In Memoriam: Andriy Parubiy, Fmr. Ukrainian Parliament Speaker
The following article was submitted by the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA).
It is with great sorrow and regret that the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA) received the news that Andriy Parubiy, former Speaker (Chair) of the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) of Ukraine (2016-2019), and a sitting member of Ukraine’s Parliament, was assassinated in Lviv on Saturday, 30 August 2025.
The murder took place in broad daylight, when a gunman disguised as a food delivery worker fired eight bullets at Parubiy, killing him before any emergency services arrived. In his response, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the killer was well-prepared and organized. As of 31 August, the Chief of the National Police of Ukraine, Ivan Vyhovsky, confirmed to the press that a suspect was arrested in the Khmelnytskyi Oblast less than 36 hours after Parubiy’s murder. Chief Vyhovsky further added that “there is a russian connection involved.”
The Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA) calls for the strongest of repercussions to be levied by Ukraine’s allies should Ukraine’s prosecutors demonstrate to the court that the enemy state instigated this killing. Such an assassination is not only Ukraine’s tragedy, it is a warning. If russia’s campaign of political terror is tolerated, no democracy is safe, and no activist, journalist, or leader abroad can be certain they will not be next.
A Life of Public Service
Andriy Parubiy was born on 31 January 1971 in Sheptytskyi, a historic mining town in the Lviv Oblast. (Then known as Chervonohrad, in 1990 it became the first city in the Soviet Union where a monument to Vladimir Lenin was removed.) His grandfather was a soldier for the West Ukrainian People’s Republic in the Ukrainian Halych Army, while his uncles fought for the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), and after World War II, the whole family was sent to Siberia for ten years.
In 1988, Andriy Parubiy co-founded the organization “Heritage” («Спадщина»), which sourced volunteers to upkeep the graves of UPA soldiers and defended anti-Soviet protesters. In 1989, he was arrested by Soviet authorities for organizing an unauthorized rally. Following the renewal of Ukraine’s Independence, Andriy Parubiy would go on to graduate from the University of Lviv in 1994, and continued his graduate studies at Lviv Polytechnic, where he completed a program in political science and sociology in 2001.
During the 2004 Orange Revolution, Andriy Parubiy served as commandant of the Ukrainian House, a key protest site. He then went on to join the newly created Our Ukraine party from which he was elected into the Lviv Oblast Assembly in 2006 and then became a member of the 6th convocation of Ukraine’s Parliament following national elections in November 2007. Andriy Parubiy would go on to win elections in 2012, 2014 and 2019, and serve in the subsequent 7th, 8th and 9th convocations of the Verkhovna Rada.
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From The G-Man salutes Mr. Parubiy’s legacy and offers condolences to his family, friends and colleagues. May they all find some measure of comfort in the days to come, and may he forever rest in peace.