeva but then he opened fired using a pistol. As they later told the police, the person pretending to be a foreign journalist had arranged the meeting with the spouses. When they got in the car, and an unknown man took out a Glock pistol from the glove compartment and shot Osmaev in the chest. In retaliation, Amina fired several shots from a Makarov pistol at the assailant.

"RBC.UA" reported that the journalist, Alex Verner worked for Le Monde, a French daily afternoon newspaper.

Hromadske has confirmed that no such journalist works there.

“"Le Monde has never worked with someone named Alex Verner, and I personnally never heard of any journalist named Alex Verner",” Benoit Vitkine, a Le Monde correspondent, told Hromadske.

Police also opened a criminal case.

Former Soldier and his Attacker in Intensive Care

As of June 2, former solider Adam Osmayev and his attacker are in "stable condition with some positive changes," Dr. Vladimir Halik of Kyiv City Clinical Hospital No. 17 told Interfax-Ukraine.

"They are in the intensive care unit on ventilators. But there are signs of consciousness," Halik told reporters. "All the necessary treatments have been implemented. We are working so that they are alive and healthy."

The doctor claims that Osmaeva and Dakar have "severe organ damage, injuries to the chest and abdomen, and damage to their extremities."

Halik also said that it's too soon to make predictions about their condition, but stressed that they will do everything possible to ensure their recovery.

The two men were unavailable for questioning, as they are both on ventilators and unable to speak.

The Attacker Could Be Kadyrov's Personal Killer – Media

Ukrainian media Espreso.TV reported that Osmayev's attacker could be Artur Denisultanov-Kurmakaev, called "Dingo," who was involved in the 2009 murder of Umar Israilov, the former head security guard to the Head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov.

In 2009 Kadyrov's former bodyguard, Israilov, accused the Chechen President of torture. That same year, he was killed in Vienna, where he had requested political asylum.

Russian newspaper Ruspress reported that Israilov's killer was the "Bandit of St. Petersburg," Artur Denisultanov-Kurmakaev.

In the interrogation following the murder, Denisultanov-Kurmakaev talked about Kadyrov's enemies list, which included 300 candidates. He also claimed that he was carrying out Kadyrov's will.

The New York Times also conducted their own investigation into the death of Israilov. The article indicated that Denisultanov-Kurmakaev was to receive 100 thousand dollars for returning Israilov to Russia, dead or alive.

Denisultanov-Kurmakaev is reportedly "famous" because of a high-profile story involving his exchange for a Russian soldier who was in Chechen captivity in 1998, after the First Russian-Chechen War.

The victim's wife, Amina Okuyeva wrote on Facebook that the attacker "has many premature deaths of Chechens on his conscience, including in Europe."

Adam Osmaev is a Chechen refugee, who was accused of an attempt on Russian president Vladimir Putin in 2012. He was then arrested in abstentia by a Russian court but stayed in Ukraine and carried on in the war in Donbas. Police report that he is a former head of a military peacekeeping battalion named after Dzhokhar Dudayev. Its soldiers are mostly Chechens who had to leave their motherland and move to Western Europe.

Amina Okuyeva, the wife of Adam Osmaev, also was at war in Eastern Ukraine and served in military peacekeeping battalion named after their press-officer Dzhokhar Dudayev.

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