Prominent Ukrainian Politician Assassinated in Broad Daylight
Andriy Parubiy was a key organizer of the 2014 Maidan coup...
This article originally appeared on ZeroHedge and was republished with permission.
Guest post by Tyler Durden
Former Ukrainian parliamentary speaker Andriy Parubiy - a prominent voice on the hardline Ukrainian right - was shot and killed in the western city of Lviv on Saturday, grabbing headlines in Ukraine and internationally, and resulting in an urgent manhunt for the assailant. He had been walking casually near his home on a sidewalk when he was executed in the street.
The country's Prosecutor General’s Office described Parubiy was fatally shot multiple times by an unidentified gunman who quickly fled the scene. It appeared to be a professional hit or assassination, given authorities described a gunman dressed as a courier on an e-bike as the killer. The assassin never removes his helmet during the attack from behind.
The 54-year old Parubiy served as speaker of Ukraine’s parliament from April 2016 to August 2019 and was a prominent figure and organizer of 2014 Euromaidan protests (or Maidan coup) and anti-Russian/pro-EU coup events which ousted President Viktor Yanukovych, and in many ways led to the current Russia-Ukraine war.
He had also held the position of secretary of the National Security and Defense Council in early 2014, during the events of the civil/proxy war in the Donbass, as well as when Russia declared full sovereignty over Crimea.
President Volodymyr Zelensky within hours after confirmed the assassination and condemned it as a "horrific murder" and said "all necessary forces and means" would be used to uncover the plot and assailant.
"Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko and Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko have just reported on the first known circumstances of a horrific murder in Lviv. Andriy Parubiy has been killed," Zelensky solemnly announced on social media. The shooting happened at around noon local time.
Parubiy is already being hailed as a national hero and "patriot" - including by Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, who said he "belongs in the history books". According to more:
National police said the shooting in Lviv was reported at around noon. Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said finding the killer and establishing the circumstances of the attack was of outmost importance.
"This is a matter of security in a country at war, where, as we can see, there are no completely safe places," he wrote on Telegram.
Tributes poured in from colleagues in parliament and the government, praising Parubiy's contribution to Ukraine's fight for sovereignty and independence as one of the leaders of what became known as the Euromaidan protests in 2013-14.
CCTV footage was quickly released of the killing, in hopes of finding a suspect...
While it's likely that Ukrainian officials and media will point the finger at Russian intelligence or a pro-Russian assassination operation, there's another possibility which independent observers have already raised: infighting among Ukraine's hardline, far right and neo-Nazi factions.
Journalist and author Mark Ames wrote that this is an "early preview of post-war Ukraine" - and possibly a warning to those Ukrainian leaders willing to make territorial compromise with Russia.
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Moon of Alabama blog also suspects this could more likely be an internal fight for the spoils at a moment Russia is winning the war, and as the country's Western backers are frustrated and still figuring out what's next:
About a year ago another prominent rightwing person, Iryna Farion, was also killed in Lviv.
Parubiy was the organizer and commander of the fascist militia during the Maidan coup in February 2014. During those days several snipers from Georgia, stationed at the Hotel Ukraina which was under opposition control, fired and killed policemen as well as protesters.
Video from those days showed Parubiy supervising the situation as the snipers, with their weapon cases, were leaving the hotel.
Below: Outline of Parubiy's bio, and his Maidan coup links, as he's been very active in organizing anti-Russia political action and even violence over the past decade-plus...
But again, all of this might also suggest he's long been a prime target for assassination by Russian intelligence. This remains a likely scenario, but for now no motives for the killing have been released by Ukrainian authorities, and there is only speculation and rumor at this point.
Throughout the war there's been tit-for-tat assassinations of prominent figures, with most of them of late being against Russian figures and on Russian soil. Russia’s Interior Ministry back in 2023 had officially placed Parubiy on its wanted list, accusing him of war crimes in Donbass, and charged him in absentia.
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