Lviv, Ukraine – A Ukrainian former lawmaker, Iryna Farion, best known for her crusade to promote the Ukrainian language, was fatally shot on Friday by an unknown assailant in the western city of Lviv. Farion, 60, initially survived the assault but later died from her wounds in a hospital.
Authorities have launched a manhunt for the attacker, who fled the scene. Ukrainian officials have stated that an investigation is underway, treating the attack as an assassination. “All available surveillance cameras are being worked on, witness interviews are ongoing, and several districts are being surveyed. All leads are being investigated, including the one that leads to Russia,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on his official Telegram channel Saturday. “All necessary forces from the National Police of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Security Service have been deployed to search for the criminal.”
Farion served as a member of the Ukrainian parliament between 2012 and 2014 and was renowned for her campaigns to promote the use of the Ukrainian language by Ukrainian officials who spoke Russian. She controversially criticized Russian-speaking members of Ukraine’s Azov regiment who defended the port city of Mariupol in the first days of the full-scale invasion.
Police are considering “personal animosity” toward the former MP due to her linguistic and political activities as a likely motive behind the attack, said Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko, who will oversee the investigation in Lviv.
In other news, Ukrainian officials reported that 12 people were killed and three more injured in a series of Russian airstrikes targeting infrastructure in the country’s northeastern city of Synyekhurchenko early Saturday.
apnews.com
