Zelenskyy suspends activities of 11 pro-Russian parties
Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy has decided to ban the activities of 11 opposition parties, including some with alleged Russian links.
The largest of them is the Opposition Platform for Life, which has 44 out of 450 seats in the country’s parliament, largely from the Russian speaking eastern Ukraine. The party is led by Viktor Medvedchuk, who has friendly ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is the godfather of Medvedchuks daughter.
Other parties that have been banned include Opposition Bloc, Party of Sharia, Ours, Left Opposition, Union of Left Forces, State, Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine, Socialist party Ukraine, Socialists, and Vladimir Saldo Bloc.
President Zelenskyy spoke about this in a video address overnight Sunday, Ukrinform reports. Ukraine is currently under Martial Law since the Russian invasion, and these restrictions will stay till the Martial Law is in place.
Further, he added, “Any activity on the part of politicians aimed at splitting (society – ed.) or collaborating (with the enemy – ed.) will not succeed. But they will face a tough response. That is why the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine has decided that, given the full-scale war being waged by the Russian Federation and the ties that some political organizations have with that state, any activity of a number of political parties will be suspended pending martial law.”
In his address, President Zelenskyy said ,”I’d like to remind all politicians, from all camps: wartime exposes quite well the paucity of personal ambitions of those who try to put their own ambitions, their own party or career above the interests of the state, the people’s interests; those who hide in the rear, while pretending to be the only one who cares about defense.”
He said that the Ministry of Justice had been instructed to immediately take comprehensive measures to ban these opposition parties.
Ukraine has been under a Russian invasion since the 24th of February as Putin claimed he is trying to ‘de-Nazify’ Ukraine. Subsequently, Martial law was imposed in the country as the war rages on.
