Parubiy’s murder: the case was reclassified and new details about the shooter’s son were revealed
2 September 19:29
The case of the murder of former Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Andriy Parubiy has been reclassified and transferred to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) for investigation. This was reported by the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
Taking into account the evidence collected, the legal qualification of the criminal offense was changed to Part 1 of Article 263 (illegal handling of weapons) and Article 112 (attempt on the life of a Member of Parliament of Ukraine committed in connection with his state or public activity) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
Earlier, the case was classified under Part 1 of Article 115 (premeditated murder) and Part 1 of Article 263 (illegal handling of weapons). The investigation was conducted by the National Police.
Pre-trial restraint imposed on Parubiy suspect: details
Today, on September 2, during a court hearing at which a preventive measure was imposed on the suspect in the murder of the MP, the latter recanted his previous testimony. Mykhailo Scelnikov said that he was not blackmailed by the Russians.
“This is my revenge on the Ukrainian authorities,” the suspect said.
In addition, Sselnikov admitted that another Ukrainian politician could have been his victim.
“If it was Petya, it would have been Petya. If I lived in Vinnytsia, it would have been Petya,” the suspect said.
He was probably referring to the fifth president of Ukraine, the head of the European Solidarity party, Petro Poroshenko, although he did not name him specifically.
At the same time, Stselnikov pleaded guilty to Parubiy’s murder. He said he wanted to be exchanged for Ukrainian prisoners of war. He wants to go to Russia to find his son there.
The Galician District Court of Lviv has already imposed a pre-trial restraint on him: detention without the possibility of bail. The suspect faces 10 to 15 years in prison.
Parubiy was shot by the father of a Lemberg soldier: what is known
Meanwhile, Ukrainian media and Telegram channels reported that Mykhailo Scelnikov is the father of Ukrainian soldier Mykhailo Viktor, who defended the country under the call sign “Lemberg.”
This was also confirmed by Iryna Rybakova, a press officer of the 3rd mech battalion of the 93rd Brigade, to Slidstvo.info. It was there that “Lemberg” performed combat missions as a scout.
He is the only son of Lviv-based photographer and journalist, volunteer Olena Cherninko. She wrote a book about her son. They chose his call sign for the title.
The book is an attempt by the mother to preserve the memory of her son, who is officially missing. It combines personal memories, letters, social media posts, and reflections on the first days of the war, her son’s voluntary choice to go to the front, and his short service on the front line.
Chernenko’s book was once recommended by the former commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi.
It should be noted that Mykhailo-Victor is the son of Mykhailo Stselnikov from his first marriage. Previously, the young man worked for the IT company TurnKey Lender in Lviv. Shortly before the full-scale invasion, he filed a petition for the introduction of a visa regime with Russia, which did not receive any votes.
At the beginning of the “great war” he volunteered to fight. Then he served in the 93rd OMB “Kholodnyi Yar”. In May 2023, he died near Bakhmut. His body could not be evacuated due to intense fighting. He is considered missing.
How Parubiy’s funeral and farewell took place
On Monday, September 1, at 19:00, a parastas was held at St. George’s Archdiocesan Cathedral.
And on September 2, at 12:00, Parubiy’s funeral service began in the Cathedral. The funeral was attended by his fellow party members from Eurosolidarity, led by Petro Poroshenko, Yulia Tymoshenko and MPs from Batkivshchyna, the current Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Stefanchuk, politicians Oleksandr Turchynov, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, and Serhiy Pashynsky.
After that, at 13:30, a citywide funeral ceremony was held on Rynok Square in Lviv.
The former Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada was buried at Lychakiv Cemetery.
The murder of Andriy Parubiy: a chronicle of events
On Saturday, August 30, law enforcement officers in Lviv received a report of a shooting in the Sykhiv district of the city around 12:00. When representatives of the National Police arrived at the scene, they saw that the victim of the crime was a politician and former speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, Andriy Parubiy. The man was lying on the sidewalk, with his personal belongings scattered nearby.
The doctors who also arrived at the emergency call were unable to help Parubiy: he died before they arrived. The killer fired eight bullets into the man’s head; the wounds he received were incompatible with life.
The moment of the politician’s murder was caught on surveillance cameras. The video, which later became available to Ukrainians on the Internet, shows a man with a yellow Glovo courier bag standing near a dark car. When Parubiy walked by, he hurried after him, pulled out a gun, and fired several times.
By the way, after that, the police said that they planned to open a separate investigation into the “leaking” of footage of the murder on the Internet.
Andriy Parubiy was shot dead: what preceded it
It is now known that shortly before his murder, Andriy Parubiy requested state protection, but was denied. The reason is that the former chairman of the Verkhovna Rada is not eligible for this and can only have protection a year after his dismissal.
Who killed Parubiy and what the “Russian trace” has to do with it
On Monday night, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko wrote on his official Telegram channel that the alleged killer of Andriy Parubiy had been detained in Khmelnytsky Oblast. Security forces got on the trail 24 hours after the attack, and detained the suspect 36 hours later.
Dozens of police officers from the Lviv region and the central office of the National Police, along with SBU officers, worked to solve the crime.
In turn, the SBU stated that the attempt was prepared in advance: the suspect studied Parubiy’s travel schedule, laid out a route and developed an escape plan.
And the head of the National Police, Ivan Vyhivskyi, said that the detainee acted deliberately and systematically:
“He had been preparing for a long time, watching, planning, and finally pulled the trigger. We know that this crime was not accidental. There is a Russian trace in it,” said the head of the National Police.
In the afternoon, details about the suspect also emerged: mykhailo Scelnikov, a 52-year-old resident of Lviv, had a son who was a soldier. He confessed to the crime immediately.
He said that in 2023 he learned from his son’s comrades that he had gone missing in the Bakhmut direction. After that, he began monitoring Russian social media to find more information about his son’s fate. Later, he began to communicate with representatives of the Russian Federation, who convinced the man that his son was dead.
Parubiy was targeted for murder almost by accident. The Russians demanded that a prominent politician be killed in exchange for the return of his son’s body. Scelnikov then mentioned the name of the former speaker of parliament. He said he knew him.
The Russian special services did not give him money to live on – he got by with temporary jobs, but they gave him money to prepare for the murder. The shooter bought a getaway car using the documents of a missing Ukrainian soldier, which he received from the Russians. After the crime, the killer spent the night in his apartment in Lviv, and then drove towards Khmelnytsky, where the Russians found him an apartment.
How politicians, the public and ordinary Ukrainians reacted to Parubiy’s murder
On the day of Andriy Parubiy’s murder, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his traditional video address to Ukrainians that the murder of the politician had been carefully prepared for a long time.
Valeriy Zaluzhny also spoke about the deceased Andriy Parubiy.
It is a great loss for all of us. He lived by actions, not words. He lived by his mission, not his positions. Ukraine was in his heart. His life is a reminder to all of us: independence is not based on speeches, but on those who are ready to give everything for it,” Zaluzhny emphasized.
It should be noted that on September 2, a petition was posted on the website of the Kyiv City Council demanding that one of Kyiv’s streets be named after Andriy Parubiy.
This was confirmed by Lviv City Council member Ihor Zinkevych. According to him, members of the Lviv City Council are preparing an initiative to award Andriy Parubiy the title of Hero of Ukraine.
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Who killed Andriy Parubiy in Lviv
Andriy Parubiy was born in 1971 in the Lviv region. He graduated from the History Department of Lviv National University.
In 1991, Parubiy, together with Tyahnybok, founded the Social National Party of Ukraine, later renamed the Svoboda party.
In 2004, Parubiy participated in the Orange Revolution and was the commandant of the Ukrainian House, where the headquarters of the protest forces were located. In 2013-2014, he was a participant in the Revolution of Dignity, the commandant of the tent city and the head of the Maidan Self-Defense. After Yanukovych fled, he headed the National Security and Defense Council.
Parubiy was a member of the Verkhovna Rada of four convocations. In 2016, he became the head of the Ukrainian parliament. He remained in office until 2019.
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