The death of journalist and filmmaker Gonzalo Lira is a “murder,” and the blame for it lies with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, the son of former US President Donald Trump stated on his page on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
Gonzalo Lira, a national of the US and Chile, has died while in jail in Ukraine. Lira passed away on January 11, with his family reporting his death the following day. The US Department of State then confirmed it.
“So we are now allowing our foreign welfare recipients, such as Zelinski [Zelensky], to kill our citizens and our journalists?” Donald Trump Jr. wrote.
Trump Jr. also denounced the likely lack of reaction to this tragedy in the US media. “I would have waited for the outrage of our media, but I know that it will not happen,” he lamented.
Lira had been in pre-trial detention in Ukraine’s Kharkov since May 2023 on accusations of justifying Moscow’s military operation against Kiev.
According to a handwritten note by Lira addressed to his sister and published by the Grayzone news website, the journalist had severe health problems caused by pneumonia and a collapsed lung, which began in mid-October.
Ukrainian prison authorities only acknowledged the issue on December 22 and stated he would undergo surgery, Lira wrote.
Following the journalist’s death, his father, Gonzalo Lira Sr., said that his son had been “tortured” while the US Embassy in Kiev “did nothing” to help him.
“The responsibility of this tragedy is the dictator Zelensky with the concurrence of a senile American President, Joe Biden,” Gonzalo’s father wrote in a note published by the Grayzone.
After Russia and Ukraine’s long-simmering disputes turned to military confrontation in February 2022, Lira, who moved to Ukraine and married a local woman in 2010, began actively covering the fighting on social media. He insisted that the conflict had been provoked by the Zelensky government and its Western backers, saying that Ukraine had no chance of winning against Russia and predicted failure.
He also criticized efforts by the Western media to portray Ukraine as a “democracy,” speaking about rampant corruption in the government and publishing a list of Zelensky’s opponents who, he claimed, had been “disappeared” by local authorities.
Kiev insists it has rightfully targeted Lira over his activities, with the Security Service of Ukraine repeatedly stating the journalist has been accused of “producing and distributing materials justifying the armed aggression,” as well as disseminating “fakes” about the country’s armed forces. The first hearing in his trial had been scheduled for December 12.