Prominent Ukrainian politician Andriy Parubiy shot dead in Lviv

Former Ukrainian parliament speaker Andriy Parubiy has been shot dead in Lviv, Ukrainian authorities have said.

Police received reports of the shooting in the Frankivsk district of Lviv, western Ukraine, at around midday local time on Saturday. Unconfirmed reports suggest he was shot multiple times by a gunman dressed as a courier on an e-bike.

Parubiy, 54, rose to prominence as part of Ukraine’s Euromaidan movement, which advocated for closer ties with the European Union (EU) and brought down pro-Russian former president Viktor Yanukovych in 2014.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described it as a “terrible murder” and sent his condolences.

Ukraine’s national police, Lviv Regional police, and the security service are investigating. It remains unclear who was behind the attack.

Parubiy was a pivotal figure in the Euromaidan movement, which began after the Ukrainian government refused to sign an association agreement with the EU in late 2013.

He later became secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, during a period when pro-Russian separatists began fighting in eastern Ukraine – and when Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the annexation of the Crimea peninsula.

Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Parubiy joined Ukraine’s territorial defence.

In a statement on Telegram, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha described Parubiy as “a patriot and statesman who made an enormous contribution to the defence of Ukraine’s freedom, independence and sovereignty. He was a man who rightfully belongs in the history books.”

Former President Petro Poroshenko said the killing of Parubiy, was “a shot fired at the heart of Ukraine”.

“Andriy was a great man and a true friend. That is why they take revenge, that is what they are afraid of,” he wrote on Telegram, pointing to Parubiy’s contribution to building out the Ukrainian army.

In a statement, Zelensky wrote on Telegram: “The Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Ihor Klymenko and Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko have just reported on the first known circumstances of the terrible murder in Lviv. Andriy Parubiy was killed. My condolences to his family and friends.

“All necessary forces and means are being deployed to investigate and find the killer.”