Kiev, Sept 2, (dpa/GNA) – Ukrainian police said on Monday, they were following an initial lead over Russian involvement in the weekend assassination of former Ukrainian parliament speaker Andriy Parubiy, in the western city of Lviv.
“We are primarily investigating a Russian lead, a contract killing on the part of the Russian Federation,” Andriy Nyebytov, head of the Ukrainian criminal police, said in a statement.
Nyebytov said other avenues were also being pursued, and conclusions would be reached only once investigations were complete. “The crime was planned in detail, with preparation taking more than a month,” he said.
Ukraine’s SBU intelligence service supported the theory of a Russian lead.
“The crime shows the hallmarks of a contract killing,” SBU Lviv head Vadim Onishchenko said. He added that there was “operative information” on involvement by Russian intelligence services.
A 52-year-old man from Lviv was detained in the western city of Khmelnytskyi on Sunday, in connection with Parubiy’s assassination in broad daylight. The former parliamentary speaker and current member of parliament was shot several times on the street on Saturday.
Parubiy served as speaker between 2015 and 2019. He became known as one of the organizers of the pro-Western protests in 2013-14, known as the Euromaidan, that led to the fall of pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych.
He was seen as a firm opponent of any compromise in the war with Russia. Parubiy, along with other parliamentary deputies, survived an assassination attempt in December 2014.
GNA