Former Ukrainian MP killed in suspected assassination as civilians die in Russian airstrikes
kyiv, Ukraine (AP) — A former Ukrainian lawmaker best known for her crusade to promote the Ukrainian language has died after being shot in the street by an unknown assailant.
Iryna Farion, 60, survived the attack in the western city of Lviv on Friday but died of her injuries in hospital. A manhunt is underway for her attacker, who fled the scene. Ukrainian authorities said an investigation was underway and the attack was being treated as murder.
“All available surveillance cameras are in operation, witness interviews are underway and several districts are under surveillance. All leads are being explored, including the one leading to Russia,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on his official Telegram channel on Saturday.
“All necessary forces of the Ukrainian National Police and the Ukrainian Security Service have been deployed to search for the criminal.”
Farion Farion was a member of the Ukrainian parliament between 2012 and 2014 and was best known for her campaigns to promote the use of the Ukrainian language by Ukrainian officials who spoke Russian. She controversially criticized the Russian-speaking members of the Ukrainian Azov Regiment who defended the port city of Mariupol in the early days of the full-scale invasion.
Police believe the attack could have been motivated by “personal animosity” toward the former MP because of her social and political activities, said Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko, who will oversee the investigation in Lviv.
Elsewhere in Ukraine, at least two people were killed and three others injured after a Russian missile strike on infrastructure in the northeastern Kharkiv region, Governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Saturday.
Ukrainian officials also confirmed that the death toll after a Russian strike on the city of Mykolaiv on FridayThe death toll now stands at four, including a child, the city’s mayor, Oleksandr Sienkevych, said.
Writing on social media about the Mykolaiv strike, Zelensky said a projectile hit a playground next to an apartment building.
“Russia proves every day, through its terrorism, that ‘pressure’ is not enough,” he said. “This destruction of lives must stop. We need new solutions to strengthen our defenses. Russia must feel the power of the world.”
The Ukrainian Air Force said on Saturday that Russia launched four missiles and 17 drones overnight, of which 13 drones were shot down.
The attacks left thousands of people without electricity and running water in the Poltava region of central Ukraine, Governor Filip Pronin said. Russia has repeatedly targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, causing power outages across the country.
A pulverizing Russian attack in recent months has forced kyiv’s troops to withdraw from certain cities and villages of the eastern Donetsk region,
The latest targets are the mining town of Toretsk and the city of Pokrovsk, where Russia is stepping up its assaults. Ukrainian forces repelled 20 and 27 attacks on those areas in 24 hours, respectively, the Ukrainian General Staff said Friday. That is almost double the number of attacks recorded in other hot spots along the front line, it said.
The Russian Defense Ministry also announced Saturday that it had shot down 26 Ukrainian drones over the Rostov region in southern Russia, several hundred kilometers from the front line. Three more drones were destroyed over the Belgorod region, as well as one over the Smolensk region, it said. No casualties were reported.
Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England, contributed to this report. —— Full coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
