A preparatory meeting of the Shevchenkivsky District Court of Kyiv in the case on the murder of journalist Oles Buzyna will continue on February 22.

According to an Interfax-Ukraine reporter, a respective decision was made by a panel of judges. The court rejected a petition filed by the defense team to recuse the panel of judges and did not accept the recusal of Presiding Judge Yevhen Sydorov.

Since the judges are busy with other proceedings, the preliminary hearing was postponed until 10.00 on February 22.

As reported, on November 28, 2017, the prosecutor's office in Kyiv sent this indictment for consideration on the merits to Kyiv's Shevchenkivsky District Court.

Buzyna was killed in the yard of an apartment block where he lived in Kyiv on April 16, 2015.

Two suspects in the murder – Andriy Medvedko and Denys Polischuk - were detained on June 18. Polishchuk, a guard lieutenant of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, had taken part in the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) in Donbas as the commander of the 54th reconnaissance battalion. Medvedko took part in the ATO in Donbas as a member of the Interior Ministry's Kyiv-2 battalion.

Lawyer Serhiy Voichenko, representing Medvedko and Polischuk, said on June 27, 2017 that the Kyiv Prosecutor's Office had reported completing the pretrial inquiry into Buzyna's murder.

The accused are charged pursuant to Clause 12, Part 2, Article 115 (premeditated murder) and Part 1, Article 263 (unlawful possession of firearms) of Ukraine's Criminal Code. If convicted, the defendants could face from 10 to 15 years in jail or life imprisonment.