An 18-year-old man suspected of shooting former Ukrainian deputy Iryna Farion in Lviv last week has been detained in the city of Dnipro, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Telegram on Thursday.
Zelensky said that the police investigation into Farion’s murder was still ongoing and that the suspect’s identity had not yet been disclosed. Ukrainian police previously published a photo of an individual who was seen sitting outside the politician’s home for hours at a time in the two weeks before the assassination, though it is not known if this was the person who was detained.
“I instructed the Interior Minister to present all details to the public,” Zelensky said. “I am grateful to each and every person who provided more facts … and brought the full truth closer.”
Shortly after Zelensky’s statement, Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said that the suspect was a resident of the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro who had rented at least three apartments in Lviv, in the country’s west, while preparing the attack on Farion, and that the police had found the perpetrator based on his photograph and CCTV footage from the surrounding area.
Zelensky described the operation to detain the suspect as “highly challenging”, adding that it had involved hundreds of police officers, the Security Service of Ukraine, and several other agencies working to solve the murder.
The assailant shot Farion in the head on Friday evening and fled the scene. She died later that day in hospital.
Farion was a controversial figure and a nationalist who advocated for the use of the Ukrainian language in Ukraine. She drew criticism in November for saying that she considered Russian-speaking members of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to be Russian, not Ukrainian.
The Ukrainian police are examining unverified claims that linked Farion’s murder to Russian neo-Nazi group National-Socialism/White Power (NS/WP), which was reported to be behind the killing by pro-Kremlin Telegram channels.
A video was published on a Telegram channel affiliated with NS/WP on 24 July alongside a manifesto that said Farion was a “racial traitor”, the author of which also claimed responsibility for her murder.