Ukraine’s parliament failed to pass a critical local government oversight law required for EU funding yesterday, potentially jeopardizing access to billions in European financial support as a key reform deadline expired in March.

The Verkhovna Rada rejected draft law №13150 with only 206 votes in favor of the required 226.

The legislation would have established oversight mechanisms for local government decisions and created a registry of municipal acts—requirements embedded in Ukraine’s €50 billion Ukraine Facility agreement with the European Union.

Another missed EU reform target

Ukraine has already missed its 31 March 2025 deadline for implementing this reform. This is part of a broader pattern of legislative delays that risk the country’s access to Europe’s largest financial support package during wartime.

The Ukraine Facility provides quarterly payments based on Ukraine meeting specific milestones, including democratic governance and rule of law requirements.

These bodies would have the authority to demand corrections to illegal decisions and take violators to court when necessary.

Why local oversight matters during war

The European Union structured the Ukraine Facility around strengthening democratic institutions even as Ukraine fights Russia’s invasion. At least 20% of the program’s €5.27 billion in grants must support sub-national authorities, making local government accountability essential for unlocking EU funds.

The Ukraine Facility regulation specifically mandates “effective democratic mechanisms and institutions, including a multi-party parliamentary system and the rule of law,” as well as systems “to effectively prevent, detect and correct irregularities, corruption and in particular fraud, all forms of corruption, including high-level corruption, or any other illegal activity ”

Stakes beyond one law

Since March 2024, the EU has expended over €12 billion to Ukraine under the facility, funding teacher salaries, healthcare workers, and essential government operations while the country allocates domestic resources to defense.

The failure comes as Ukraine depends on international financing to cover roughly half its $37.5 billion external funding needs for 2024.

Beyond the Ukraine Facility, the country relies on additional EU support through the European Peace Facility and bilateral aid from member states.

Parliament had initially approved the bill for further development in May, but the final version failed to gain sufficient support nearly four months after the EU’s implementation deadline.

Ukrainian authorities captured a suspect in the killing of former parliament speaker Andriy Parubiy following a 36-hour manhunt that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy personally authorized. Investigators say they’re focusing on a potential Russian connection to what appears to be a meticulously planned assassination.

On 30 August, in broad daylight on a Lviv street, a man dressed as a delivery courier approached Parubiy. The gunman fired eight shots at the lawmaker before confirming his death and fleeing the scene. Video footage captured the execution, showing the killer’s deliberate courier disguise before he vanished.

But 36 hours later, police found him hiding in the Khmelnytsky Oblast of western Ukraine. The 52-year-old suspect from Lviv now faces premeditated murder and illegal weapons handling charges carrying up to 15 years in prison.

Investigators consider “the Russian trace”

“The crime was carefully planned, its preparation lasted more than one month,” senior investigator Andriy Nebitov told reporters. The perpetrator had studied Parubiy’s daily routines, mapped multiple escape routes, and prepared detailed contingency plans.

After the shooting, the suspect tried to cover his tracks. He changed clothes, ditched the weapon, and fled toward western Ukraine’s rural areas. Law enforcement found objective evidence linking him to the killing, according to prosecutors who are preparing to hold him without bail.

“Today we prioritize considering the Russian trace — an order from the Russian Federation,” Nebitov added without providing specifics.

Ukraine’s Security Service also says the assassination bears hallmarks of a contract killing with Russian involvement.

“The crime has signs of being ordered,” said Vadim Onyshchenko, head of the SBU’s Lviv Oblast department. “There is operational information that indicates possible involvement of Russian Federation special services in organizing the murder.”

Suspect claims killing was “revenge on Ukrainian authorities,” denies Russian involvement

[updated on 2 September] The detained suspect admitted guilt in court, but his explanation caught everyone off guard.

“Revenge on Ukrainian authorities,” he told the reporters, according to a Hromadske correspondent in the courtroom.

The suspect also stated he expects a quick sentence so he can be exchanged for prisoners of war, saying he wants to find his son’s body.

Earlier, Lviv’s Vysokyi Zamok newspaper cited unnamed sources who claimed the suspect’s son went missing a year ago, apparently on the front line. According to these reports, Russians allegedly told him they would return his son’s body in exchange for killing any prominent Ukrainian politician. This information is not yet verified.

However, if true, this would represent a different kind of Russian operation—not a professional hit against the anti-Russian politician, but exploitation of a desperate father’s grief. 

Who was assassinated Andriy Parubiy?

Parubiy, 52, was a defining figure in Ukraine’s modern political development and maintained a consistently anti-Russian stance throughout his career.

He co-founded the Social-National Party of Ukraine in 1991, when Ukraine gained independence from the Soviet Union, which declared in its early program that it “considers the Russian state the cause of all troubles in Ukraine.” 

The statement seemed extreme at the time—so controversial that Ukraine’s Ministry of Justice delayed registering the party until 1995. But Parubiy’s early anti-Russian stance proved accurate, with Ukraine fighting Russian aggression since 2014 and facing full-scale invasion since 2022.

The politician played pivotal roles in Ukraine’s two major democratic upheavals. During the 2004 Orange Revolution, he served as commandant of the Ukrainian House, a key protest site.

The mass protests in 2004 erupted after a rigged presidential election tried to install Moscow-backed Viktor Yanukovych over pro-Western Viktor Yushchenko. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians took to the streets for weeks until authorities agreed to a revote that Yushchenko won.

Nearly a decade later, Parubiy became the de facto leader of the Euromaidan demonstrations in 2013 and 2014, aimed at fighting for Ukraine’s future int he EU and away from Russian influence, 

“From that megaphone I started the rally,” Parubiy once recalled about launching the initial Euromaidan protest. “In the first minutes there were 70-80 of us, there were more police around us than us.”

From those chaotic first hours, Parubiy built a protest movement that lasted three months. He organized the tent city, established defensive barricades, and created what became known as “Maidan Self-Defense”—a structured force that grew to 12,000 people by February 2014. He appointed “centurions” to command different sectors and coordinate security for the sprawling protest camp.

Unlike other opposition politicians who negotiated with Yanukovych’s government, Parubiy stayed focused on organizing the grassroots protesters. When government snipers eventually opened fire on demonstrators, killing over 100 people, Parubiy claimed Russian operatives were involved in the shootings both targeting protesters and government forces to maximize chaos.

Fight against Russian influence in Ukraine

Following the revolution, Parubiy was appointed Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, where he helped establish Ukraine’s National Guard by incorporating Maidan self-defense forces. He oversaw anti-terrorist operations against separatists in eastern Ukraine and was a vocal opponent of the Minsk peace agreements.

“I believed and believe that the agreements were signed under very unfavorable conditions for Ukraine,” he said, arguing that Russian President Vladimir Putin had no intention of implementing them and could only be stopped by force.

Parubiy served as speaker of Ukraine’s parliament from 2016 to 2019, working alongside politicians including former president Petro Poroshenko and opposing what he called Russian attacks on Ukrainian language and culture. After stepping down as speaker, he continued serving as a member of parliament representing the European Solidarity party.

His most dramatic parliamentary moment came in 2010, when he smuggled a smoke grenade into the chamber to disrupt ratification of the Kharkiv Accords—agreements that extended Russia’s lease of its Sevastopol naval base in Crimea and allowed expanded Russian military presence on the peninsula. The stunt failed, but Parubiy’s fears proved justified when Russia seized Crimea in 2014 and launched a war in eastern Ukraine that continues today.

“If we hadn’t allowed this then, far fewer Russian troops would be stationed in Crimea, everything could have gone differently,” he later reflected.

He demanded “complete destruction of Russian empire”

When Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, Parubiy joined territorial defense forces and served at checkpoints around Kyiv. He consistently advocated for the complete destruction of what he termed the “Russian empire.”

“This is today a chance for the Ukrainian army and people to destroy this empire,” he declared, arguing that Russia would remain a perpetual threat if not decisively defeated.

“If it [Russian empire] doesn’t die today, it will continue to remain a threat to us, to our children. And we must leave our children a peaceful sky and end this war with the complete defeat of the Russian army,” he added.

His European Solidarity party colleagues have demanded a thorough investigation, stating they believe the murder is connected to his pro-Ukrainian positions. The party suggested Russia and its supporters were behind the killing, noting that “Moscow sincerely hated Parubiy as one of the state-builders of modern Ukraine.”

The investigation continues as authorities examine all possible motives while focusing on the Russian connection. President Zelenskyy announced that the suspect has already provided initial testimony to investigators.

Former Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) Andriy Parubiy was shot and killed in Lviv on 30 August, according to confirmation from Lviv Oblast Governor Maksym Kozytskyi.

The victim died at the scene from his injuries, police confirmed. The National Police reported that the shooting occurred around noon in the Sykhiv district of the city at 12 pm.

“Sincere condolences to the family of the deceased,” Kozytskyi wrote.

The assailant who shot at Parubiy was dressed as a delivery service courier, Suspilne sources report.

The manhunt for the shooter continues across the Lviv Oblast, with all security services mobilized for the search operation.

President Zelenskyy confirmed Parubiy’s death, with Interior Minister Klymenko and Prosecutor General Kravchenko briefing on the initial circumstances of the killing.

The incident marks another high-profile killing in Lviv, following the July 2024 assassination of former MP Iryna Farion in the same city.

The 54-year-old politician served as Speaker of Ukraine’s parliament from April 2016 to August 2019 and played a key role during the 2014 Ukrainian revolution as Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council. 

Parubiy gained prominence during the 2013-2014 Euromaidan protests as commandant of the tent camp and head of self-defense detachments. During the February 2014 revolution, after the ousting of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych, Parubiy led forces that took control of the government quarter in Kyiv, including the Verkhovna Rada, Presidential Administration, Cabinet of Ministers, and Interior Ministry buildings.