Farion's murderer identified as man on police wanted list
Linguist and politician, former Ukrainian member of Parliament Iryna Farion, was shot by a man wanted by the police, with several witnesses to the murder, Ukrainian outlet Ukrinform reported, citing a law enforcement source on July 23.
"The killer had been preparing for the crime for a long time, about a month," the police said.
"He is familiar with arms. We are confident that the shooter is the man who was put on the wanted list. We have witnesses who saw it was him. We do not rule out that he had accomplices and that this was a contract killing."
According to the investigation, the suspect, now wanted by the police, was dressed in camouflage clothes, wore glasses and a hat, and came to Iryna Farion's yard every day since July 11, sitting near the neighboring entrance.
The suspect stood out because it was hot in Lviv, and he spent hours in the sun in warm clothes without water. He would leave his place of residence only for a few hours at lunchtime, sometimes carrying a purse. The police believe the suspect was hiding weapons in it.
A source noted that a ballistics examination has been conducted, revealing that one shot was made with a 9 mm bullet, but the type of weapon is not yet known.
It is reported that the killer could not postpone the crime any longer, as Iryna Farion was about to go to the sea with her grandchildren and daughter for two weeks.
According to Ukrinform's sources, the man calculated all the options: during the assassination attempt, there was a power outage in the area where Farion lived, causing some surveillance cameras to stop working.
However, thanks to the collected video footage, law enforcement officers managed to record the suspect's route. It was the same every day and did not attract too much attention because the man never went to a store, pharmacy, or other places.
"The video from the cameras shows that the suspect has atypical body language and a strange gait," the statement reads.
"Now law enforcement is conducting a number of examinations to identify him and continue search operations."
Murder of Iryna Farion
Iryna Farion was shot in Lviv on Masaryka Street on July 19. She was reportedly shot in the temple, and an ambulance took her away.
The Lviv regional police confirmed the fact of the attempted murder of the 60-year-old public figure, without specifying her name.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reacted to the attempted assassination of the linguist.
Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko and the head of Ukraine’s SBU security service Vasyl Malyuk were promptly reporting on the search for Farion's attacker, he said.
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