Manhunt underway after Ukrainian politician shot dead in street in suspected assassination

Former parliamentary speaker Andriy Parubiy was shot dead in the western city of Lviv on Saturday.

A search is under way for the killer who was reportedly disguised as a delivery driver, local media reports.

Parubiy, 54, was a member of parliament, had been parliamentary speaker from April 2016 to August 2019, and was one of the leaders of protests in 2013-14 calling for closer ties with the European Union.

He was also secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council from February to August 2014, a period when fighting began in eastern Ukraine and Russia annexed the Crimea peninsula.

Officials gave no immediate indication whether the murder had any direct link to Russia's war in Ukraine.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on X: "Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko and Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko have just reported on the first known circumstances of a horrific murder in Lviv. Andriy Parubiy has been killed."

He sent his condolence to Parubiy's family and loved ones, and added: "All necessary forces and means are engaged in the investigation and search for the killer."

National police said the shooting in Lviv was reported at around noon (0900 GMT).

Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said finding the killer and establishing the circumstances of the attack was of outmost importance.

"This is a matter of security in a country at war, where, as we can see, there are no completely safe places," he wrote on Telegram.