Former speaker of Ukraine’s parliament Andriy Parubiy was killed in Lviv, the head of the Lviv Regional Military Administration (OVA), Maksym Kozytskyi, said on Telegram on Saturday, August 30.
Shortly before that, Ukraine’s National Police said that a “well-known public and political figure” born in 1971 had died following a shooting in the city’s Sykhiv district, without naming the person.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later announced the politician’s death.
“Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko and Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko have just reported the first known circumstances of the horrific killing in Lviv. Andriy Parubiy has been killed. My condolences to his family and friends,” he wrote on Telegram, adding that “all necessary forces and resources” have been deployed to investigate and find the gunman.
According to preliminary reports in several Ukrainian media outlets, including UNIAN, the gunman was dressed like a food-delivery courier. “According to journalist Vitaliy Hlahola, eyewitnesses claim that a Glovo courier hid his pistol in a bag after shooting at the former speaker of the Rada and left the scene on an electric bicycle,” the report said, citing police sources who said the politician was shot eight times.
“Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi urged journalists not to seek additional comment on Parubiy’s killing,” UNIAN reported. Seven shell casings were found at the scene, RBC-Ukraine reported. Citing the head of the medical team that responded, Ukrinform said Parubiy showed no signs of life when medics arrived. “The injuries sustained were incompatible with life,” the agency reported, citing the doctors’ conclusion.
Parubiy played a prominent role in organizing the Euromaidan protests in 2013–2014, serving as commandant of the “Maidan Self-Defense” units.
In early 2014, he headed Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) before resigning a few months later
Some Ukrainian media, including the newspaper Zerkalo Nedeli, linked his resignation to disagreements with then-President Petro Poroshenko.
From 2016 to 2019, Parubiy served as speaker of the Verkhovna Rada and was a multi-term member of parliament.
