2024-07-21 04:52:04
The ultra-right Ukrainian activist and politician Iryna Farion has died after being shot in the street. Farion was highly controversial in Ukraine.
Former Ukrainian MP Iryna Farion was killed in an assassination attempt late Friday evening. This is reported by several Ukrainian media outlets.
According to reports, a man apparently opened fire on Farion in front of Farion’s house in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Friday at around 7 p.m. According to local media, one shot hit the 60-year-old in the temple. The perpetrator was able to flee, and Farion was initially taken to hospital and underwent emergency surgery. However, the doctors were unable to save her.
The governor of the Lviv region, Maksim Kozitskyj, confirmed Farion’s death on Friday at around 10:30 p.m. in a message on the Telegram platform. He expressed his condolences to Farion’s family, friends and students. The 60-year-old studied linguism and most recently worked as a professor at the Language Institute of the Lviv Polytechnic University.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was also informed about the attack on Farion. He stated on Friday evening that the perpetrator or perpetrators should be brought to justice.
According to local media, the perpetrator was seen by local residents. They describe him as a man aged between 20 and 25. In the days before the crime, he was seen several times near the crime scene. According to the Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko, the manhunt for the perpetrator is in full swing. He called on witnesses to pass on information to the police.
According to the Ukrainian news agency RBC, investigators are looking into several possible motives for the crime. Interior Minister Klymenko explicitly spoke of a “Russian lead” but did not want to give any further details. According to the report, other possibilities include personal dislike, Farion’s socio-political activities or even a contract killing. The authorities plan to provide an update on the investigation on Saturday morning.
According to Klymenko, there are problems identifying the suspect. The man was apparently filmed by surveillance cameras as he waited for Farion at the entrance to an apartment block. However, the footage was interrupted due to power outages. Due to Russian attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure, outages are occurring again and again in all regions. “We are doing everything to ensure that the person who committed the crime does not escape justice,” said the Interior Minister.
Farion is controversial in Ukraine for her political work. In 2005, she joined the right-wing radical party Svoboda. From 2006 to 2012, she represented the party in the regional council of the Lviv Oblast. As a result of the national parliamentary elections in 2012, she was elected as a member of the Verkhovna Rada in Kyiv. There she headed the subcommittee for higher education until the early parliamentary elections in 2014.
As a politician and political activist, Farion has caused a number of scandals. She has repeatedly criticized the use of the Russian language in Ukraine, especially by members of the Ukrainian armed forces. As early as 2018, during the conflict in Donbass, she called for “every Russian-speaking person to be slapped in the face.”
Russian is, alongside Ukrainian, the most widely spoken language in Ukraine, but it is not the country’s official language. Large parts of the population have at least a basic command of Russian. The language is particularly widespread in the east and south of the country. The Russian war of aggression has led to discussions about the use of the Russian language in Ukraine.
In a broadcast last November, Farion said that she could not recognize Russian-speaking soldiers as Ukrainians. She later declared on social networks that fighting for Ukraine was not a “duty” but a “merit.” Russian-speaking soldiers, however, were “in love with Moscow.” As a result, she was initially suspended from Lviv Polytechnic University. However, a court allowed her to resume her work there in May.