Former Ukrainian MP killed in suspected assassination attempt, civilians die in Russian airstrikes

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — A former Ukrainian lawmaker best known for her work promoting the Ukrainian language has died after being shot in the street by an unknown assailant.

Iryna Farion, 60, initially survived the attack in the western city of Lviv on Friday, but later succumbed to her injuries in a hospital. A manhunt is currently underway for her attacker, who fled the scene. Ukrainian officials said the attack was being investigated and treated as a murder.

“All available surveillance cameras are being used, witness interviews are underway and several districts are being investigated. All leads are being investigated, including those leading to Russia,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday on his official Telegram channel.

“All necessary forces of the National Police of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Security Service were deployed to search for the criminal.”

Farion served as a member of the Ukrainian parliament from 2012 to 2014 and is best known for her campaigns promoting the use of the Ukrainian language by Russian-speaking Ukrainian officials. She controversially criticized Russian-speaking members of the Ukrainian Azov Regiment who defended the port city of Mariupol in the first days of the large-scale invasion.

Police believe that “personal hostility” toward the former MP because of her social and political activities was a likely motive for the attack, said Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko, who will lead the investigation in Lviv.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, at least two people were killed and three others injured in a Russian missile attack on infrastructure in the northeastern Kharkiv region, Governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Saturday.

Ukrainian authorities also confirmed that the death toll from a Russian attack on Mykolaiv on Friday had risen to four. A child was among the victims, said the city’s mayor, Oleksandr Sienkevych.

In a social media article about the Mykolaiv attack, Zelensky said a shell hit a playground next to an apartment block.

“Russia proves every day with its terror that ‘pressure’ is not enough,” he said. “This destruction of life must be stopped. We need new solutions to strengthen our defense. Russia must feel the power of the world.”

The Ukrainian Air Force said on Saturday that Russia had fired four missiles and 17 drones overnight, 13 of which were shot down.

In the Poltava region of central Ukraine, thousands of people have lost electricity and running water as a result of the attacks, Governor Filip Pronin said. Russia has continuously targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, leading to power outages across the country.

A devastating Russian attack in recent months forced Kyiv troops to withdraw from some towns and villages in the eastern Donetsk region.

The latest targets are the mining town of Toretsk and the town of Pokrovsk, where Russia is stepping up its attacks. Ukrainian forces repelled 20 and 27 attacks on these areas respectively within 24 hours, the Ukrainian General Staff said on Friday. That is almost twice as many as at other hotspots along the front line, it said.

The Russian Defense Ministry also announced on Saturday that it had shot down 26 Ukrainian drones over Russia’s southern Rostov region, several hundred kilometers from the front line. Three more drones were destroyed over Belgorod region and one over Smolensk region, it said. No casualties were reported. ——

Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England, contributed to this report. —— Full coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine