Klimkin, Poltorak and Gritsak will continue to work under Zelensky
The Verkhovna Rada rejected the proposals of the President of Ukraine for the resignation of Foreign Minister Pavel Klimkin, Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak and SBU head Vasily Gritsak.
The corresponding decisions were made during the plenary session of parliament, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
The first to be considered was the resignation of Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavel Klimkin. Speaking against the removal of the head of the foreign policy department, the leader of the “Radical Party” Oleg Lyashko immediately announced the implementation of “Russian revenge” in Ukraine and drew attention to the absence of an alternative candidacy for the post of minister from President Vladimir Zelensky.
“Russian revenge has already arrived! The appointment of Lutkovskaya, Yanukovych’s man, as a representative in Minsk – isn’t this Russian revenge? Kuchma's proposal not to respond, not to shoot when our soldiers are killed. Isn't this Russian revenge? Therefore, Russian revenge has already arrived here. I ask Zelensky: where is the candidacy for the new Minister of Foreign Affairs? What policy will Zelensky pursue? Not the texts that people write to him, but he says that this is plagiarism. Because these texts do not correspond to his vision and essence,” said the controversial people’s deputy.
As a result of the voting, the draft resolution on the resignation of Pavel Klimkin did not receive the required number of votes - 141 out of 325 deputies voted in favor, while the vast majority of the remaining parliamentarians ignored the vote.
“Dear colleagues, I have one simple question for this room: people, what are you doing? Today, the President, who received unprecedented support from Ukrainian citizens - 73%, in fulfillment of his constitutional powers, introduced the corresponding draft resolutions. Today this hall begins to play some strange games. Klimkin, who destroyed the diplomatic service, who did not appoint ambassadors for two years, who made our enemies out of such lawyers of Ukraine in Europe as Poland, is not being poisoned to resign?
Indeed, the situation with Stepan Poltorak is different. It is clear that the army today is different from the army of 2014. But I will emphasize once again that these are the constitutional powers of the president on the one hand. And on the other hand, let's not forget about the corruption that occurred in our armed forces and defense industry enterprises. I once again urge the session hall to return to common sense and support the proposals made by the president,” said the people’s deputy from Batkivshchyna, Sergei Vlasenko, indignantly.
However, the resolution on the resignation of Ukrainian Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak also did not meet with support in the hall - only 67 out of 307 deputies voted in favor.
When considering the decision to dismiss the head of the SBU Vasily Gritsak, Deputy Vlasenko also recalled that it was the head of the special service who was responsible for corruption schemes and infringement of business in Ukraine during the reign of Petro Poroshenko, and should bear criminal responsibility for this.
“Colleagues, what has the SBU been doing for five years? How many bills are there in parliament on depriving the SBU of unusual functions, how many dozens of these bills are there? Nightmare and protection of business, smuggling, political persecution. Who played the role of Poroshenko's political gendarme during the elections? Unfortunately, the SBU. And now they've all quietly retired?
I think there should be an investigation. Unfortunately, the investigation must be carried out by the Prosecutor General's Office. And I appeal to the presidential representative with a request to nominate a candidate for prosecutor general as soon as possible,” Vlasenko said.
However, the arguments were not heard - the deputies again rejected the resolution on resignation as a result of a vote, which was preceded by a fiery speech by Speaker Andriy Parubiy, according to whom, “the intelligence services of the whole world admire the special operations of Ukraine.”
The voting results caused the representative of the President of Ukraine in parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk, to smile ironically, after which he, observing the joyful exclamations of the deputies, demonstratively clapped his hands.
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