By Our Reporter,
UKRAINE
A former MP and Ukrainian nationalist has been shot dead in the streets of the western city of Lviv.
Police say the killing of Iryna Farion, 60, on Friday, may have been a targeted attack, and that they are currently investigating the circumstances of the shooting.
Police have not yet identified an attacker, with police saying a power outage affected CCTV cameras in the area.
Maksym Kozytskyi, regional governor of Kyiv, said on the secure messaging platform, Telegram that Ms Farion died in hospital after the shooting.
Ihor Klymenko, Ukraine’s interior minister said it was “not a spontaneous killing” and that police were looking for a motive.
“We already have several versions,” he said on Telegram. “The main ones, I can say, are [linked to Farion’s] social and political activities and personal dislike.”
Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, said on Telegram: “Any violence must be condemned and whoever is guilty of this attack must bear full responsibility”.
Ms Farion, who was a member of the hardline nationalist Svoboda political party, suggested in 2023 that “true patriots” of Ukraine should not speak Russian, causing controversy.
She also described Russian as the “language of the enemy, who kills, discriminates, insults and rapes me”.
“How crazy should you be to fight in the Ukrainian army and speak Russian?” she added. She was dismissed from her post at a western Ukraine university and was under investigation by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).
But a Lviv court reinstated her to her position at the university, according to reports.
Svoboda blamed Russia for the killing, saying in a statement: “Moscow shoots in the temple for the Ukrainian language”.
