Former nationalist MP in Ukraine killed by gunman

Police have been searching overnight for the suspect who shot 60-year-old Iryna Farion on a street in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv.

Iryna Farion attends a rally in Lviv, Ukraine on May 8, 2013. Photo: REUTERS

Lviv region governor Maksym Kozytskyi said on Telegram that Farion died after being taken to hospital.

Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko wrote on Telegram that investigators were linking the shooting to Farion's political activities or possibly a personal motive.

Police and Ukraine's SBU security service are working together to track down the attacker. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was receiving regular reports on efforts to capture the gunman and stressed that any violence was condemnable.

Farion, a linguist, joined the Svoboda (Freedom) National Party in 2005 and was elected to parliament in 2012, but was unsuccessful in subsequent re-election bids. She also served on the Lviv regional council. Farion is known for her campaigns to promote the Ukrainian language and her criticism of Russian-speaking officials.

In 2018, as Ukraine was fighting pro-Russian separatists, she called for "every Russian speaker to be hit in the face." After the Russian offensive in February 2022, Farion criticized the Russian-speaking fighters of the Azov regiment who defended the port city of Mariupol for three months.

Although Ukrainian is the only official language of Ukraine, many residents still speak Russian as their first language, a legacy from the Soviet era. Promoting the Ukrainian language has become a major issue, with the Ukrainian parliament passing laws to strengthen its use in public life and the service sector.

Cao Phong (according to Reuters)

Source: https://www.congluan.vn/cuu-nghi-si-theo-chu-nghia-dan-toc-o-ukraine-bi-tay-sung-sat-hai-post304222.html