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The Russian journalist who was said to have been killed yesterday in Kiev, Ukraine, turned up very much alive at a news conference today.

Журналіст Аркадій Бабченко живий / брифінг СБУ

In a wild turn of events streamed live, Arkady Babchenko was introduced to applause and gasps from the reporters in attendance.

"I'm still alive," Babchenko said, apologizing to friends and family who believed that he was dead, The Associated Press reports.

"Special apologies to my wife," he said, according to the BBC, though it's not clear what his wife knew.

On Tuesday, Kiev police told reporters that Babchenko had been shot multiple times in the back at his apartment and had died from his injuries. His wife was said to have found him bleeding from his wounds. Police said Babchenko had been targeted for his work.

The head of the Ukrainian Security Service, Vasyl Gritsak, said on Wednesday that his agency faked Babchenko's death in order to set up a sting operation to catch those who were trying to kill him, according to the AP:

Babchenko had moved to Kiev in the fall after fleeing Russia, where he was a prominent war correspondent who in recent years had become fiercely critical of the Kremlin.

Writing last year in The Guardian, Babchenko 

 how a Facebook post he'd written about the Russian bombing of civilians in Aleppo, Syria, was deemed insufficiently patriotic and led to a systematic campaign against him. In Kiev, he has been a television host on a Crimean Tatar network.

In 2016, investigative journalist Pavel Sheremet 

 when a bomb exploded his car. The case is unsolved.

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Laurel Wamsley

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Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko, who had been reported shot and killed in the Ukrainian capital Tuesday, has shown up at a news conference very much alive.

Russian journalist said to be killed shows up at news conference very much alive

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