Andriy Parubiy was shot several times with a short-barreled firearm, police said, adding that the perpetrator, who fled the scene and has not yet been identified, was significantly prepared.
Parubiy, who was a sitting MP and former president of Ukraine’s parliament, died before medical personnel arrived at the site, according to Maksym Kozitskiy, head of the Lviv region’s military administration.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said the murder was carefully planned, describing the death of the politician as a “horrendous murder” on social media.
A video taken by Reuters shows forensic workers and police officers working at the crime scene. A body can be seen on the floor, with a pair of glasses and a bag next to the man’s right hand.
European officials, including Roberta Metsola, the president of the European Parliament, offered their condolences to Parubiy’s loved ones and the people of Ukraine.
Metsola said she was deeply shocked by the terrible murder, while officials from Estonia and Poland also paid tribute to the victim.
Parubiy, 54, had been active in Ukrainian politics since 1990, at a time when the Soviet Union was crumbling.
He co-founded the Social-National Party of Ukraine in 1991, though he later left the group, and served as a member of parliament from 2007 until his death.
Parubiy participated in the 2004 Orange Revolution, where hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians joined in peaceful protest after a disputed election.
He was also a prominent figure in the Maidan Revolution, a movement that began in November 2013 after then-President Víktor Yanukovych refused to sign a trade agreement with the European Union that had been brewing for years, instead opting for closer ties with neighboring Russia.
During the three-month revolution, Parubiy was the head of a huge tent city set up by thousands of protesters in Independence Square in central Kyiv, known as the Maidan.
He was later the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council in 2014. In 2019, Parubiy signed a law to make the use of the Ukrainian language mandatory in certain public sectors, calling it a historic day.
Ukrainian lawmaker Iryna Gerashchenko described Parubiy’s death as terrorism, and described him as a “colleague and friend, a trusted comrade” who was whole and decent, patriotic and intelligent.
Petro Poroshenko, former president of Ukraine, said Parubiy was shot dead by monsters in Lviv.
“What we can say with certainty is that these monsters are afraid, and that’s why they kill real patriots and strong people,” he wrote on social media. This crime isn’t just shooting at a person. It’s an attack on the army. It’s a tongue attack. It’s an attack on faith. It’s an attack on the heart of Ukraine.
This news was updated to clarify Parubiy’s position on the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, where he served as secretary.
CNN’s Victoria Butenko contributed to this report.
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