LVIV, Aug 30 \u2013 The former speaker of the Ukrainian parliament Andriy Parubiy has been shot dead in the western city of Lviv, officials have said.<\/p>\n
Unverified footage, purportedly of the shooting, appears to show a gunman dressed as a courier approaching Parubiy on the street and holding up a weapon as he walks behind him, before fleeing. <\/p>\n
A huge manhunt is now under way for the suspect.<\/p>\n
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described Saturday\u2019s attack as a \u201cterrible murder\u201d and offered condolences to Parubiy\u2019s family.<\/p>\n
Parubiy, 54, rose to prominence during Ukraine\u2019s Euromaidan mass protests, which advocated closer ties with the EU and brought down pro-Russian former President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014.<\/p>\n
A special operation, codenamed Siren, has now been launched by Ukrainian authorities aimed at tracking down and arresting the suspected shooter.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll necessary forces and means are being deployed,\u201d Zelensky said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Ukraine\u2019s prosecutors said \u201can unidentified gunman fired several shots at the politician\u201d and that Parubiy \u201cdied on the spot\u201d.<\/p>\n
At a news briefing later on Saturday, Lviv police chief Oleksandr Shliakhovskyi said the gunman had \u201cfired about eight shots from a firearm, which has not yet been identified\u201d.<\/p>\n
He added that the attack appeared to have been \u201cvery carefully planned\u201d.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Lviv\u2019s chief prosecutor Mykola Meret said all possible motives for the shooting were being investigated, including potential Russian involvement.<\/p>\n
Sources in Ukraine\u2019s law enforcement agencies told BBC News earlier that seven shell casings were later found at the scene.<\/p>\n
The source also said the attacker was dressed to look like a courier for delivery company Glovo. <\/p>\n
In the video of the incident, the suspect can be seen carrying a yellow delivery bag.The assailant is also reported to have had an e-bike.<\/p>\n
A spokeswoman for Glovo said the firm was \u201cdeeply shocked by the brutal crime\u201d and would co-operate fully with the investigation into the incident.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LVIV, Aug 30 \u2013 The former speaker of the Ukrainian parliament Andriy Parubiy has been shot dead in the western city of Lviv, officials have said. Unverified footage, purportedly of the shooting, appears to show a gunman dressed as a courier approaching Parubiy on the street and holding up a weapon as he walks behind […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120609\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}