You have commented 358 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Neo-Nazi ex-MP shot in Ukraine
2024-07-20
[RT] An outspoken Ukrainian ultranationalist and former member of parliament, Irina Farion, was fatally shot outside her home in the western city of Lviv, according to local media.

Farion, 60, was a member of the Verkhovna Rada from 2012-2014, and was best known for hard-line Russophobic positions. She was attacked on Friday evening as she stepped out of her house.

“There was a shot to the temple. The shooter was seen by the neighbors, he was wearing gloves and the weapon did not have a silencer,” local journalist Marta Olyarnik said in a Facebook post.

Farion was rushed to a local hospital. One local Telegram channel reported she was in critical condition, while city councilman Igor Zinkevich described her condition as “serious.”
"Dead" is pretty "serious"
Several hours later, however, Lviv Mayor Andrey Sadovoy confirmed that she succumbed to her injuries.

“Doctors did everything possible, but the injury was incompatible with life,” Sadovoy said. “It is very scary and terrible that there is no longer a safe place in Ukraine. But for such a brazen, impudent murder, the killer must be found.”

Video from the scene showed a pool of blood on the street. Local media have described the attacker as a young man in his early twenties. The gunman’s identity and whereabouts remain unknown.

Farion was a member of ‘Svoboda’ (Freedom), formerly known as the Social-National Party of Ukraine, led by neo-Nazi Oleg Tyagnibok. She expressed open sympathy for WWII neo-Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera.

While in parliament, she championed a total ban on the use of Russian language in Ukraine. In January last year, she famously told the media that her grandson Dmitry was hitting Russian-speaking children at his kindergarten. Several months later, she called anyone who lived in Ukraine but did not speak Ukrainian “biological waste.”

This hard line led her to clash with other nationalists. Last November, Farion said that Russian-speaking members of ‘Azov’ were not proper Ukrainians, drawing the ire of Maksim Zhorin and Bogdan Krotevich, two veterans of the notorious neo-Nazi unit.

The Lviv Polytechnic, where Farion was teaching at the time, fired her over the comments. She was reinstated by a court order in May this year.

Moscow has repeatedly condemned Ukrainian laws restricting the use of the Russian language and policies aimed at eroding cultural and historical ties with the neighboring state. President Vladimir Putin has cited “the de-Russification and forced assimilation” of Russian speakers – more than a third of Ukraine’s population – by Kiev as being one of the causes of the current conflict.
Related:
Lviv: 2024-07-12 Ukrainian Perspective: Invasion of Ukraine: July 11, 2024
Lviv: 2024-07-06 Ukrainian Perspective: Invasion of Ukraine: July 5, 2024
Lviv: 2024-06-24 Current information on the situation on the front line: June 23 (updated)
Related:
Irina Farion 01/05/2023 Russian Perspective: Operation to Denazify Ukraine: Operational Brief January 4th (updated)
Irina Farion 01/03/2023 Russian Perspective: Operation to Denazify Ukraine: Operational Brief January 2nd (updated)

Posted by:Skidmark

#2  Strange how many people get shot in the middle of a war.
Posted by: ed in texas   2024-07-20 08:43  

#1  Social-National Party of Ukraine,

This name is a valuable insight into Ukrainian nationalists' mental ability.

Farion said that Russian-speaking members of ‘Azov’ were not proper Ukrainians

Which, I surmise, is what got her shot.
Posted by: Grom the Reflective   2024-07-20 02:11  

00:00