Former Ukraine parliament speaker laid to rest after assassination

By Dan Peleschuk

LVIV, Ukraine (Reuters) -Ukrainians paid tribute to prominent politician Andriy Parubiy as he was buried on Tuesday after being gunned down in a daytime attack on Saturday, the second assassination in the western city of Lviv in just over a year.

As mourners streamed across cobblestone streets, the motives behind the killing of Parubiy, who played a key role in a pro-democracy uprising in 2014 that ousted a pro-Russian president, and later served as parliament speaker, remained unclear.

Ukrainian police, who have detained the alleged gunman, said on Monday they suspected Russian involvement. Moscow, which has waged a full-scale war in Ukraine since February 2022, has not commented on that claim.

In courtroom footage broadcast on television on Tuesday, the alleged assassin, a Ukrainian man, admitted to shooting Parubiy, a 54-year-old sitting lawmaker, and described it as "my personal revenge" against the state. He did not elaborate.

The suspect said he wanted to be included in a prisoner exchange with Russia to find the body of his son, a Ukrainian soldier who was killed, adding that he had not been recruited by Moscow for the murder.

A Lviv court ordered the man into custody for 60 days pending investigation.

Local residents interviewed by Reuters on Tuesday praised Parubiy, a Lviv native who launched his career in nationalist politics and later joined a more centrist opposition party.

The city of around 700,000 people has been a historical cradle of nationalist and cultural movements in Ukraine aimed especially at resisting Russian rule.

"He was a big patriot of Ukraine - that's all you need to say," said 82-year-old resident Orest Kokovskyi, who was dressed in a traditional embroidered shirt.

2024 ASSASSINATION

Saturday's attack followed the July 2024 public shooting in Lviv of nationalist politician and linguist Iryna Farion, who was known for her sometimes contentious efforts to promote the Ukrainian language.

An 18-year-old Ukrainian man is currently on trial for her murder. Police said after Parubiy's death on Saturday that they did not immediately see a connection between the two crimes.

On Tuesday, local residents such as Lidia Boiko, 44, said they believed the two assassinations were tied to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. "They (the Russians) are destroying the best representatives of Ukraine so that...we don't have a chance to develop," Boiko said.

(Writing by Dan Peleschuk; editing by Mark Heinrich)