KYIV – Ukrainian authorities have detained an 18-year-old man in connection with the killing of Iryna Farion, a former nationalist lawmaker, who was shot in the head near her flat in Lviv on July 19. The arrest was confirmed by President Volodymyr Zelensky on July 25.
Farion, 60, a controversial figure known for her ultra-nationalist views and criticisms of Russian speakers, was a former MP for the Svoboda party. She regularly admonished officials and military personnel for using Russian instead of Ukrainian.
“An 18-year-old boy has been detained,” Zelensky announced on Telegram, noting that Interior Minister Igor Klymenko had briefed him about the arrest.
Farion, who was also a professor at Lviv’s Institute of the Humanities and Social Sciences, specializing in the Ukrainian language, had a prominent presence online as a YouTube blogger and frequent television commentator. She was dismissed from her academic position in 2023 after students protested against her comments in a television interview, where she insulted several military brigades, including the respected Azov unit, for their use of Russian. A court later ordered her reinstatement.
Her funeral on July 22 in Lviv saw streets filled with mourners, and supporters laid flowers at the site of the shooting, where a blood stain was still visible. The suspect was apprehended in Dnipro, as per a Telegram post by Klymenko, who shared an image of an officer in camouflage handcuffing a bare-chested man lying face-down on the floor next to a sofa bed. “There is sufficient evidence to claim that it was the detainee who shot the linguist,” Klymenko stated.
Investigators tracked the suspect’s escape route through extensive efforts, including searching around 250 acres of forest. Surveillance cameras eventually captured his movements, leading to his identification and arrest. Klymenko noted that the suspect had rented at least three apartments in Lviv as part of his preparation for the crime.
Currently, investigators believe the shooter acted on orders and is not the sole perpetrator. Klymenko promised to release more information as the investigation progresses. According to the Ukrainska Pravda news site, Farion was shot while waiting for a taxi to visit her daughter for dinner. Initial motives for her murder include her public and political activities, as well as personal animosity, Klymenko stated following the incident.