Lviv — Former Ukrainian parliamentary speaker and leading Euromaidan figure Andriy Parubiy was assassinated in broad daylight on Saturday, a killing that has sent shockwaves through Ukraine’s already battered political landscape.
Authorities said the 54-year-old lawmaker was gunned down outside his home in the Ivano-Frankivsk district of Lviv, a western city once considered shielded from the violence that has engulfed much of the country. Witnesses reported that the attacker disguised himself as a food courier before firing at least eight shots, striking Parubiy multiple times. The assailant then fled on an electric bicycle, evading police pursuit.
Parubiy, a co-founder of the Social-National Party of Ukraine in the 1990s and one of the most visible organizers of the 2013–2014 Euromaidan protests, rose to prominence as secretary of the National Security and Defense Council during the upheaval that ousted then-president Viktor Yanukovych. He later served as chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, from 2016 to 2019.
While hailed in Kyiv and Western capitals as a defender of Ukraine’s sovereignty, Parubiy was widely condemned in Russia, where officials and media outlets accused him of orchestrating violent crackdowns in Donbass that resulted in the deaths of hundreds. Moscow has repeatedly painted him as emblematic of what it calls the nationalist extremism that took root in Ukraine after Euromaidan.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the assassination and vowed that the killer would be caught, calling the act “a horrific murder” that demanded immediate justice. Security services said all available resources had been mobilized for the manhunt, but as of Saturday evening, no suspect had been apprehended.
The killing underscores Ukraine’s growing sense of vulnerability as the war with Russia grinds into its third year. It also highlights deepening internal fissures, with political elites under increasing threat not only from battlefield dangers but from targeted violence inside the country’s western heartland. Analysts warn the assassination could destabilize Ukraine’s fragile political balance at a time when Kyiv is struggling to maintain international support while contending with battlefield setbacks.
According to Lenta, Russian commentators were quick to frame the assassination as justice long overdue, pointing to Parubiy’s controversial role in Donbass and branding him a war criminal. Ukrainian authorities, however, have so far refrained from attributing responsibility, focusing instead on the immediate investigation and security concerns across Lviv and beyond.
