KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — A former Ukrainian parliamentarian best known for her crusade to promote the Ukrainian language has died after being shot in the street by an unknown assailant.
Iryna Farion, 60, initially survived the attack in the western city of Lviv on Friday but later died of her wounds in hospital. A manhunt is underway for her attacker, who fled the scene. Ukrainian officials said an investigation was underway and the attack was being treated as a murder.
“Work is being done on all available surveillance cameras, witness interviews are underway, and several districts are being investigated. All leads are being investigated, including the one leading to Russia,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on his official Telegram channel on Saturday.
“All necessary forces of the National Police of Ukraine and the Security Service of Ukraine have been deployed to search for the criminal.”
Farion served in the Ukrainian parliament between 2012 and 2014 and was best known for her campaigns to promote the use of the Ukrainian language by Ukrainian officials who spoke Russian. She controversially criticized Russian-speaking members of Ukraine's Azov Regiment who defended the port city of Mariupol in the early days of the full-scale invasion.
Police consider “personal hostility” towards the former MP over her social and political activities as a likely motive behind the attack, said Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko, who will oversee the investigation in Lviv.
Elsewhere in Ukraine, at least two people have been killed and three others wounded after a Russian missile attack on infrastructure in the country's northeastern region of Kharkiv, Governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Saturday.
Ukrainian officials also confirmed that the death toll from a Russian attack on the city of Mykolaiv on Friday had risen to four. A child was among the victims, the city's mayor, Oleksandr Sienkevych, said.
Zelenskyy wrote on social media about the attack in Mykolaiv that a projectile had hit a playground next to an apartment building.
“Russia proves every day with its terror that ‘pressure’ is not enough,” he said. “This destruction of life must be stopped. We need new solutions to support our defense. Russia must feel the power of the world.”
The Ukrainian air force reported on Saturday that Russia had fired four missiles and 17 drones the night before, of which 13 were shot down.
The attacks have left thousands of people without power or running water in the Poltava region of central Ukraine, Governor Filip Pronin said. Russia has repeatedly attacked Ukraine's energy infrastructure, leading to blackouts across the country.
A crushing Russian offensive in recent months has forced Kiev troops to withdraw from several towns and villages in the eastern Donetsk region,
The latest targets are the mining town of Toretsk and the city of Pokrovsk, where Russia is stepping up its attacks. Ukrainian forces have repelled 20 and 27 attacks on those areas respectively in 24 hours, the Ukrainian General Staff said on Friday. That was almost double the number of attacks registered on other flashpoints along the front line, it said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry also said Saturday it had shot down 26 Ukrainian drones over Russia’s southern Rostov region, hundreds of miles from the front line. Three other drones were destroyed over the Belgorod region, and one over the Smolensk region, it said. No casualties were reported. ——
Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England, contributed to this report. —— Full coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
