Several thousand mourners attended the funeral on Monday in Lviv, western Ukraine, for former lawmaker Iryna Farion, 60, known for her advocacy of the Ukrainian language. Farion was fatally shot on Friday by an unknown assailant and later died in the hospital. The incident is being investigated as an assassination, and a search for the attacker is ongoing.
Her daughter, Sofia Semchyshyn, expressed her grief: “They killed her near her house during the day, on a sunny day.”
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Farion served in the Ukrainian parliament from 2012 to 2014, promoting the Ukrainian language and urging officials not to speak Russian. She also controversially criticized Russian-speaking members of Ukraine’s Azov regiment defending Mariupol at the start of Russia’s invasion.
Lviv resident Olha Arden, 64, praised Farion, saying, “For me, she is a patriot, a nationalist, and our strongest fighter for the Ukrainian language. For 32 years, she fought for the Ukrainian language. We respect and honor her. We will remember her after death.”
