Journalist Arkady Babchenko had been reported shot in Kiev on May 29, 2018, but has since turned up alive | EPA-EFE/Inna Sokolovska ‘Murdered’ Russian journalist turns up alive Ukrainian authorities said they had staged the killing as a sting operation.

Arkady Babchenko, a Russian journalist and Kremlin critic who was reported murdered in Ukraine on Tuesday appeared — alive — at a news conference on Wednesday at which Ukrainian authorities said they had staged the killing as a sting operation.

Babchenko's resurrection came less than 24 hours after Ukrainian authorities reported he had been shot and killed outside his apartment in Kiev, where he has lived since fleeing political harassment in Russia in 2017.

Anton Gerashchenko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament and adviser to Ukraine's Ministry of Internal Affairs, who was among the first to report the murder on Tuesday, wrote on Twitter Wednesday that two suspects had been arrested thanks to a "brilliant operation" by Ukrainian law enforcement — a would-be assassin and a suspect who organized the planned killing.

"Arkady Babchenko is alive!" Gerashchenko wrote on Twitter.

Аркадий Бабченко жив ! В результате блестящей спецоперации, проведённой украинскими правоохранителями, задержаны и киллер, получивший заказ на убийство Аркадия и организатор убийства. Для того чтоб... https://t.co/PPhfTO7rdf — Антон Геращенко (@Gerashchenko7) May 30, 2018

The reported killing of Babchenko, a former Russian solider who later became a journalist and sharply criticized Russian military action in Syria and Ukraine, had sparked a wave of outrage and a huge outpouring of grief and remembrances.

Babchenko appeared in a televised news conference wearing a hoodie and standing next to Ukraine's prosecutor general, Yuriy Lutsenko, and he apologized to fellow journalists.

"I have buried colleagues many times," he said. "I know how it feels."

Even Babchenko’s family apparently was not told in advance of the sting operation.

“I also want to apologize to to my wife, Olechka, forgive me please, there was no other option,” Babchenko said at the news conference. “The operation was under preparation for two months.”

Reports of his murder had also drawn condemnation and calls for investigations by international political figures, including British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, and a spokeswoman for the EU’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini.

Revelation that the murder had been staged drew swift and angry criticism from journalists who said the Ukrainian government had undermined its own credibility by engaging in Kremlin-style disinformation, and that Babchenko had tarnished his profession by joining in the charade.

The head of the Ukrainian Security Service, Vasyl Hrytsak, said the sting operation had prevented Babchenko from actually being murdered.

At the news conference, Hrytsak told local journalists that the alleged hit had been ordered by the Russian security services, but an organizer of the assassination who was detained was a Ukrainian national.

Senior Russian government officials had denied any involvement in Babchenko’s killing and accused Ukraine of a smear campaign.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman had issued a statement blaming Russia for the murder, which drew a rebuke from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov who complained that there had not even been an investigation.