Ukraine, killer of MP Parubiy caught: 'Russian involvement'

Ukraine suspects Russia's involvement in the murder of former parliamentary speaker Andriy Parubiy. "We know that this crime was not accidental. There is Russian involvement,' Ukrainian police chief Ivan Vyhivskyi said after the arrest of a suspect last night. The alleged murderer 'prepared for a long time, observed, planned and finally pulled the trigger. It took only 36 hours to track him down and arrest him,' Vyhivskyi said. After making sure the victim was dead, the murderer tried to cover his tracks: he changed clothes, got rid of the weapon and tried to hide in the Khmelnytskyi region.

The arrest of the killer was announced by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. The 54-year-old MP was shot dead on Saturday by an assailant posing as a courier in the western city of Lviv, triggering a manhunt. Ukrainian Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said in a note released in the early hours of Monday that the suspect had been arrested in the western Khmelnytskyi region. Klymenko said that the preliminary investigation found that the murder had been "carefully prepared", with the travel schedule and route of Parubiy plotted, as well as an escape plan. He added that the Ukrainian National Police would provide further details later. In a social media post, Zelensky said he had spoken to chief prosecutor Ruslan Kravchenko, who reported that the suspect had been questioned. "Urgent investigative actions are currently underway to establish the full circumstances of this murder," he added, also thanking law enforcement and prosecutors for "working tirelessly".