The police are looking for a man who may be involved in the murder of Iryna Farion

Law enforcement officers are looking for a man who may be involved in the murder of a former MP of the Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian Parliament), linguist Iryna Farion.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine publishes the characteristics of the suspect — he is about 20 years old, is 170-180 cm tall and has a thin build.

At the time of the crime, he was wearing dark sweatpants, a black long-sleeved sweatshirt, over which was a red T-shirt with white stripes on the sleeves and white Latin letters on the front. On the head is a panama of dark color with an emblem in the center, with wide margins, on the feet are white high socks, red and black sneakers with white soles, and on the hands are red mittens.

Anyone with information about the identity of the suspect or his whereabouts is asked to call +38(068)440-91-64, +38(093)345-04-61 or the emergency line 102.

Law enforcement officers urge Ukrainians not to detain the man or people similar to him on their own.

Attack on Iryna Farion

In the evening of July 19, an unknown person attacked Iryna Farion in Lviv. She was shot. The Ministry of Internal Affairs says that a suspicious man was seen near her house for at least several days — he could be the attacker.

The woman was hospitalized with a gunshot wound to the head. She was in a critical condition in a coma and on a ventilator. Late in the evening it became known that Farion had died.

The shooter has not been arrested yet. The police are investigating the case under Part 1 of Article 115 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine — deliberate murder. The maximum penalty is 15 years in prison.

Who is Iryna Farion?

Iryna Farion was born on April 29, 1964 in Lviv. She is a linguist, a professor at Lviv Polytechnic National University, a member of the Polytrade of Svoboda Higher Education Institution, a MP of Ukraine of the 7th convocation (2012-2014), and was twice a deputy of the Lviv Regional Council from All-Ukrainian Union "Svoboda".

Farion repeatedly got into scandals. In particular, she criticized the Russian-speaking fighters of "Azov" and the 3rd assault brigade and said that she could not consider them Ukrainians. Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets turned to the police, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the National Council on Television.

Another scandal is related to the fact that she published a letter from a student from occupied Crimea with his personal data. Later, Russian Z-publics shared a video where the FSB allegedly detains this student. He apologized on camera and admitted his "guilt".

On November 14, 2023, students of Lviv Polytechnic staged a protest and demanded the dismissal of Iryna Farion from the university. The Minister of Education Oksen Lisovyi later announced that Farion was fired, but the court reinstated her in her position at the end of May 2024.