Former Ukrainian nationalist MP Iryna Farion has died after being shot in the street in Lviv, a city in western Ukraine.
Farion, a 60-year-old linguistic professor, stirred controversy in 2023 by insisting that “true patriots” of Ukraine should never speak Russian.
Her shooting on Friday is under investigation, and police suspect it may have been a targeted attack.
The assailant has not been identified, and a power outage affected CCTV coverage in the area, complicating the investigation.
Lviv Regional Governor Maksym Kozytskyi announced on Telegram that Farion passed away in the hospital following the shooting.
Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko stated that the killing was not spontaneous, and authorities are actively searching for a motive.
“We already have several versions. The main ones, I can say, are [linked to Farion’s] social and political activities and personal dislike,” he said in a statement via the Telegram message service.
“We do not rule out that the murder has a commissioned character,” he added.
On Saturday President Volodymyr Zelensky said a major police operation was under way.
“All versions are being investigated, including the one that leads to Russia,” he said.
The hardline nationalist Svoboda (Freedom) political party Ms Farion was a member of blamed Russia directly for the killing.
“Moscow shoots in the temple for the Ukrainian language,” it said in a statement.
In 2023, Iryna Farion declared that true patriots of Ukraine should avoid speaking Russian in any context, including on the front lines, branding it as the language of the aggressor nation.
She labeled Russian as “the language of the enemy, who kills, discriminates, insults, and rapes me,” and questioned,
“How crazy should you be to fight in the Ukrainian army and speak Russian?”
Her comments sparked significant controversy in Ukraine, with critics accusing her of inciting hatred based on linguistic preferences. As a result, she was dismissed from her position at a university in western Ukraine and was subject to an investigation by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).
However, in May, the Lviv Court of Appeal reportedly ruled in favor of her reinstatement to her position.