A gunman on July 19 shot and killed a former member of Ukraine's parliament known for campaigns to promote the Ukrainian language.
Iryna Farion, 60, was shot in the head on a street in the western city of Lviv. She died after being transported to a hospital, Lviv regional Governor Maksym Kozytskiy said on Telegram.
Natalya Matolinets, head of the anesthesiology service at the First Medical Association of Lviv, said Farion arrived at the hospital in critical condition "with a severe penetrating gunshot wound to the brain."
She was immediately operated on and then transferred to the intensive-care unit for continued treatment, but her heart could not take the strain, Matolinets said.
"Unfortunately, despite all the efforts of the doctors, despite all resuscitation measures, Iryna Farion's life could not be saved," Matolinets said.
Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said that the shooting was being treated as an assassination. Police launched a wide search for the gunman.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he was receiving regular reports on efforts to capture the gunman. He added that any act of violence was to be condemned.
Farion, a linguist, became a member of the nationalist Svoboda (Freedom) party in 2005 and was elected to parliament in 2012 but failed in subsequent attempts to win reelection.
She gained notoriety for frequent campaigns to promote the Ukrainian language and discredit public officials who spoke Russian.
Farion’s views were seen as radical by some critics, and some of her statements caused controversy.
In 2018, when Ukraine was fighting Russia-backed separatists who had seized territory in the east, she called for a drive to "punch every Russian-speaking person in the jaw."
In 2023, she was dismissed as a professor at the Department of Ukrainian Language at the Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences at Lviv Polytechnic University due to her controversial statements.
At the end of May, the Lviv Court of Appeal issued a ruling reinstating her to the position.