"I would like to apologize for what you have all had to go through," Babchenko, who looked on the verge of tears at times, told reporters."I'm sorry, but there was no other way of doing it. Separately, I want to apologize to my wife for the Hell that she has been through." He went on to thank the Ukrainian Security Service, the SBU, for saving his life and said the most important thing was that what he called other big acts of terror had been thwarted. He did not specify what those planned acts were.The SBU said it had received information about the plot and had managed to prevent it.Babchenko, a Putin critic, lived in the Ukrainian capital after receiving threats at home for saying he did not mourn the victims of a Russian military plane crash. Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said in a social media posting late on Tuesday he was convinced what he called "the Russian totalitarian machine" had not forgiven Babchenko for what Groysman called his honesty.The Kremlin described such allegations as part of an anti-Russian smear campaign."This is the height of cynicism against the backdrop of such a brutal murder. It is anti-Russian bluster instead of talking about the need to conduct a thorough, objective investigation," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters before it was revealed that Babchenko was alive and well. Babchenko sparked a backlash in Russia for his comments in a 2016 Facebook post on a Russian military plane crash. He said his comments had resulted in thousands of threats, his home address being published online and calls for him to be deported.The plane, carrying 92 people, including dozens of Red Army Choir singers, dancers and orchestra members, crashed into the Black Sea on its way to Syria in December 2016, killing everyone on board.VIDEO: Russian journalist, Arkady Babchenko, reported killed in Kiev turns up at a news conference. His "fake death" was part of a special operation to pre-empt a real plot to kill him pic.twitter.com/DEW7V90Sm0
— AFP news agency (@AFP) May 30, 2018