Photo: SBU
After several months of investigative and operational work, law enforcement officers have located and seized the handgun used to kill Member of Parliament Andriy Parubiy, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko announced on Tuesday morning, December 16.
According to him, investigators have obtained fundamentally important new results:
The weapon used to kill Andriy Parubiy has been found — a handgun that the suspect attempted to conceal in a specially prepared hideout.
New evidence has been collected indicating that the suspect committed not only premeditated murder, but also a number of grave crimes against the foundations of Ukraine’s national security.
“In this regard, the suspect’s actions have been additionally classified under articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine relating to high treason and the justification and glorification of Russia’s armed aggression,” Kravchenko wrote.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) уточнила, in turn, that the suspect carried out the killing on the orders of Russian special services. He used a Makarov pistol for the assassination. The weapon, equipped with a suppressor, was hidden in a cache prepared by the perpetrator after the murder.
“Forensic examinations have confirmed that this pistol was used to fire the fatal shot at the MP. DNA traces belonging to the killer were also found on the weapon,” the SBU stated.
The security service also reported that investigators obtained video footage showing the detainee setting up the hideout with the pistol in a forested area and “reporting” on this to his Russian handler. According to the investigation, the weapon was later intended to be used for other contract killings on Ukrainian territory.
After Parubiy’s murder, the suspect attempted to flee abroad but was detained in the Khmelnytskyi region, from where he planned to illegally cross into a neighboring country, likely Moldova or Romania.
During the investigation, detectives also established that the man had justified Russia’s armed aggression and denied war crimes committed by occupying forces, including during the temporary occupation of Bucha.
Andriy Parubiy was shot dead in broad daylight on August 30 on a street in Lviv. The murder suspect, Mykhailo Stselnikov, was detained on the night of September 1 in the Khmelnytskyi region.
According to media reports, during interrogation the suspect spoke about contacts with Russian representatives while searching for his son, a Ukrainian serviceman listed as missing in action. He later claimed, however, that he had not directly cooperated with Russian intelligence services.
