Ukraine's interior minister on former MP Iryna Farion's murder: Shooter had prepared in advance

Ukraine's Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko has stated that the murder of former Ukrainian lawmaker Iryna Farion was premeditated.

Source: Klymenko on the investigation into the murder of Iryna Farion during a briefing

Quote: "The shooter was preparing in advance, and it was not a spontaneous murder.

Time will tell for how long he was preparing – perhaps a week or two."

Details: Klymenko noted that the police in Lviv and Lviv Oblast are working together with investigators, operatives, and officers from the Security Service of Ukraine who have arrived from Kyiv.

Quote: "We are working and hope to have the first results of our work by the morning.

We already have several lines of enquiry. The main ones, I can say, are [Farion’s] public and political activities and [the assailant’s] personal animosity."

Details: Klymenko noted that there had been problems with identifying the person who was waiting for Farion at the entrance to an apartment block caused by interruptions in the operation of video cameras due to a power outage.

Klymenko thanked the witnesses who had provided information about the crime.

He did not rule out the possibility that Farion's murder was ordered by Russian secret services.

Quote: "We are doing everything possible to ensure that this person who committed the crime does not escape justice."

Background: On the evening of 19 July, an attempt was made on the life of former MP Iryna Farion on Masaryk Street in Lviv.

After the attempted assassination, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that Ukraine's Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko and Vasyl Maliuk, Head of Ukraine's Security Service, were promptly reporting on the search for the attacker.

Lviv Mayor Andrii Sadovyi and Ukraine's National Police reported that former MP Iryna Farion, the target of an assassination attempt on 19 July, had died in hospital.

Previously:

• On 12 February 2024, the Halytskyi District Court of Lviv refused to reinstate former MP Iryna Farion as a professor of the Ukrainian Language Department of the Institute of Humanities at the Lviv Polytechnic National University.
• On 15 November, Lviv Polytechnic National University dismissed Farion from her position as a professor of the Ukrainian Language Department after she insulted Ukrainian soldiers for speaking Russian.
• Sources in law enforcement agencies confirmed to Ukrainska Pravda that the reason for her dismissal was a violation of Article 41 of the Labour Code: committing an immoral offence by an employee performing educational functions that are incompatible with continuing this work.
• The Security Service of Ukraine initiated criminal proceedings and ordered a number of examinations of Farion's remarks and publications.
• Farion reacted to her dismissal from Lviv Polytechnic University by stating that she was preparing a lawsuit.
• On 29 May, the Lviv Court of Appeal ruled to reinstate Farion as a professor of the Ukrainian Language Department at the Institute of Humanities at Lviv Polytechnic National University.

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