The suspect being arrested. Photo: National Police of Ukraine
The recently detained suspect in the murder of Andrii Parubii, an MP and former chairman of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament), confessed during initial questioning and disclosed his contact with Russian representatives, Radio Liberty journalists have learned.
Source: Radio Liberty’s Ukrainian Service, citing law enforcement sources
Details: The suspect said that his son, a serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, went missing in 2023 on the Bakhmut front.
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Quote: “After that, he began monitoring Russian social media groups to find more information about his son’s fate. Later he started communicating with Russian representatives [not yet identified by the investigation – ed.], who are believed to have told him that his son had died.
The suspect said that the Russian representatives in these conversations had justified Russia’s actions in the war against Ukraine and instead blamed Ukrainian officials for starting it.”
Details: He also told investigators that he informed his Russian handlers that he lived in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv and mentioned Andrii Parubii, whom he claimed to have seen “repeatedly”.
Continuing his communication with Russian representatives, the suspect began preparing for the murder: he obtained a weapon, bought a bicycle and helmet, and used forged documents to buy a car, which he then used to track the politician.
Radio Liberty reported that the suspect provided this information during initial interrogations, though investigators are still verifying it.
In addition, journalists from the Lviv newspaper Vysokyi Zamok, citing their sources, reported that “the Russians, taking advantage of the father’s tragedy, told him that they would hand over his son’s body in exchange for the murder of any prominent Ukrainian politician”.
Previously:
The National Police have released the first photos of the detained suspect. Ivan Vyhivskyi, Chief of the National Police, emphasised that this crime was not random and that there is a Russian connection involved.
During a briefing on 1 September, law enforcement officials said that they had not ruled out any lines of inquiry in the case of the murder of Parubii, but had identified a Russian link as the priority.
Background:
Andrii Parubii, a member of the Ukrainian parliament and former speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of the 8th convocation, was killed in Lviv on 30 August.
The Prosecutor General’s Office reported that an unknown man fired several shots at the politician, killing him instantly. The attacker fled the scene. A special police operation codenamed Siren was launched in the city to locate and apprehend the murderer.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Parubii’s murder had been carefully planned.
Law enforcement officials stated that there is currently no connection between the murder of MP Iryna Farion and this case.
Zelenskyy announced on the night of 31 August-1 September that a suspect had been detained. The Interior Minister revealed that the suspect was detained in Khmelnytskyi Oblast.
Mykola Meret, Head of Lviv Oblast Prosecutor’s Office, served a 52-year-old Lviv resident who was detained with a notice of suspicion in the murder of a member of parliament. He stated that “the suspicion is based on objective evidence indicating that the detained person committed the murder of a member of parliament”.
Parubii will be buried on 2 September at Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv.
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