LVIV – Crowds of mourners were packed into the baroque-rococo St. George’s Cathedral in Lviv, western Ukraine, on September 2, for the funeral of former parliament speaker Andriy Parubiy, who was gunned down in the city days earlier.
The 54-year-old, who was still a lawmaker for the opposition European Solidarity party, was shot dead at around noon while walking along a city street on August 30.
Later, Parubiy’s suspected killer was in court elsewhere in the city. The court ruled that 52-year-old Lviv resident Mykhailo Stelnikov would be held in pretrial detention until October 30.
Stelnikov spoke to reporters before the hearing and said he had killed Parubiy, calling his actions “personal revenge against the Ukrainian authorities.”
He also stated that media reports that he was blackmailed by Russian special services were not true, and he had not worked for them. Stelnikov said he chose Parubiy as his victim because he “was nearby.”
He added that he hoped to be involved a prisoner exchange with Russia, so that he could search for his son’s body there.
Earlier, law enforcement sources told RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service that he had claimed he was in contact with individuals linked to Russia while searching for his missing soldier son.
The sources said he began monitoring Russian social networks in 2023 after learning his son had gone missing in Ukraine’s Bakhmut area where he had been fighting invading Russian forces.
The man claimed that he then came into contact with unidentified Russian representatives who allegedly told him his son had been killed.
The sources said the man claimed the Russians tried to justify Moscow’s war, blaming Kyiv for Moscow’s unprovoked invasion, and encouraged him to act against Ukrainian officials.
Parubiy played a prominent role in the Maidan demonstrations, which erupted in late 2013 when President Viktor Yanukovych opted to forego closer ties with the European Union and move closer to Russia. The protests culminated in violent clashes with police in February 2014, and Yanukovych fled the country.
Parubiy was also an important figure in earlier Orange Revolution in 2004, which began when Yanukovych was declared the winner of a disputed presidential election. His victory was ultimately overturned.
He served as speaker of the Verkhovna Rada between 2016 and 2019. In recent years, he served as a lawmaker in the political party of former President Petro Poroshenko.
