KIEV, Ukraine — To mimic gore, they used makeup and pig’s blood. They shot bullet holes in one of his sweatshirts. And to top off Arkady Babchenko’s staged murder, they even took him to the morgue.

The reporter revealed Thursday how Ukrainian security services faked his murder in a sting to thwart a contract hit allegedly arranged by Russia.

Police said Tuesday night that Babchenko had been shot and killed in his apartment building. The next day, he showed up in front of journalists, and authorities revealed that it all had been a ruse and said that the organizer of the planned assassination had been arrested.

One of Russia’s best-known war reporters and a Kremlin critic, Babchenko fled the country in February 2017 because of what he described as death threats. He said Ukrainian agents came to him about a month ago and said that Russian security services had put out an order for his slaying.

To make the staged murder look genuine, Babchenko said, security officers took his sweatshirt and shot holes in it. Babchenko said he put on the shirt and got smeared with pig’s blood.

One of the officers also told him how to fall down to appear to have been genuinely shot.

His wife called an ambulance and he was taken to a hospital intensive care unit, where a forensic expert “documented” his death. After that, he ended up in a morgue that he said was “freezing as hell.”

Once inside the morgue, Babchenko said he took off the blood-stained clothes. “I just sat there watching the news about what a great guy I was.”

Relations between Russian and Ukraine have been strained since 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea.

On Wednesday, when Babchenko’s appearance in front of journalists brought applause, Ukrainian Security Service chief Vasyl Gritsak said a Ukrainian citizen who allegedly was paid $40,000 by the Russian security service to carry out the hit had been arrested. The man in turn allegedly hired an acquaintance to be the gunman.

The alleged organizer, Boris German, was arraigned Thursday night and ordered held in custody for two months.