Lviv Court Jails Suspect Who Confessed to Killing Andriy Parubiy

A court in Lviv has ordered the arrest of the man accused of killing former speaker of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada, Andriy Parubiy, Orda.kz reports, citing Suspilne.

The Halytskyi District Court of Lviv placed Mykhailo Stselnikov in custody.

During the hearing, he openly admitted to shooting Parubiy:

Yes, I killed him, he was nearby. If I had lived in Vinnytsia, it would have been Petya [Poroshenko]. I want to be sentenced quickly, exchanged for prisoners of war, and go to Russia to search for my son’s body, Stselnikov said in court.

The defendant stressed that the killing was his “personal revenge against the Ukrainian authorities” and denied any links to Russian intelligence services.

There had been previous claims that there was a Russian trace in the killing:

Parubiy was gunned down in Lviv on August 30. The attacker, disguised as a food delivery courier and riding an e-bike, shot the politician eight times before fleeing. The next day, police detained a suspect.

Parubiy played a key role in Ukraine’s 2014 Euromaidan protests, serving as commander of the Self-Defense units.

He later briefly held the post of secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, before becoming speaker of parliament from 2016 to 2019. He remained a lawmaker for many years.