Suspected assassin of former parliamentary chairman detained in western Ukraine 

Ukrainian law enforcement has detained a man suspected of carrying out the broad daylight assassination of Andriy Parubiy, the former chairman of the country’s parliament, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Sunday evening.

Zelensky said that the suspect had already made an initial statement, while Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said that the unnamed man had been detained in the western Ukrainian Khmelnytskyi region.

“The crime was meticulously planned. The victim’s movements were known … and the escape route was thought out. … The assassin was in our sights within 24 hours of the murder and detained within 36 hours,” Klymenko said.

The Ukrainian police subsequently released photographs of the detainee being arrested, though his face was obscured and he was not named. Ukraine’s police chief, Ivan Vyhivskyi, said that he believed the crime “led back to Russia”, though he provided no further details.

Parubiy was assassinated as he walked down a street in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Saturday morning. The assassin, who was carrying a Glovo delivery service bag, shot him eight times at point blank range before making his escape on an electric bike.

Parubiy was one of the organisers of the 2014 Euromaidan protests against then-president Viktor Yanukovych, and headed the Maidan Self-Defence Unit formed at the height of the demonstrations. 

After Yanukovych fled to Russia, Parubiy was appointed secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, a position he held for several months. He later served as chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, from 2016 to 2019, and remained a member of the body until his death.