Arrest period extended for suspect in Andriy Parubiyʼs murder. He says he had been preparing the crime for over a year

On December 18, a court in Lviv extended the detention of 52-year-old Lviv resident Mykhailo Stselnikov, who is suspected of the murder of Ukrainian MP Andriy Parubiy.

This was reported by the Prosecutor Generalʼs Office.

Stselnikov will remain in custody without bail until February 15, 2026.

The man is charged with high treason, attempted murder of a deputy, illegal possession of weapons, glorification and repeated justification of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation. For this, he faces life imprisonment.

During a conversation with reporters, Stselnikov said that he had been preparing for the murder for over a year. According to him, he took the weapon from a cache, the location of which was told to him by other people. He did not say who exactly.

The murder of Andriy Parubiy

Former Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada and the MP from the "European Solidarity" party Andriy Parubiy was killed in Lviv on August 30, 2025. The shooting occurred in the Frankivsk district of the city. Parubiy died on the spot from his injuries.

At midnight on September 1, 36 hours after the murder, law enforcement officials announced that they had detained a suspect in the murder in the Khmelnytskyi region. He turned out to be 52-year-old Lviv resident Mykhailo Stselnikov.

On September 2, the court sent Stselnikov to two months of arrest without bail, and on October 24, it extended his arrest for another two months. Mykhailo himself confessed to the murder in a conversation with journalists. Commenting on the motives for the murder, Stselnikov stated that it was “his personal revenge on the Ukrainian authorities”.

There was information in the media that he committed this murder on the orders of the Russian special services, who in return promised the man to return the body of his son who died in the war. Stselnikov denied this information.

Later, he was charged with another crime — high treason. According to the investigation, Mykhailo Stselnikov was recruited by the Russian special services more than a year ago. Since then, he has been receiving tasks and reporting to the enemy on their completion — among them was the murder of Parubiy.

On December 16, the Security Service of Ukraine, the National Police, and the Prosecutorʼs Office found and seized the Makarov pistol used to kill Andriy Parubiy, as well as a silencer. It was this weapon that the suspect had tried to hide in a specially equipped hiding place in the forest. Stselnikovʼs DNA was found on the pistol.

In the discovered video, the suspect reports on the arrangement of a hiding place for a curator from Russia. According to preliminary information, this pistol was planned to be used for other contract killings in Ukraine in the future.

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