Editor’s note: This is a developing story and is being updated.

Andrii Parubii, a Ukrainian politician who previously served as the parliament speaker and played a prominent role in the EuroMaidan Revolution, was shot dead in Lviv on Aug. 30.

Earlier in the day, the National Police said that a political figure was murdered after a shooting in the western Ukrainian city. Iryna Herashchenko, a lawmaker from the European Solidarity party, subsequently confirmed for the Kyiv Independent that Parubii was the victim.

“Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko and Prosecutor General Ruslav Kravchenko have just informed me about the first known circumstances of the terrible murder in Lviv. Andrii Parubii has died,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

“All necessary means have been deployed in the investigation and search for the killer.”

Authorities received an emergency call at around noon after the shooting in Lviv’s southern Frankivskyi city district, the police said. The victim died at the scene.

Officials have not commented on potential suspects or a possible motive.

Parubii, aged 54 at the time of his death, was a long-time lawmaker from Lviv Oblast who took part in the Orange Revolution in 2004 and formed self-defense volunteer units during the EuroMaidan Revolution in 2013-2014.

After the ousting of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych in the wake of EuroMaidan, Parubii was appointed National Security and Defense Council secretary. He held the position between February and August 2014, at the time when Russia occupied Crimea and launched its aggression in Donbas.

The politician then served as the first deputy parliament speaker between 2014 and 2016 and as the parliament speaker from 2016 until 2019. Since 2019, Parubii has been a member of ex-President Petro Poroshenko’s European Solidarity party.

From The Kyiv Independent - News from Ukraine, Eastern Europe via this RSS feed