Gunman kills former Ukraine nationalist MP

[Pelican Press 0]

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Gunman ****** former Ukraine nationalist MP

A gunman has shot and ******* a nationalist former member of Ukraine’s parliament known for fierce campaigns to defend the Ukrainian language.

Police pressed on through the night with a wide search for the man alleged to have shot Iryna Farion, 60, on a street in the western city of Lviv.

Lviv Regional Governor Maksym Kozytskyi said on Telegram that Farion had ***** after being taken to hospital.

Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko, writing on Telegram, said investigators were for the moment linking the ********* either to Farion’s political activity or to a personal motive.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he was receiving regular reports on efforts to capture the gunman. He said any act of ********* was to be condemned.

Farion, a linguist, became a member of the nationalist Svoboda (Freedom) party in 2005 and was elected to parliament in 2012, but ******* in subsequent attempts to win a seat. She had also served on the Lviv regional council.

She gained prominence for frequent campaigns to promote the Ukrainian language and discredit public officials who spoke Russian.

In 2018, when Ukraine was fighting Russian-financed separatists who had seized territory in the east, she called for a drive to “punch every Russian-speaking person in the jaw”.

In the early months after the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Farion denounced Russian-speaking fighters of the Azov regiment who defended the port city of Mariupol for three months.

Although Ukrainian is the sole state language of Ukraine, many residents speak Russian as a first language, a legacy of ******* rule, when Ukrainian was under official pressure.

Promoting the language has long been an important issue, with parliament passing legislation to entrench its use in public life and in the service industry.

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