The title of Hero of Ukraine was not approved for Farion: how MPs voted and what’s next
21 October 2025 22:52
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine did not support a draft appeal to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to grant the title of Hero of Ukraine to linguist and public figure Iryna Farion posthumously. The initiative did not receive the required number of votes, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports
The group of MPs who initiated the appeal proposed to award Farion with an order and recognize her contribution to the protection of the Ukrainian language and statehood.
During the preliminary voting, 199 MPs voted for this decision, and during the main voting – 189. At least 226 votes are required to pass a resolution.
Thus, the appeal to the president was not adopted.
What did the initiative envisage?
A group of MPs proposed:
- To grant Iryna Farion the title of Hero of Ukraine posthumously.
- To award her with an order for her significant contribution to the defense of the Ukrainian language, culture and statehood.
The initiators emphasized that Farion’s activities played a significant role in the fight against Russia’s language and information expansion.
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Public support and the role of the petition
An electronic petition that gathered more than 25,000 signatures, the minimum required for official consideration by the president, drew attention to this issue.
The authors of the petition noted that Iryna Farion had made “a significant contribution to the preservation of Ukrainian national identity and spiritual resilience in the face of Russian aggression.”
However, the Cabinet of Ministers explained that:
“The title of Hero of Ukraine is awarded for a specific heroic act or exceptional labor achievement, so the petition was submitted for further consideration by the competent authorities.
After that, the Lviv Regional Council appealed to the President with a request to posthumously award the title of Hero of Ukraine to Iryna Farion and former Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Andriy Parubiy.
What will happen next
Despite the fact that the Rada did not support the appeal, the issue may be reintroduced for consideration or initiated by the President himself.
Given the public interest and regional appeals, the topic is likely to remain in the focus of public discussion.
The murder of Iryna Farion and its investigation
on July 19, 2024, a political activist and professor at Lviv Polytechnic, Iryna Farion, was killed by a direct shot to the head on Masaryk Street in Lviv.
Currently, the main suspect in the murder is Vyacheslav Zinchenko, an 18-year-old resident of Dnipro, who was detained by police and will be held in a pre-trial detention center until at least June 8. The young man told the media that he did not kill Farion. Instead, he said that his arrest was desirable for him, as he was being hunted by Russian special services and radicalized individuals on the loose.
A petition was registered on the government’s website to posthumously award the linguist the title of Hero of Ukraine. The petition received the required number of votes, and now it is to be considered by the Ministry of Education and Science, whose head Farion called an ignoramus.
Meanwhile, Farion’s case is gaining more details.
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Who is Iryna Farion?
Iryna Farion is a doctor of philology, linguist, teacher and political activist. She is known for her principled position on:
protecting the Ukrainian language as the only state language,
counteracting Russification, and forming national civic consciousness.
Her activities often provoked heated debates in society, but even her opponents recognized her influence on the development of Ukraine’s language policy.
