UKRAINE, KHARKIV, Jul 4 — Journalist Oleksandr Lapshyn from Kharkiv was found dead on June 29. The man disappeared on May 29 under unspecified circumstances and was searched for, Ukrainian media outlet Suspilne reports, citing Serhii Bolvinov, head of the Kharkiv Police Investigation Department.

“On May 30, 2024, the police received a statement from Oleksandr’s relatives that he had gone missing. The police began an investigation. On June 29, we received information from a passerby who found a body [hanging from] a rope with signs of suicide in the Sortivka district [one of Kharkiv’s districts — ed.] Of course, we had to identify the deceased, because the man had been there for a long time and it was impossible to confirm who he was visually. There was a note in his pocket, but it was impossible to read. It was probably a suicide note,” Bolvinov said.

According to Serhii Bolvinov, the police took DNA from Oleksandr’s father and got a match. Officially, the cause of death will be determined after a forensic examination, but police think that the person whose body was found committed suicide.

According to Oleksandr Humaniuk, the head of the search and rescue team of the NGO “Troyanda na ruci” [“Rose on the hand” in translation from Ukrainian — ed.], they had been looking for Oleksandr Lapshyn for a month.

“This [the place where the dead man was not found — ed.] is about a mile from his home. We kept it quiet so that investigators could work and inform the family,” said Oleksandr Humaniuk.

Before the Russian full-scale invasion, Oleksandr Lapshyn did not work in the media. In the spring of 2022, he worked for about a month as a fixer for the international agency Reuters and published several articles on the Ukrainska Pravda website.

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