"This is just the start' Kyiv and Moscow fighting shadow war of political killings

Dressed all in black and wearing a yellow helmet, the man on the bike looked like a food delivery driver, one of hundreds crisscrossing Lviv with a big yellow box on his back.

- Shaun Walker

But this courier had no meals to deliver. Instead, he lurked on a side street, waiting for a balding 54-year-old with black-rimmed spectacles to appear. The man on the bike had studied the target's movements for weeks, and was expecting him to emerge from his apartment building on to the street and head to the gym. When he did, the fake courier approached from behind, took out a pistol and fired eight times before fleeing.

The 30 August killing, many believe, was the latest in a series of assassinations in Ukraine and Russia, part of a shadow war carried out by security services and their accomplices on the ground. It has so far involved execution-style shootings, car bombs and, in one case, an exploding scooter.

The dead man was Andriy Parubiy, one of Ukraine's bestknown nationalist politicians.

He campaigned for Ukraine's independence from the Soviet Union as a teenager, and became increasingly radical in the 1990s, when he joined a far-right party.

Later on he toned down his views, but remained constant in his belief that Ukraine needed to be rid of all Russian influence.

During the Maidan revolution of 2014, Parubiy organised groups of protesters into "self-defence units" that fought against riot police.

After the revolution, he became the secretary of Ukraine's security council, as the country tried to steer a new course away from Russia. By the time full-scale war broke out in 2022, he was no longer a household name, but was still an MP.

"He was a true patriot, a person with a sincere desire to build a better Ukraine," said Yarema Dukh, who worked as his press secretary.