KYIV, UKRAINE— Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday morning that a suspect has been detained in the murder of former parliamentary speaker Andriy Parubiy. This atrocity has shocked the whole country. On Saturday, someone shot and killed Parubiy, who was 54 years old, in the western city of Lviv. Zelenskyy said the event was “a horrific murder” and “a matter of security in a country at war.”
Zelenskyy verified the arrest in a message sent on Telegram and congratulated the police for their quick action. He said that the suspect has given an “initial testimony,” and that “urgent investigative actions are currently underway to establish all the circumstances of this murder.”
Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko announced on Telegram that the person who is said to have shot someone was held overnight in the Khmelnytskyi region of western Ukraine. Klymenko said the crime was “carefully planned,” with the criminal studying Parubiy’s movements, mapping out a path, and coming up with a way to get away. He said that more information couldn’t be released just now.
From April 2016 to August 2019, Andriy Parubiy was the speaker of the Ukrainian parliament. He was a well-known politician. He was also a well-known leader of the Euromaidan Revolution rallies in 2013 and 2014, which called for stronger connections with the European Union. Ukrainian politicians have strongly condemned his killing. Former President Petro Poroshenko called it “a shot fired at the heart of Ukraine.”