Parliament backs request to president to strip pro-Russian MP Yuriy Boyko of Hero of Ukraine title

The Ukrainian parliament has voted to support a request to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to strip Yuriy Boyko of his Hero of Ukraine title following pro-Russian statements, as reported by Yaroslav Zheleznyak, a member of the Golos faction.

The decision was supported by 232 MPs.

Yuriy Boyko was awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine by the second President of Ukraine, Leonid Kuchma, in the summer of 2004. Kuchma argued that this honor was due to Boyko's "successful settlement of gas debts with Russia."

Earlier today, the Rada voted to recall Boyko from his position as a member of the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights, Deoccupation and Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine. This was the second attempt, as yesterday the parliament did not gather enough votes to pass such a resolution.

In December 2022, a petition calling for Boyko to be stripped of his Hero of Ukraine title gathered more than 25,000 signatures. Zelenskyy reviewed the petition and instructed Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal to find grounds to revoke Boyko's title.

Later, Shmyhal stated that there were insufficient grounds to apply personal restrictive sanctions against Boyko, which could serve as a basis for stripping him of the Hero of Ukraine title.