Ukrainian police have opened a murder investigation after finding missing Belarusian activist Vitaliy Shyshov hanged in a Kyiv park on the morning of August 3. Shyshov, who left Belarus in the fall of 2020, was reported missing a day earlier after he went out for a morning jog and never returned. Ukrainian police suspect his death was a suicide or a murder framed as suicide. However, Shyshov’s colleagues and loved ones believe he was killed. Fellow activists from the NGO “Belarusian House in Ukraine” (BDU), which Shyshov founded to help Belarusians fleeing political persecution, said that his face showed signs of having been beaten. BDU also said that sources in Kyiv and Belarus told its members about a network of Belarusian KGB agents allegedly working in Ukraine, and warned about the possibility of “kidnappings and liquidations.” A week before his death, Vitaliy Shyshov noticed that he was being followed and asked friends to “take care” of his loved ones.
