Edit: To be clear, I am sympathetic to the Ukraine’s position. They are definitely the good guys in the broader saga, and have suffered greatly due to Russian wrongdoing, but there is good reason to be more skeptical of their explanation here. I’m taken aback at how uncritically people are treating it. This was a staged assassination publicly blamed on another country. That should turn your bullshit-detector to maximum sensitivity. Original post:

So they blamed Russia for a staged murder, creating a very serious and very public international incident, as part of an investigation? How is no one raising the possibility that this was done to frame Russia, and that now they have changed their mind for whatever reason (perhaps fear of the ruse being discovered). Surely that’s worth considering.

It’s exactly what we would be speculating if it was done by a regime considered hostile to the West, instead of one considered friendly.

I have no reason to believe any particular theory of what actually happened and why, but surely, the Ukrainian government’s explanation should not just be parroted uncritically by the press and commentators.