The Rada failed to hold a meeting. Parliament says MPs are sick

The Verkhovna Rada failed to start work on February 12 due to a lack of votes. MPs failed a signal vote at the beginning of the session, and the first deputy chairman of the parliament Oleksandr Kornienko announced a break. Broadcast on Rada channel.

There were several attempts to hold a signal vote, but each time there were not enough votes to start the work.

"Consideration of the issues on the agenda for today has been completed. I thank everyone for the ineffective work. I wish health to everyone who could not come today for these reasons, get well," Kornienko said .

UP, citing unnamed informed interlocutors in the Rada, wrote that MPs allegedly could not gather because of a massive foodborne illness – the parliamentarians could have been poisoned in the Rada's dining room. This information is also spread by a number of Telegram channels.

Yaroslav Zheleznyak , an MP from Holos , claims that the information about the deputies' illnesses is partially true (he also says that they allegedly got poisoned in the dining room). However, there are also many MPs on business trips.

According to his words, the poisoning is not the determining reason why the meeting did not take place.

"Firstly, the number of these is small. Secondly, pay attention to the agenda that was formed last night – there are only ratifications. This was even before the report of the poisoning. Everyone already understood that the votes would be bad," he wrote .

Oleksandr Merezhko, head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Foreign Policy and Interparliamentary Cooperation , confirmed to LIGA.net that MPs have begun to complain of sudden deterioration in their health. However, the reasons for this are not yet clear.

"They say it's some kind of virus or poisoning. It's not clear yet. I don't think it's the canteen – few MPs go there. Very different people got sick. It is difficult to understand what unites them, what is the common source of the disease," he said .

According to him, most of the people's deputies fell ill in the Servant of the People faction, the largest in parliament. However, there are also cases among MPs from other factions.

Possible causes of the deterioration are currently being investigated.

The next plenary week will begin on February 24.

• At a meeting on February 11, the Rada raised the age limit for civil servants and local government employees by five years – to 70 years old .
• Parliament also voted for a one-year deferral for contract soldiers "18-24" and established a daily nationwide minute of silence at 09:00.