Investigation underway: Russian critic, ex-MP, Ukrainian university professor Iryna Farion killed in Lviv

On 20 July, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that he received reports regarding the murder of Iryna Farion. He specified that all versions are being investigated, including the one leading to Russia. On the evening of 19 July, a hitman shot former Ukrainian deputy, professor, and linguist Iryna Farion. The incident took place in Lviv on Masaryk Street, near her residence. Witnesses reported that the killer fired one shot and quickly fled the scene. As a result of the assassination attempt, Farion sustained a gunshot wound to the head. She was quickly hospitalized in a local hospital, where doctors tried to save her life for several hours, but their attempts appeared unsuccessful. Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi and Head of the Lviv Regional State Administration Maksym Kozytskyi confirmed that Iryna Farion passed away at 11:20 PM. Sixty-year-old Iryna Farion was born, raised, and spent almost her entire life in Lviv. For nearly 30 years, she gave lectures at the Lviv Polytechnic National University. During her work in the Ukrainian parliament, when Viktor Yanukovych and his Party of Regions were in power, Farion opposed all initiatives that restricted the Ukrainian language. Yanukovych was ousted in 2014 after the Euromaidan protests. Farion also supported the ban on the activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) in Ukraine, according to Ukrainska Pravda. 

"I believe that this structure, which calls itself the Moscow Patriarchate, has nothing to do with Christianity. It is one of the greatest threats to the free and self-sufficient development of Ukraine. And as long as this institution occupies the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, the Ukrainian will remain enslaved," the professor said in 2008.

Following the 2014 snap elections, when her party did not enter the Verkhovna Rada, Farion returned to Lviv and continued her university career. As of the night of 19-20 July, the police were considering several versions of the reasons for Iryna Farion's murder. The main ones are - her public and political activities, as well as personal animosity towards her, said Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko during a night briefing. After the news of the assassination attempt, he urgently went to Lviv. To conduct operational measures, the Ministry of Internal Affairs involved the entire Lviv police and law enforcement of the Lviv region. Operatives and investigators from the National Police and the Security Service of Ukraine from Kyiv were also sent to the city. The "We-Ukraine" TV channel quoted a resident of the apartment building on Masaryk Street in Lviv, where Farion lived. According to him, about two weeks ago, an unknown young man of around eighteen began appearing near the entrance. In the morning, he would sit on a bench opposite the professor's entrance and leave only in the evening, as per Zaxid.net.

In photos released by the media, he is seen wearing a black bucket hat, black sunglasses, and a red T-shirt with the inscription "Los Angeles." Ihor Klymenko confirmed that the stranger in the photo is the main suspect. The police are now conducting a search operation to detain him. The linguist had repeatedly been at the center of public discussions due to her statements in defense of the Ukrainian language and her categorical claims about abandoning the Soviet past in Ukraine. Read also:

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