MP Parubii assassination: investigators outline suspect profile and lines of inquiry

Law enforcement officials have not ruled out any lines of inquiry in the case of the murder of Andrii Parubii, an MP and former Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament), but have identified a Russian link as the priority.

Source: a briefing by law enforcement in Lviv on 1 September

Details: "We have not ruled out any line of inquiry, but our priority is to investigate information about a possible link to Russia," said Andrii Niebytov, Deputy Head of the National Police and Head of the Criminal Police.

Police are not disclosing whether the suspect has confessed or whether the murder weapon has been found. 

The detainee is a 52-year-old Lviv resident who did not have a permanent job. 

Andrii Niebytov said the man "had certain circumstances" to commit this crime but did not specify the motives. He declined to comment on social-media claims that "Russian secret services blackmailed the suspect with information about the whereabouts of his son, considered missing in action" and urged people to rely only on confirmed data.

Regarding the place of detention – Khmelnytskyi Oblast – the head of the criminal police said investigators do not rule out that the suspect intended to leave the country illegally. There is currently no information about any accomplices. 

The investigators also have no information as to whether the detainee had any contact with Andrii Parubii.

Niebytov and Vadym Onyshchenko, head of Ukraine's Security Service (SSU) Lviv Directorate, said that Parubii had not requested protection from either the police or the SSU.

Previously: 

• The National Police have published the first photos of the detained suspect. Ivan Vyhivskyi, Chief of the National Police, emphasised that this crime was not random and that there is a Russian connection involved.

Background:

• Andrii Parubii, a member of Ukrainian parliament and former speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of the 8th convocation, was killed in Lviv on 30 August.
• The Prosecutor General's Office reported that an unknown man fired several shots at the politician, killing him instantly. The attacker fled the scene. A special police operation codenamed Siren was launched in the city to locate and apprehend the murderer.
• Zelenskyy said Parubii's murder had been carefully planned.
• Law enforcement officials stated that there is currently no connection between the murder of MP Iryna Farion and this case.
• Zelenskyy announced on the night of 31 August-1 September that a suspect had been detained. The Interior Minister revealed that the suspect was detained in Khmelnytskyi Oblast.
• Mykola Meret, Head of Lviv Oblast Prosecutor's Office, served a 52-year-old Lviv resident who was detained with a notice of suspicion in the murder of a member of parliament. He stated that "the suspicion is based on objective evidence indicating that the detained person committed the murder of a member of parliament".
• Parubii will be buried on 2 September at Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv.

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