A court in Lviv sentenced 20-year-old Vyacheslav Zinchenko to life imprisonment, accused of murdering former Verkhovna Rada deputy, famous public and political figure, linguist Irina Farion. Zinchenko did not admit his guilt.
In the summer of 2024, the murder of a prominent defender of the Ukrainian language, who had repeatedly found herself in scandals due to her harsh statements, shocked Ukraine, becoming the most high-profile political murder since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion.
The prosecution argued that Zinchenko carried out the murder of Farion for ideological reasons: he believed that her activity in defense of the Ukrainian language was harmful to the struggle for the greatness of the white race. It follows from the court decision that Zinchenko acted independently.
Zinchenko’s defense declared his innocence, but during the trial, which lasted almost two years, they never formulated their substantive reaction to the prosecution’s position. Zinchenko himself, in fact, refused the last word.
Zinchenko's defense has already promised to challenge this decision in the appeal court.
Irina Farion was shot and killed on July 19, 2024. At about 19:30 that day, she was waiting for a taxi with a suitcase near the entrance of her house in a residential area of Lvov. According to the investigation, an unknown man, who had previously been sitting on a bench in the same yard, approached her and shot her in the head almost point-blank. Doctors fought for her life for several hours, but closer to midnight they reported Farion’s death.
Soon the police distributed a sketch of the alleged killer. The photographs published by law enforcement showed a young man wearing a wide-brimmed Panama hat and cycling glasses that covered half of his face. Residents of the house where Farion lived told reporters that the young man had been coming to their yard for several days and closely watching the murdered woman’s entrance. One of Farion’s neighbors even took a photograph of the suspicious young man - this photo later became a key clue for law enforcement.
On July 25, 2024, the police reported the arrest of a murder suspect. He turned out to be an 18-year-old resident of Dnieper at the time, Vyacheslav Zinchenko, who graduated from the first year of the university there with a degree in journalism.
Later, law enforcement officers reported that in the process of searching for the suspect, they interviewed over 900 witnesses, analyzed videos from 170 surveillance cameras, and worked with more than eight dozen people who looked similar to the suspect.
Initially, Zinchenko was charged with premeditated murder, but later the qualifications of his actions were clarified: he was eventually accused of illegal handling of firearms and premeditated murder with aggravating circumstances - the maximum punishment under this article included life imprisonment.
Initially, Ukrainian observers had little doubt that there was a need to look for a Russian trace in one form or another in the murder of Irina Farion. Additional grounds for such speculation were provided by the fact that late in the evening of July 24, shortly before Zinchenko’s arrest, Russian telegram channels published a video allegedly of Farion’s murder.
Vyacheslav Zinchenko formerly headed the Dnieper youth cell of the Right Sector. His father, a serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, told the media that Zinchenko Jr. had completely patriotic views and was even going to serve as a simple infantryman in the Ukrainian army, but he managed to dissuade his son and send him to a course for UAV operators.
Ukrainian investigative journalists identified his telegram account already in the first days after Zinchenko’s arrest. It turned out that he was subscribed to numerous far-right public pages, including Russian ones, and left anti-Semitic and racist comments in them. In January 2024, in one of these comments, Zinchenko mentioned the NS/WP group.
As a result, Ukrainian law enforcement officers did not find evidence of any connection between Zinchenko and Russia as such. It follows from the indictment that, according to the investigation, Vyacheslav Zinchenko acted independently and considered Farion as a figure who, through his activities, splits the white race.
Consideration of the Zinchenko case on its merits began in January 2025. During the trial, prosecutors stated that several groups of evidence testify to Zinchenko’s guilt. They demonstrated the results of odorological (smell) and portrait examinations, which, according to the investigation, proved that it was Zinchenko who was in the courtyard of the house where Farion lived on the eve and on the day of her murder.
The investigation considered the analysis of the contents of his mobile phone and computer to be proof of Zinchenko’s guilt: it followed that since September 2023, Zinchenko had regularly searched the Internet for information about Farion’s personal data, studied maps of her area of residence and blackout schedules in the area, saved instructions on conducting reconnaissance and conspiracy, looked for opportunities to buy a starting pistol and convert it into a traumatic one, and finally, bought items of clothing in which a suspicious young man was photographed in the courtyard of Farion’s house.
In addition, a number of notes were found on Zinchenko’s phone that could be interpreted as preparation for an attack on Farion, as well as delayed messages that were supposed to be sent to the father and the administrator of the telegram public associated with NS/WP in case “if something goes wrong.”
Finally, prosecutors stated that while already in the pre-trial detention center, Zinchenko confessed to the murder of Farion to his cellmate. However, Zinchenko’s defense argued that this confession was the result of pressure on him and therefore is inadmissible evidence. The court agreed with the lawyers' arguments and stated that it did not accept this evidence.
Zinchenko himself declared his innocence throughout the trial, although he did not deny that Farion was in Lviv at the time of the murder.
Observers pointed out that the defense was delaying the consideration of the case in every possible way - Zinchenko refused the services of lawyers, his defenders demanded the recusal of judges, prosecutors and even the court secretary, and did not appear in court.
Zinchenko himself went on hunger strike several times throughout the trial. One more time Zinchenko imitated a suicide attempt right in the glass cage of the courtroom.
The stage of judicial arguments - the last one before the verdict is announced - began in April of this year. When lawyer Diana Kara came to court on September 17, she made a motion for another break, and when the judge refused her, she declared that the court had violated the right to defend her client and demanded the recusal of the panel of judges. In response to the offer to make the last word, Zinchenko said that he supported his defender and also demanded the recusal of the judges.
Irina Farion’s daughter Sofia Osoba cursed him right in the courtroom at the first meeting after Zinchenko’s arrest and wished him death. He stuck his tongue out at her in response. Sofia Osoba filed a separate lawsuit against Zinchenko, in which she demanded compensation for moral damages in the amount of 15 million hryvnia.
After the announcement of the final court decision, the mood of representatives of these groups was predictably radically different. Farion’s supporters greeted the decision by singing the Ukrainian anthem and chanting “Dovichne!” (“Life sentence!”). Sofia Osoba's face showed obvious relief.
Zinchenko's defense has thirty days to file an appeal.
