The National Police of Ukraine is interested in obtaining additional information, which may concern those who ordered the murder of journalist Pavlo Sheremet in Kyiv, for which it intends to conduct appropriate investigative actions with the person who is the manager of the audio recording, in which allegedly KGB officials of Belarus are discussing the elimination of political opponents.

"Since the manager of the sound recording is now in the territory of one of the EU countries, in order to carry out the relevant investigative actions, the procedures of international legal assistance must be followed. A joint group of officers of the National Police and the Prosecutor General's Office has already been formed, which is ready to travel to the country of residence of the recording's owner in the near future," the National Police of Ukraine said on the website on Tuesday.

In addition, according to the press service of the department, the investigators of the National Police have prepared an official invitation to Ukraine for the person who is the manager of the sound recording to participate in the investigative actions. "The man will receive the procedural status of a witness, and he will also be provided with proper protection," the police said.

As reported, on January 4, the Ukrayinska Pravda Internet edition with reference to the published audio recordings and the EUobserver Belgian edition said that the murder of Sheremet was prepared by the special services of Belarus. As follows from the recording of the conversations of head of the State Security Committee of Belarus in 2008-2012 Vadim Zaitsev, transferred to Ukrayinska Pravda by the Belarusian opposition, the secret services of Belarus in 2012, by order of President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, discussed the possibility of detonating Sheremet with explosives, which was carried out four years later.

"The recording contains the words of Zaitsev, recorded by a hidden device on April 11, 2012, during the briefing of officers of the KGB's Alpha Group, an elite counter-terrorist unit, in Zaitsev's office in Minsk. The KGB also discussed killing Pavlo Sheremet, who was living in Russia at the time. The task is to blow it up. And to do it so that this murder becomes a public message," Ukrayinska Pravda said. Ukrayinska Pravda cites Zaitsev's words published in EUobserver: "We have to work on Sheremet, which is a big headache [...] we will plant a bomb [...] the president [Lukashenko] is waiting for these operations."