Ukrainian politician shot eight times in Lviv. Killer dressed as a rider

Andryi Parubyi, former Speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament and Secretary of the Ukrainian National Security Council, has been shot dead in Lviv. This was confirmed by President Volodymyr Zelensky in a post on X, citing Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko and Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko. "My condolences to his family and loved ones. All necessary forces and means are engaged in the investigation and search for the murderer,' he added. According to reports in the Kyiv Independend, Parubyi was shot dead. In the morning, the National Police said that a political figure had been murdered after a shooting in the city of Lviv, western Ukraine.

According to footage taken from the Lviv security cameras, the shooter was a man disguised as a Glovo rider. After killing Parubyi by shooting him at close range, the killer, who was wearing a full-face helmet, fled on an electric bicycle. Under the procedural direction of the Lviv regional prosecutor's office, a preliminary investigation has been launched into what has been described as the premeditated murder of the former president of the Verkhovna Rada. Ukraine has officially launched a special operation, called Siren. In a statement, the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine said that the assassin is wanted for 'voluntary murder'. The regional prosecutor's office and the National Police are working at the scene, with forensic experts. A photo of the murdered deputy, dressed in sports clothes and shoes and lying on a pavement with a bag and glasses at his side, was released by the Prosecutor's Office.

Police say they are considering several hypotheses, including a link with Russia. In a briefing, picked up by Ukrainian media, Lviv region police chief Oleksandr Shlyakhovsky said that the identity of the murderer has not yet been established. "At 11.37 a.m. on Yefremov Street the murderer fired about eight shots with a short-barreled firearm. The crime was very carefully planned," he said. Shlyakhovsky confirmed that "the police are looking for a person wearing clothes similar to a rider and wearing a helmet".

Andriy Parubiy 'had been on the Russian Interior Ministry's wanted list for years', more precisely since November 2023. Ria Novosti reports this, citing Russian police lists. The Russian Investigative Committee indicted Parubiy in absentia for alleged atrocities committed in the Donbass in 2014 and resulting in the death and injury of 1,200 people.

"I am deeply shocked by the terrible murder of the former president of the Verkhovna Rada, Andryi Parubyi, in Lviv. My heartfelt condolences to his family and friends," the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, wrote in a post on X.