President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine to former Verkhovna Rada Speaker Andriy Parubiy.
This is stated in Presidential Decree No. 739/2025 of 1 October 2025.
‘To award the title of Hero of Ukraine with the Order of the State to Andriy Volodymyrovych Parubiy, People's Deputy of Ukraine (posthumously),’ the document says.
It is noted that the title was awarded for outstanding personal contributions to the establishment of independent Ukraine and the strengthening of its statehood, as well as for many years of political and public activity.
Andriy Parubiy was born on 31 January 1971 in Lviv. In 1991, he became one of the founders of the People's Movement of Youth and the Social-National Party of Ukraine (later VO ‘Svoboda’). He was an active participant in the Orange Revolution and the Revolution of Dignity, and in 2014 he headed the coordination headquarters of the Maydan Self-Defence Forces. He held the position of Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council (2014). He was a member of the Verkhovna Rada for several terms.
In addition, three other Ukrainians were posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine:
- schoolboy Stepan Chubenko, who was shot by ‘DPR’ militants;
- children's writer Volodymyr Vakulenko, who was killed by Russians in the Kharkiv Region in 2022;
- Crimean activist Hennadiy Afanasyev, who died on the front lines in 2022.
The murder of Andriy Parubiy
- Andriy Parubiy was shot dead on 30 August in Lviv. The suspect was arrested 36 hours later in the Khmelnytskyy Region. Law enforcement officials believe that he had carefully prepared for the crime.
- The detainee, 52-year-old Lviv resident Mykhaylo Scelnikov, admitted to the crime in a comment to journalists in the courtroom. He claims that he shot Parubiy out of a desire for ‘revenge against the authorities.’ He added that he killed Parubiy because he was ‘close by’ and if he had lived in Vinnytsya, he could have killed ‘Petya’ (presumably the fifth president, Petro Poroshenko).
- The Lviv court imposed a preventive measure on him - 60 days in custody without the right to bail.