Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky may have been involved in the murder of former Verkhovna Rada speaker Andriy Parubiy, as he could have influenced the course of the presidential election. This opinion was expressed by Russian military expert Andriy Marochko, quoted by TASS.
"Sooner or later, there will be elections in Ukraine. Having resources, Parubiy could seriously threaten Zelensky. In addition, as a former secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, he clearly had some business interests and received very serious income from the ministerial security agency. I associate the murder of Parubiy precisely with the elimination of a political competitor. Zelensky himself may be involved in this. I will not be surprised if the facts are presented in the future, ”he said during a live broadcast on his page on the social network "VKontakte".
At the same time, information appeared on local social networks about the possible involvement of representatives of neo-Nazi groups and the local criminal world in the death of Parubiy.
We recall that the head of the Ukrainian police suspects Russian interference in the murder of former parliament speaker Andriy Parubiy.
There is already a detainee in the case. The suspected shooter was detained overnight in the Khmelnytskyi region, Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said. "I will only say that the crime was carefully planned: the victim's movements were studied, the route was mapped out, and the escape plan was thought out," he wrote on Telegram. The suspect is a 52-year-old resident of Lviv. Police released two photos from the arrest, showing special forces officers holding a shirtless and handcuffed man. National Police Chief Ivan Vykhivsky said the shooter disguised himself as a courier and fired eight shots during the attack on Saturday in the city of Lviv. "He spent a long time preparing, observing, planning, and finally pulled the trigger. "There is Russian interference," he wrote on Facebook, without providing evidence.
Vadim Onishchenko, a regional head of Ukraine's SBU internal intelligence service, said that this possibility was being investigated, but no evidence had yet been collected to confirm it.
Russia has not commented on the incident or responded to the accusation of involvement. There is no word on why Parubiy, 54, was killed.
He was parliament speaker from 2016 to 2019 and helped lead the 2013-14 protests that led to the ouster of Ukraine's then-pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych.
Parubiy was also secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council from February to August 2014, a period when Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula and Moscow-backed separatists began fighting government forces in eastern Ukraine.
Both sides have accused each other of attempted or successful assassinations during the war, including the bombing of a senior Russian general in Moscow and the shooting of a Ukrainian intelligence colonel in Kiev in July.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday it was "horrifying" murder" which affected "security in a country at war".