Zelenskiy's party purges lawmaker for wartime trip to Thailand

People

27/01/2023 13:50

By Dan Peleschuk
       KYIV, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Ukraine's ruling party has
kicked out a lawmaker from its parliamentary faction after
reports he had travelled to Thailand during Ukraine's grinding
war with Russia sparked a public outcry.
    Party spokesperson Yulia Paliychuk said on Friday that
Mykola Tyshchenko was expelled from Servant of the People's
voting bloc after an announcement appeared briefly on the
website of the Ukrainian embassy in Thailand saying Tyshchenko
would meet members of the Ukrainian diaspora at a hotel there.
     Tyshchenko said on Facebook he had been on a business trip
in Asia with approval of party leaders, "acting exclusively in
the interests of Ukraine". Parliament Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk
said he had approved no such trip.
    The winter visit to sun-soaked Southeast Asia comes amid a
crackdown by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy aimed at projecting
an image of greater accountability for officials.
        More than a dozen senior officials were fired or
resigned this week, including a deputy prosecutor who had come
under fire in the press for a holiday in Spain, in the biggest
shakeup of the Kyiv leadership since the war began.
  
        Zelenskiy has announced a ban this week on private trips
abroad by officials. Most Ukrainian men aged 18-60 have already
been barred from leaving the country under martial law since
Russia launched its full-scale invasion in Februrary last year.
 (Reporting by Dan Peleschuk)
 ((dan.peleschuk@thomsonreuters.com))