Former Ukrainian MP Iryna Farion assassinated in Lviv

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Former Ukrainian lawmaker and linguist Iryna Farion died in Lviv on July 19, hours after being attacked, Lviv Oblast Governor Maksym Kozytskyi said.

An unidentified man opened fire on Farion, 60, in the street in the city of Lviv at around 7:30 p.m. earlier the same day and fled. Law enforcement officers are seeking to identify and detain the attacker.

The reports of Farion's death came shortly after she was operated on in the hospital. She was in a coma.

"Unfortunately, despite all the doctors' efforts, they failed to save Iryna Farion," Kozytskyi wrote on Telegram.

President Volodymyr Zelensky was briefed about the assassination attempt and said that "anyone responsible for this attack must be held fully accountable."

Iryna Farion, who is known for her controversial statements on the use of the Russian language in Ukraine, entered the ultranationalist party Svoboda in 2005 and served as a member of the parliament between 2012 and 2014.

She was reinstated in June 2024 as a professor at the Ukrainian language department at Lviv Polytechnic University shortly after being fired. Farion sparked outrage when she said on Nov. 6 that she couldn't call Ukrainian soldiers Ukrainians if they speak Russian.

The scandal around Farion's statements escalated after she allegedly received a message of support from Maksym Hlebov, a pro-Ukrainian student living in occupied Crimea. She published the email on her social media, after which received harsh criticism.

Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) said in November 2023 that Farion was under criminal investigation both for her statements about Russian-speaking soldiers and for leaking the message from Hlebov.