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Ex-parliamentary speaker of Ukraine shot dead, Zelensky reacts to ‘horrific murder’

A manhunt for the killer is under way over the murder of Andriy Parubiy, whom Kyiv hails as ‘a patriot’ who defended Ukraine’s freedom

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Then speaker of the Supreme Council of Ukraine, Andriy Parubiy, speaks to members of parliament in Kyiv in 2018. Parubiy, who was shot dead in Lviv on Saturday, was one of the protest leaders in 2013-14 calling for closer ties with the European Union. Photo: AFP
Reuters

Ukrainian former parliamentary speaker Andriy Parubiy was shot dead in the western city of Lviv on Saturday, and a search was under way for the killer.

The Prosecutor General’s office said a gunman had fired several shots at Parubiy, killing him on the spot. The attacker fled and a manhunt was launched, it said.

Parubiy, 54, was a member of parliament, had been parliamentary speaker from April 2016 to August 2019, and was one of the leaders of protests in 2013-14 calling for closer ties with the European Union.
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He was also secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council from February to August 2014, a period when fighting began in eastern Ukraine and Russia annexed the Crimea peninsula.
Officials gave no immediate indication whether the murder had any direct link to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
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“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,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a social media post.

He sent his condolences to Parubiy’s family and loved ones, and added: “All necessary forces and means are engaged in the investigation and search for the killer.”

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