Ukrainian authorities announced on Saturday that Andriy Parubiy, a prominent Ukrainian politician and former Speaker of Parliament, was assassinated in the city of Lviv.
According to Ukrainian sources, the killing was carried out by a Russian mercenary group.
Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelensky, confirmed the death. Zelensky wrote on the social media platform X:
“Ihor Klymenko, Ukraine’s Interior Minister, and Ruslan Kravchenko, the Prosecutor General, have delivered the first report on the horrific murder of Andriy Parubiy in the city of Lviv. I extend my condolences to his family and loved ones. All available tools and forces will be mobilised to investigate and track down the killer.”
Russian media, however, reported that Russian police records showed Parubiy — who also previously served as Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council — had been wanted in Russia since 2023. According to RIA Novosti, he was declared a fugitive by Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs that year.
Ukraine’s Strana newspaper reported that Parubiy was shot dead by a man posing as a courier.
Russia’s Interior Ministry placed him on its wanted list in November 2023, after the Investigative Committee of Russia charged him in absentia over alleged crimes committed in Donbas in 2014, which it claimed led to the death or injury of 1,200 people.
An image, purportedly showing the suspected assassin riding a bicycle, has since been circulated online.
