Editor’s note: This is a developing story and is being updated. The article contains graphic footage.
Andrii Parubii, a Ukrainian politician who previously served as the parliament speaker and played a prominent role in the EuroMaidan Revolution, was shot dead in Lviv on Aug. 30.
Earlier in the day, the National Police said that a political figure was murdered after a shooting in the western Ukrainian city. Iryna Herashchenko, a lawmaker from the European Solidarity party, subsequently confirmed for the Kyiv Independent that Parubii was the victim.
Authorities received an emergency call at around noon after the shooting in Lviv’s southern Frankivskyi city district, the police said. The victim died on the spot.
“Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko and Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko have just informed me about the first known circumstances of the terrible murder in Lviv,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said. “Andrii Parubii has died.”
Citing sources, Suspilne broadcaster reported that the suspected assailant was dressed as a delivery courier and rode an electric bicycle.
The attacker reportedly approached Parubii, shot at the politician eight times, and fled the scene on the bicycle. Seven shell casings were found at the crime scene, law enforcement sources told Suspilne.
The search for the shooter is underway in Lviv Oblast, Governor Maksym Kozytskyi said.
Prosecutors subsequently confirmed that an unknown man fired several shots at Parubii before fleeing. An operation to find the suspect is underway, and a murder investigation was launched, according to the statement.
Officials have not commented on the suspect’s identity or motive.
Andrii Parubii’s body after he was shot dead in Lviv, Ukraine, on Aug. 30, 2025. (Prosecutor General’s Office)
Parubii, born in 1971 in a town near Lviv, was a pro-independence activist in Soviet Ukraine who was arrested twice by Soviet authorities for his activism.
After Ukraine gained its independence, Parubii entered politics, being elected into the parliament for the first time in 2007. He participated in the Orange Revolution in 2004 and led self-defense volunteer units during the EuroMaidan Revolution in 2013-2014.
After the ousting of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych in the wake of EuroMaidan, Parubii was appointed secretary of the National Security and Defense Council. He held the position between February and August 2014, when Russia occupied Crimea and initiated the war in Donbas.
His role as the National Security and Defense Council secretary at the onset of Moscow’s aggression made him a common target of Russian propaganda and disinformation.
The politician then served as the first deputy parliament speaker between 2014 and 2016 and as the parliament speaker from 2016 until 2019. Since 2019, Parubii has served as a lawmaker for ex-President Petro Poroshenko’s European Solidarity party.
Ruslan Stefanchuk, the current parliament speaker, called Parubii a “consistent defender of Ukrainian statehood.”
“On behalf of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, I express my condolences to Andrii’s family and friends,” Stefanchuk said in a public statement. Parubii is survived by his wife and daughter.
“Our team is shocked. This is terror,” Heraschenko said in a statement published on European Solidarity’s Facebook page.
“Andrii was one of the founders of the modern Ukraine… principled and decent, patriotic, intelligent.”
The statement shared by the party suggested that Russia or its “fifth column” may have been responsible for the crime, pointing to Parubii’s firmly pro-Ukrainian stances.
Volodymyr Ariev, a European Solidarity lawmaker, took a more cautious view than some of his party colleagues.
“It is not yet known who did this. I do not rule anything out and do not want to speculate until we have information about the person who ordered it,” Ariev told the Kyiv Independent.
Authorities did not say whether Russia is suspected of involvement in the murder. The Kyiv Independent has reached out to security services for comment.
Kateryna Denisova contributed reporting.
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