Former Ukrainian parliament speaker shot dead in Lviv

As a search was being conducted for the attacker, a well-known Ukrainian politician and former parliament speaker was shot dead in western Ukraine, according to officials.

Andriy Parubiy, who previously served as the country’s national security and defense council’s secretary, was killed on Saturday in Lviv.

A gunman shot Parubiy several times, killing him “on the spot,” according to the Prosecutor General’s office. According to the report, the attacker fled and a manhunt was launched.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, expressed his condolences to Parubiy’s family and loved ones and called the killing a “horrendous murder.”

Zelenskyy wrote on social media that “all necessary forces and means are involved in the investigation and search for the killer.”

Parubiy, 54, was a member of the parliamentary body from April 2016 to August 2019.

He also spearheaded the 2014 and 2013 mass protests in Ukraine that urged closer ties with the EU.

The first known details of the horrifying murder in Lviv have just been revealed by Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs, Ihor Klymenko, and prosecutor general Ruslan Kravchenko. Assassination of Andrei Parubiy My thoughts are with his family and loved ones.

All necessary means and forces…

A potential motive for the fatal shooting was not immediately made public by Ukrainian authorities.

Finding the killer and establishing the circumstances surrounding the attack were crucial, according to Lviv’s mayor, Andriy Sadovyi.

In a nation at war, where there are no absolute safe havens, he wrote on Telegram.

During the 2013-2014 protest movement, colleagues in parliament and the government praised Parubiy’s contribution to Ukraine’s fight for sovereignty and independence.

Petro Poroshenko, the former president of Ukraine, claimed in a Telegram post that his death was “a shot fired at the heart of Ukraine.”

“Andriy was a wonderful man and friend in person. He praised Parubiy’s contribution to the development of the Ukrainian army, blaming the fact that they seek revenge and that is what they are afraid of.

Parubiy was referred to as “a patriot and statesman who made a significant contribution to the defense of Ukraine’s freedom, independence, and sovereignty,” according to Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha.

On Telegram, Sybiha wrote that “he was a man who rightfully belongs in the history books.”