Divisive Far-Right Politician in Ukraine Is Fatally Shot

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Divisive Far-Right Politician in Ukraine Is Fatally Shot

A gunman shot and ******* a far-right Ukrainian politician who stirred controversy with campaigns to promote the Ukrainian language and discredit Russian-speaking compatriots, the authorities say.

The former lawmaker, Iryna Farion, was a highly divisive figure. A linguist who belonged to a hard-line nationalist party, she was despised by some for her denunciation of Russian-speaking fighters in elite Ukrainian military units. Many Ukrainians speak Russian, especially in eastern regions closer to Russia.

Ms. Farion, 60, was shot in the head by a young man on a street in the western city of Lviv on Friday evening, and the Ukrainian authorities said early Saturday that they were still searching for the gunman, who fled the scene. Ihor Klymenko, Ukraine’s interior minister, said he believed she was targeted for ********.

“This was not a spontaneous *******,” he

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on Saturday, adding that it might have been politically motivated or a personal matter. He did not rule out possible Russian involvement.

Several

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also said Moscow might have been behind the ******** in an attempt to sow divisions, while other people raised fears that the ********* could polarize society. President Volodymyr Zelensky

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, “All versions are being investigated, including the one that leads to Russia.”

Mysterious deaths and assassinations were a feature of Ukraine’s political landscape before Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country in 2022. But there had been no sign of any high-profile killings since the war broke out.

Some Ukrainians called for a swift and transparent investigation into the ********, saying it would be a sign that, even at war, Ukraine ******** a functioning democracy. Mr. Zelensky

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that “any ********* deserves to be condemned and anyone responsible for this ******* must be held fully accountable.”

Ms. Farion, an award-winning linguist who taught at the Lviv Polytechnic National University, started out as a member of the ********** Party when Ukraine was part of the ******* Union, before veering right and eventually joining the hard-line nationalist Svoboda, or Freedom, party in 2005. She was elected to Parliament in 2012, but ******* in subsequent attempts to keep or regain her seat.

Svoboda

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that “this ****** benefits Muscovy and was undoubtedly committed by it,” using a derogatory term for Russia. But already, in a sign of possible divisions to come, Svoboda accused Ukraine’s government of failing to purge itself of pro-Russian agents, thereby enabling the ********.

Mykola Davidiuk, a Ukrainian political analyst, said that Ms. Farion was a regular guest on Ukrainian television shows in the early 2010s, a time when Ukraine’s political landscape was deeply fractured between forces advocating closer ties with Moscow and others calling for a clear break with Russia.

“She was a very controversial figure,” he said.

Last fall, Ms. Farion denounced elements of the Ukrainian military, in particular members of the Azov and Third ******** Brigades — two units with ties to far-right and nationalist movements — for communicating in Russian. She said she couldn’t call Russian-speaking forces Ukrainians.

Language is a sensitive issue in Ukraine.

Before the war, most people spoke both Ukrainian and Russian, the lingua franca of the ******* Union. Mr. Zelensky himself, a native Russian speaker, only started speaking Ukrainian publicly when he ran for president in 2019.

Russia’s 2022 invasion prompted many in Ukraine to stop speaking Russian and switch entirely to Ukrainian. But Russian is still widely spoken in the country, including in the military. Many soldiers have no problem with it, saying that the most important thing is good communication in combat.

Ms. Farion’s accusations caused a wave of indignation in Ukraine, with some saying she was trying to divide society and discredit elite military units known for their fierce defense of Ukrainian cities such as Mariupol during the war.

“What she said about those men was incomprehensible to me,” Sofia Kocharovska, 23, a resident of Kyiv, said on Saturday.

In November, the Ukrainian security services opened a ********* investigation into Ms. Farion’s statements and publications. She was also fired from Lviv Polytechnic that month.

But she challenged the decision in court, and an appeals court ruled in May that she should be reinstated and receive compensation.

Daria Mitiuk and Anastasia Kuznietsova contributed reporting.

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