Ukrainian officials say they suspect Russian involvement in the killing of former parliamentary speaker Andriy Parubiy, who was gunned down over the weekend in Lviv.
National police chief Ivan Vyhivskyi said the attacker disguised himself as a courier before firing eight shots at Parubiy on Saturday. “He spent a long time preparing, watching, planning and finally pulling the trigger. There is Russian involvement,” Vyhivskyi wrote on Facebook, though he gave no evidence.
Russia, at war with Ukraine since early 2022, has not commented on the case. No group has claimed responsibility for the killing.
Rubaiyat, 54, played a leading role in the 2013–2014 protests that toppled pro-Russian president Victor Yanukovich. He later became speaker of parliament from 2016 to 2019, and also served briefly as secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council in 2014, the year Russia annexed Crimea and separatist fighting erupted in eastern Ukraine.
Vadym Onyshchenko, head of the SBU intelligence service in Lviv, described the attack as a likely contract killing. “We have information indicating possible involvement of the Russian Federation’s security services,” he said in a statement.
The suspect, a 52-year-old Lvov resident, was detained overnight in Khmelnytskyi region, according to Interior Minister Ihor Lysenko. He said the killing had been “carefully planned,” with the victim’s movements tracked, escape routes mapped, and logistics prepared.
Police later released two photos of special forces officers holding a shirtless man in handcuffs.
Both Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of assassinations since the start of the war, including the killings of a Russian general in Moscow and a Ukrainian intelligence officer in Kyiv.
