On the night of September 16–17, 2000, journalist Georgiy Gongadze disappeared. At that time, no one believed he could have been killed — but just a few weeks later it became clear that this was exactly what had happened.
Source: PRYAMYI
His headless body was found in the Tarashcha forest only two and a half weeks after his disappearance. For a long time, the family refused to acknowledge that it was Georgiy. His mother never agreed to the burial — it only took place after her death, in 2016.
Three police officers were convicted for the journalist’s abduction and murder. A year later, former Interior Ministry General Oleksiy Pukach was also sentenced. Yet even after 25 years, society has not received the main answer: who ordered the journalist’s murder — and why was Gongadze the one targeted?
Georgiy was well known in Lviv — there he studied, married, worked on documentary films, and engaged in journalism. By 2000, he was already the founder of the publication “Ukrainska Pravda” — and openly criticized the corrupt government of Leonid Kuchma.