Interior Minister of Ukraine Arsen Avakov must bring the investigation into the murder of journalist Pavlo Sheremet to an end, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

"His [Avakov's] responsibility is the Sheremet case. If he launched this case, he must bring it to an end," he said at a press conference on Wednesday.

The president said that Avakov has to do the utmost to punish those involved in the murder of Sheremet.

"Arsen Borysovych Avakov is not a godfather of my child or my close friend. On the contrary, he has close friends, who are not my friends for sure. Is he is a strong minister? Yes. Do we have a complicated situation today? I think we do," the head of state said.

As reported, journalist Sheremet was killed in a car explosion in central Kyiv on July 20, 2016. The explosion occurred when Sheremet was driving a vehicle that belonged to Ukrayinska Pravda co-founder Olena Prytula, who was not in it at the time. The journalist died at the scene shortly following the bomb blast.

On December 12, 2019, police conducted a number of searches and notified several people of their status as suspects in the Sheremet assassination case. Later in the day, the National Police and Interior Ministry held a briefing, at which President Volodymyr Zelensky also spoke, to inform the public about a number of interim investigation findings and the suspects' names.