Lawmakers demand action against pro-Russian party Opposition Platform MPs after latest statements
Members of the Ukrainian Parliament from various factions have demanded the removal of mandates from all members of the pro-Russian Opposition Platform – For Life party, which has been banned since 2022. This move comes in the wake of controversial pro-Russian statements made by the party's leader, Yuriy Boyko, who has been summoned for questioning by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).
Iryna Herashchenko and Oleksii Honcharenko from the European Solidarity party, along with Yaroslav Zheleznyak from the Golos party, have called for the adoption of a bill to effectively ban the Opposition Platform party.
Roman Kostenko from the Golos party emphasized the need for the Office of the Prosecutor General to provide a legal assessment of Boyko's actions promptly.
Parliamentarians are also demanding that the heads of the SBU and the acting Prosecutor General provide information on whether the actions of the Opposition Platform party pose a threat to national security. Additionally, they have appealed to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to strip Boyko of his Hero of Ukraine title.
Serhiy Yevtushok, the first deputy chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Rules of Procedure, Parliamentary Ethics and Organisation of Work, stated that the parliament can only exclude Boyko from the Committee on Human Rights, Deoccupation and Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories based on his statements.
"As of today, this is the case. If later there are charges of a crime, a pre-trial investigation is conducted and a verdict is reached, then the Verkhovna Rada will deprive any MP of this status in accordance with the verdict," the lawmaker explained.
Touching on the topic of the title of Hero of Ukraine, Yevtushok said that "the ball is in Zelenskyy's court" and he should deprive him of the title. He recalled that on November 20, the president signed Law 11410, which allows for the deprivation of state awards to traitors.
On Monday, Boyko published a video on social media criticizing the renaming of streets, the removal of monuments, and the prohibition of communicating in the "mother tongue," referring to Russian.
This sparked reactions from the Office of the President, the National Security and Defense Council, and the Verkhovna Rada. Deputy Speaker of the Parliament Olena Kondratiuk stated that the parliament could consider Boyko's statements, which align with Russian propaganda, at a conciliatory council.
On Tuesday, Boyko was summoned to the SBU for questioning.