Russia has opened a new stage of the war: People’s Deputy Kostenko commented on the murder of Parubiy

Ukraine should respond symmetrically, Kostenko believes.

Former Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Andriy Parubiy was killed by a hitman disguised as a courier. This was announced on the Dozhd TV channel by Roman Kostenko, a member of the People’s Deputy, Secretary of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence.

“We understand that this is terror that the Russian Federation is now carrying out against the first persons of the state. They cannot reach the president and current leaders. But Parubiy was the second person in the state from 2016 to 2019. And I will say that with this act of terrorism, Russia may be opening a new stage of the war. Before that, they made an attempt on nationalists – people who support the pro-Ukrainian movement,” Kostenko said.

He added that Ukrainian operations were only aimed at eliminating war criminals, while Russia opened a new stage of the war by assassinating and destroying the top figures of the state.

“And I believe that Ukraine should respond symmetrically. And the whole world should see that no one is safe anymore. This is, first of all, an attack on democracy. Because the person so cynically disguised himself, waited and fired the entire magazine, 8 rounds,” Kostenko added.Read also:

He recalled that the Security Service of Ukraine had previously prevented attacks on other MPs. Therefore, according to Kostenko, similar threats may occur in the future.

“We have a war between Ukraine and Russia, and there are legitimate goals. These are generals who make decisions, these are military people. Russia recently killed one of the employees of the Security Service, who also participated in military operations. And here there are terrorist attacks against statesmen, people who are civilians… The Verkhovna Rada is like a law of democracy in our country. And it will be necessary to strictly adhere to security measures, including during meetings of the Verkhovna Rada. Russia has shown that it is already ready to fight against democratic institutions,” Kostenko explained.

(C)UNIAN 2025