First reactions to the arrest of Farion’s alleged killer
25 July 2024 19:06
ОНОВЛЮЄТЬСЯ
On 25 July, law enforcement agencies announced the detention of a suspect in the high-profile murder of prominent public figure and politician Iryna Farion.
the 18-year-old suspect was detained in the Parus residential area in Dnipro. According to Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko, there is sufficient evidence to claim that it was he who shot the linguist. Hundreds of specialists from the National Police of Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine and other services were allegedly working to solve the murder.
“139 hours of continuous work by a huge team of operatives, investigators, criminal analysts, experts, other police services, and employees of the Security Service of Ukraine. We checked every corner along the shooter’s route and searched about 100 hectares of forest. Eventually, the suspect was tracked down. We identified him. With his photo, it was a matter of time: CCTV cameras caught him everywhere,” he said.
[Kommersant] collected the first reactions of famous Ukrainians to the news.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy was one of the first to react to the arrest of the alleged killer.
“The Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Ihor Klymenko, has just reported to me on the detention of a suspect in the murder of Irina Farion in Dnipro. The detention operation was very difficult. Hundreds of specialists from the National Police of Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine and other services worked to solve the murder. An 18-year-old boy was detained. The necessary investigative actions and examinations are underway. I have instructed the Minister of Internal Affairs to present all the details to the public,” the President said.
The news of the detention of the alleged killer of Irina Farion was also immediately reacted to by the well-known publicist and journalist Vitaly Portnikov. Since the high-profile murder, he has repeatedly commented on the case and stressed that it is not the detention of the killer that is important, but the identification of the real masterminds of this crime.
“The detainee was only the perpetrator of the crime. That is, there were some customers, the structure is interested in what happened and this is the most important thing in the investigation of a high-profile murder. It is important that the crime does not remain unsolved, like many high-profile political crimes in Ukrainian history,” the journalist commented.
The head of the criminal police, Andriy Nebytov, also supported the thesis of the Minister of Internal Affairs, Igor Klymenko. Despite the fact that the 18-year-old detained in Dnipro still has the status of a suspect, the head of the criminal police reacted emotionally to the accusations of his opponents who did not believe that law enforcement agencies would be able to detain the killer.
“It’s been 48 hours and they haven’t detained him. So, they won’t detain him anymore,” wrote omniscient and omnipotent experts on all issues in telegram channels. I suggest that commentators “put on the shoes” of an operative and stay with him for at least 48 hours of searching for the killer. I am grateful to all the police officers who did not sleep for six days and lived on duty. Day and night, rain or shine, under enormous pressure from all sides and Russian propaganda, you did your job in silence. You worked at all 1500%,” said the chief of the criminal police.
Following Vitaliy Portnikov, another colleague in the media, media expert and political analyst Bohdan Butkevych, also reacted with restraint to the detention of Iryna Farion’s alleged killer and instead reminded of other high-profile murders that still remain unanswered.
“When Zelensky announces the detention of a suspect in a high-profile crime, I immediately think of Andriy Antonenko. And Yulia Kuzmenko and Yana Dugar. How is it going with the murder of Pavel Sheremet, uncle? What about the “cultivation of the greatness of the white race”? Or Roman Chervinsky is still in front of our eyes. So, let’s hope that Farion’s killer has indeed been detained,” Butkevich said.
Some Ukrainian media outlets have already collected information about the detainee’s family and even talked to those who knew the 18-year-old alleged killer. For example, an acquaintance of the suspect gave a comment to Suspilne and spoke positively about him.
“I would never have thought that he could do such a thing. He lived with his mother, his father is at war, he studied well,” said the detainee’s friend.
What is known about the murder of Iryna Farion
Politician and linguist Iryna Farion was killed on 19 July. On the street in front of the house where the public figure lived, an unknown person shot her in the temple with a firearm. Farion was hospitalised at St Panteleimon’s Hospital in Lviv. The doctors even managed to perform an operation, but Farion’s heart stopped in intensive care: the wound was incompatible with life.
Neighbours interviewed by the operatives said that the linguist might have been followed recently. People’s attention was drawn to a suspicious guy who had been sitting in the courtyard of the apartment block where the victim lived for several days in a row. People were surprised by the fact that, despite the heat, the young man was wearing a warm, long-sleeved sweatshirt and a hat with a wide brim. The man’s face was masked by black glasses.
The police investigation was complicated by the fact that the shooting, which took the life of a public figure, occurred at a time when there were stabilisation blackouts in the area. Consequently, surveillance cameras were not working. However, the operatives managed to track down the suspect. Security forces detained the alleged shooter on 25 July in a high-rise building in Dnipro. They say that the suspect had been tracking Farion for at least three weeks in order to track her. To do this, he moved to Lviv, where he changed several rented apartments.
Investigators are to establish whether the detainee acted alone or had accomplices.
