by James Tweedie

TWO suspects in the murder of a journalist critical of the Ukrainian government were arrested yesterday.

The Kiev prosecutor’s office said that the suspects were in their mid-twenties and were residents of the capital, but gave no further details.

Since the coup against former president Viktor Yanukovych last year, journalists have experienced mounting threats.TV reporter and newspaper editor Oles Buzina, who regularly criticised the government in reports for channel K1, was shot dead near his home in central Kiev in April.

Mr Buzina was editor-in-chief of the Russian-language newspaper Segodnya from January to March, when he resigned over a number of issues, including censorship by the paper’s owners.

Authorities said at the time that the murder might be linked to Mr Buzina’s work. It was rumoured that far-right vigilantes who supported the January 2014 pro-EU Maidan coup were responsible.

Other journalists critical of the regime in west Ukraine have been persecuted, including Workers Party of Ukraine leader and Working Class editor Alexandr Bondarchuk.

Mr Bondarchuk, a former leader of the All-Ukrainian Union of Workers, has languished in prison for three months on a charge of “violation of territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine” over two articles he published.

On Wednesday two Ukrainian soldiers were charged with murdering an elderly woman and her daughter in the village of Luganskoe in Donetsk who they suspected of sympathising with anti-fascist forces.

Blair added to Ukraine adviser roster

Tony Blair has become the latest controversial international figure to be asked to work for the Ukrainian government.

Following a meeting with Petro Poroshenko in Kiev on Wednesday he told reporters that Ukraine faced “great challenges” from “Russian aggression” and “corruption.”

Mr Blair also called on Ukrainian leaders to follow “not self-interest but values” such as “freedom, democracy and a desire to serve the people.”

The International Advisory Council for Reforms, which has no executive or legislative powers, began meeting last month.

Its chairman is former Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili — now also appointed governor of the Odessa region — who is a fugitive from his own country on charges of exceeding his presidential authority.