Andriy Volodymyrovych Parubiy was a Ukrainian politician who started his politics as elected leader of Komsomol, later co-founded the Social-National Party of Ukraine in 1991, and who served as the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament, from 14 April 2016, to 29 August 2019.

 He previously served as Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, appointed after the Euromaidan protests in the 2014 Ukrainian revolution, until his resignation on 7 August 2014.

Parubiy was shot and killed in Lviv on 30 August, 2025.

Education

In 1994 he graduated from the history department of University of Lviv and received a diploma with the specializtion historian, teacher of history.

In 2001 he completed a program in political science and sociology at the graduate school of the State University Lviv Polytechnic.

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In the years leading up to the Ukrainian independence in 1991 Parubiy was an independence activist and was arrested by the authorities of the Ukrainian SSR for organizing an unsanctioned rally in 1989

 In 1991 he founded the far-right Social-National Party of Ukraine together with Oleh Tyahnybok; the party combined radical nationalism and neo-Nazi features (by its name and the "Wolfsangel"-like sign).

 The party restricted membership to ethnic Ukrainians, and was based on the fascist ideology of Hitler.

 In 1998–2004 Parubiy led the paramilitary organization of SNPU, the Patriot of Ukraine. Parubiy left these organizations in 2004.

Parubiy participated in the Orange Revolution in 2004.

 In the 2007 parliamentary elections he was voted into the Ukrainian parliament on an Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc ticket. He then became a member of the deputy group that would later become For Ukraine!. Parubiy stayed with Our Ukraine and became a member of its political council.

Prior to becoming a Deputy in the Verkhovna Rada in 2007, he was a deputy in the Lviv oblast council.

 In February 2010 Parubiy asked the European Parliament to reconsider its negative reaction to former Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko's decision to award Stepan Bandera, the leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, the title of Hero of Ukraine.

In early February 2012 Parubiy left Our Ukraine because their "views diverged".

 In 2012 he was re-elected into parliament on the party list of Batkivshchyna.

From December 2013 to February 2014, Parubiy was a commandant of Euromaidan. He was coordinator of the volunteer security corps for the mainstream protesters.

 He was then appointed Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine. This appointment was approved by (then) new Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on 16 June 2014.

As Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, Parubiy supported the operation against pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

 In May 2014, at a Ukraine–NATO working group in Brussels, Parubiy requested that NATO experts should come to Ukraine to help plan the reform of Ukraine's security and defence sector.

Parubiy resigned as Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council on 7 August 2014. He declined to say why, stating "I believe it is unacceptable to comment on my resignation in a time of war", and he would "continue to assist the front, primarily volunteer battalions". President Poroshenko signed a decree confirming Parubiy's dismissal the same day.

In September 2014 Parubiy became a founding member of his new party People's Front.

 At the Ukrainian elections of October 2014 he was re-elected as People's Deputy on the party list "People's Front".

On 4 December, he was elected as Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada.

After the resignation of Volodymyr Groysman, on 14 April 2016, he was elected as Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian equivalent of legislative speaker of parliament).

 On 15 February 2019, Parubiy signed a decree on the establishment of the parliamentary reform Office. The VR Chairman noted that it is planned to involve 15 employees in the work in the Office in accordance with the directions of parliamentary work

In the July 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election Parubiy was placed second on the party list of European Solidarity.

The party won 23 seats (on the nationwide party list and 2 constituency seats) and thus Parubiy was re-elected to parliament. On 29 August 2019, he was succeeded as Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada by Dmytro Razumkov.

Despite his move away from the Social-National Party in 2004 Parubiy was frequently the target by pro-Russian media, who routinely refer to him as a Nazi, especially after the Revolution of Dignity. For example, after the Constitutional Court of Ukraine declared the Law on National Referendums unconstitutional, Parubiy cautioned against the use of referendums to manipulate the population, pointing out that Adolf Hitler also used referendums in Nazi Germany to accomplish his goals; Russian media (such as RIA Novosti, RT, Zvezda, NTV, Sputnik, and others), Ukrainian pro-Russian media (112 Ukraine, NewsOne, Strana.ua, KP, and others) and Ukrainian pro-Russian politicians (such as Vadim Rabinovich and Viktor Medvedchuk) distorted Parubyi's phrase, stating that Parubiy had openly praised Hitler. It was eventually debunked by the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group and the media watchdog Detector Media.

Assassination

On 30 August 2025, Parubiy, aged 54, was fatally shot by an assassin in Lviv. The shooting occurred around noon local time in the Frankivsk district of Lviv when a gunman fired multiple rounds at the former parliamentary speaker.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the killing as a "terrible murder" and announced that all necessary resources would be deployed to investigate the case and find the perpetrator. Ukrainian law enforcement agencies, including the national police, regional police in Lviv, and the security service, launched investigations into the killing. The Prosecutor General's office initiated a special investigation dubbed "Operation Siren" to examine the circumstances of the assassination.