Suspect admits to killing Ukraine's ex-parliament speaker
The suspect detained over the murder of former parliament speaker Andrii Parubii confessed to the crime in comments for the media on Sept. 2, calling the crime a "revenge against Ukrainian authorities."
Parubii, a 54-year-old long-time politician and a prominent figure in the EuroMaidan Revolution, was shot dead in Lviv on Aug. 30 by an assailant disguised as a courier.
Ukrainian authorities reported on Sept. 1 that the 52-year-old suspect from Lviv — whose name was not disclosed — was detained in neighboring Khmelnytskyi Oblast, noting that the crime was carefully prepared and possibly linked to Russian intelligence services.
"I admit, I killed him. And I want to ask to be exchanged for (Ukrainian) prisoners of war so that I can go and find my son's body," the man told journalists from behind a glass cell.
According to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the man established contact with Russia while trying to find information about the status of his son, a Ukrainian soldier who disappeared near Bakhmut in 2023. Russian contacts then reportedly informed him of his son's death.
Citing its sources, Channel 5 reported that the suspect was "blackmailed" by Russian intelligence services using information about the whereabouts of his son's body.
The man denied claims that he would be blackmailed by Russian intelligence services or be directly working with them in comments to journalists. When asked why he killed Parubii specifically, he retorted that the politician "was nearby."
The suspect in the attack on MP Parubiy admitted to killing the politician. He called his actions "revenge against the Ukrainian authorities" and denied reports that Russian special services had blackmailed him, a hromadske correspondent reports
— Hromadske Int. (@Hromadske) September 2, 2025
Video: Olha Denysiaka / hromadske pic.twitter.com/pvBb78DZMt
"If I lived in Vinnytsia, it would have been Petia," he said, in possible reference to former President Petro Poroshenko.
A Lviv court arrested the suspect for the initial period of 60 days without the right to bail, as the investigation is ongoing.
Parubii, whose funeral service took place earlier on Sept. 2 at Lviv's St. George's Cathedral, was a well-known activist, politician, and government official who participated in the Orange Revolution in 2004 and led self-defense volunteer groups during the EuroMaidan Revolution in 2013-2014.
After the ousting of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych during EuroMaidan, Parubii was appointed secretary of the National Security and Defense Council. He held the position between February and August 2014, when Russia occupied Crimea and initiated the war in Donbas.
His role as the National Security and Defense Council secretary at the onset of Moscow's aggression made him a common target of Russian propaganda and disinformation.
The politician then served as the first deputy parliament speaker between 2014 and 2016 and as the parliament speaker from 2016 until 2019. Since 2019, Parubii has served as a lawmaker for Poroshenko's European Solidarity party.
