Parubiy’s murder is the latest in a string of killings of prominent Ukrainian politicians and activists this year, following the assassinations of former MP Iryna Farion in Lviv and anti-Russian activist Demian Hanul in Odesa.
Parubiy played a major role in leading Ukraine’s pro-Western Euromaidan Revolution in 2013-2014, which ousted the Kremlin puppet regime of Viktor Yanukovych, who is now in exile in Russia. In the winter of 2014, Parubiy served as the commander of protestor self-defense units that clashed with rogue police squads on the streets of Kyiv. He was also one of the top ideologists pushing for Ukraine’s cultural, linguistic and religious exodus from the Kremlin’s sphere of influence.
Russian President Vladimir Putin paints the Euromaidan Revolution as a coup d’état staged by the West and denies the legitimacy of the Ukrainian government. He is also seeking to force Kyiv to fully reinstate the Russian Orthodox church and Russian as a state language in Ukraine as his price for agreeing to a peace deal.