A man accused of murdering a prominent pro-Western Ukrainian politician admitted on Tuesday that he carried out the killing but insisted he acted alone and not on behalf of Russia.
“This is my personal revenge against the Ukrainian authorities,” said the man, Mykhailo Stselnikov, in a video released by Ukrainian news outlets. “Yes, I admit that I killed him.” Asked whether he worked with Russian intelligence services, he replied: “No.”
Stselnikov, 52, was arrested late Sunday after allegedly gunning down Andriy Parubiy, a former speaker of Ukraine’s parliament, in the western city of Lviv. Surveillance video appeared to show the assailant, disguised as a courier, firing multiple shots before fleeing the scene.
Parubiy was a leading figure in Ukraine’s pro-European protest movements in 2004 and 2014. Russian state media said Moscow had placed him on a wanted list in 2023.
Ukrainian police said on Monday that the attack was “carefully planned” and linked it to Russia, though they offered no details. President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the killing as “horrific.”
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, both Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other of carrying out assassinations of political and military figures.
