Zelenskyy says suspect arrested in shooting of Ukrainian lawmaker

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announces an arrest in the shooting of former parliament speaker Andriy Parubiy in Lviv. Photo / Sergei Supinsky, AFP

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said today that a suspect had been arrested in the shooting of former Speaker of Parliament Andriy Parubiy.

Parubiy, a leading figure in the country’s pro-European protest movements of 2004 and 2014, was shot dead at the weekend in the western city of Lviv.

Zelenskyy said Internal Affairs Minister Igor Klymenko and security service chief Vasyl Maliuk had informed him of the arrest.

“The necessary investigative actions are ongoing...,” he posted on social media. “I thank our law enforcement officers for their prompt and co-ordinated work.”

In a subsequent post, after having spoken to chief prosecutor Ruslan Kravchenko, he added: “The suspect has given an initial testimony”.

“Urgent investigative actions are currently under way to establish all the circumstances of this murder.”

Klymenko, posting on Telegram, said dozens of police officers and security officers had been involved in the operation to arrest the suspect, apprehended in the Khmelnytsky region of western Ukraine.

“There will not be many details now,” he added.

“I will only say that the crime was carefully prepared: the schedule of the deceased’s movements was studied, the route was laid, and an escape plan was thought out.”

Hours after the shooting, Zelenskyy had said that the shooting was a deliberate plot and had been carefully planned.

- Agence France-Presse