Apprehended Killer Of Ukrainian Lawmaker Says It Was ‘Revenge Against Government’ For Loss Of His Son

Earlier this week a suspect was arrested over the murder of former Ukrainian parliamentary speaker and hardline nationalist Andriy Parubiy, who was shot execution-style in the streets of Lviv on Saturday. A man wearing a helmet pulled up behind Parubiy on an e-bike, hopped off and shot him in the back of the head, before fleeing. It all happened in broad daylight near the victim’s home and shocked the Ukrainian public.

By Tuesday a suspect was arrested and he confessed to the murder, Ukrainian President Zelensky announced. “The suspect has given an initial testimony,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram. “Urgent investigative actions are currently under way to establish all the circumstances of this murder.”

Initially, the killer was widely assumed to have been linked to Russia, given Parubiy has long been on a Russian ‘most wanted’ list for his role in the 2014 Maidan coup events, as well as overseeing far-right militias in the Donbass.

But the man in custody hasn’t been found to be linked to Russia. Instead, the 52-year-old resident of Lviv, whose name is still being withheld by authorities pending the investigation, described his killing the ex-lawmaker as an act of “revenge” against government authorities.

Police say the attack was “carefully planned” – after which the killer fled to a nearby forest and burned his clothes, and disposed of the e-bike.

During an initial court appearance, the suspect called the killing as his “personal revenge against the Ukrainian authorities” and said he shot Parubiy “because he was nearby”. He further told reporters outside the courtroom, “Yes, I admit I killed him.”

The murdered MP Andriy Parubiy had served in the same unit in 2022 as the son of the suspect in his killing, MP Mykola Kniazhytskyi reported. pic.twitter.com/HPYinVNRUc

— Marta Havryshko (@HavryshkoMarta) September 2, 2025

And importantly, he denied that he had been in contact with Russian intelligence or any foreign service in carrying out the killing. Authorities are looking at every association, however.

According to a summary of statements reported by CNN, the man was angry that he lost a son to the war:

The suspect told journalists that he would like a verdict to be issued quickly so that he can be “exchanged for prisoners of war so that I can go and find my son’s body,” the video from the courtroom shows.

The man’s son was a junior sergeant in Ukraine’s armed forces who was killed in combat, according the suspect’s ex-wife Olena Cherninka. “My son was a hero who died for Ukraine,” Cherninka wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday, claiming that she raised the soldier, named Mykhailo-Victor, herself, with very little input from his father.

The father and son had argued about the younger man fighting in the war, she said, claiming that the soldier had blocked his father everywhere.

“Yes, I admit — I killed him. This is my personal revenge against the Ukrainian authorities,” declared the suspect in the murder of MP Andriy Parubiy in the court. pic.twitter.com/3DTDkaVq93

— Marta Havryshko (@HavryshkoMarta) September 2, 2025

Based on the emerging testimony of the crime so far, the shooter was outraged at Ukrainian authorities for recruiting his son, or else for allowing him to go to war – after the father apparently sought to thwart his son from joining the armed forces. 

Now it appears the man blames Ukrainian officials for his son’s death, and sought to take vengeance on a well known public figure who is widely considered an anti-Russian hardliner and hawk. However, Ukrainian investigators have reportedly not ruled out that the man is possibly being blackmailed by Russian intelligence, or some other similar scenario.

Many observers immediately suspected that this was a Russian assassination operation…

We are at war in Ukraine. We in Great Britain know only too well how Russia uses every means possible for assassinations—chemical, radioactive, you name it.

This footage shows a killer opening fire with a pistol at Andriy Parubiy, former Speaker of Ukraine’s Parliament and key… pic.twitter.com/7yuL6ovQSl

— Shaun Pinner (@olddog100ua) August 30, 2025

The whole episode is representative of rising anger and frustration among the Ukrainian population, amid a grinding war against a superior-armed Russia, and with no end in sight as casualties mount to historic proportions. Officers’ recruiting tactics, which have involved nabbing eligible young men from city streets and sending them to the front lines, remain as unpopular as ever.