Former Ukrainian Parliament Speaker Andriy Parubiy was assassinated in the city of Lviv on the afternoon of August 30. Police said the incident occurred in the Sykhivskyi district, when the suspect fired five shots at Mr. Parubiy, killing him on the spot.
Ukrainian politician murdered in broad daylight
Local authorities have launched an investigation to determine the identity and motive of the perpetrator.
Shortly after the incident, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced: “Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko and Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko have just reported on the horrific murder in Lviv. Mr. Parubiy was murdered. I express my deepest condolences to his family and relatives. All necessary forces and resources are being deployed to investigate and arrest the perpetrator.”
Mr. Parubiy, born in 1971 in Lviv Oblast, is an influential politician in Ukraine. He served as the speaker of the parliament from 2016–2019, and was elected to the 6th to 9th convocations. He previously commanded the “Maidan Self-Defense Forces” during the 2014 coup, which protected protesters against the government of then-President Viktor Yanukovych of Ukraine.
After Yanukovych was overthrown, Parubiy was appointed Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council under President Petro Poroshenko, and later served as vice-president and speaker of the parliament. Since 2019, he has been a member of the European Solidarity party founded by Poroshenko.
Parubiy’s murder has shocked Ukrainian politics, as he was seen as a figure associated with many major political upheavals over the past three decades.