Journalist Arkady Babchenko is alive while his “murder” was a special operation of the Ukrainian special services, the head of Ukraine's security services Vasyl Hrytsak said on Wednesday.

According to him, as a result of a special operation carried out by Ukrainian security services a suspected organizer of the journalist’s murder was detained on Wednesday while Arkady has turned up alive at a press conference, BBC reported.

Vasyl Hrytsak noted that they were forced to stage his murder in order to prevent the assassination that “was ordered by Russian security services”.