Verkhovna Rada’s Speaker: 37 MPs travelled to US at their own expense to establish contacts
Pravda Ukraine
The Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine’s parliament), Ruslan Stefanchuk, said that 37 Ukrainian MPs had travelled to the United States at their own expense.
Source: Stefanchuk on the sidelines of the conference Ukraine’s Accession to the EU: Shaping a Transformational Agenda, quoted by Radio Svoboda
Quote: “Ukraine is facing a very important task – to reset our relations with our strategic partner, the United States. And we are doing this systematically at all levels, including at the level of restoring relations with the US Congress. That is why we have a large delegation, about 37 people, of which half are from the opposition and half are from the mono-majority, to work systematically with senators to establish relations.”
Details: Stefanchuk said that the parliamentarians are there “not at the expense of the state, they went at their own expense”.
Stefanchuk assured that the work of the Verkhovna Rada does not stop.
Quote: “The Ukrainian parliament is working everywhere, always working on schedule. The work of the parliament is not limited to pressing buttons in the plenary hall… it is work in committees, provisional investigative commissions and at the diplomatic level.”
Background:
- On 6 February, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy criticised MPs for their frequent business trips abroad, including a trip to the US for a Prayer Breakfast.
- “Today we are having a Prayer Breakfast in the United States of America. It is “very important” when about half of the Ukrainian parliament is at this breakfast, and not in Kherson, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, or Sumy.” In response to a clarifying question, however, Zelenskyy replied that he was “very pleased with the work of the parliament, but unfortunately, the parliament does not work every day.”
- On 4 February, the Verkhovna Rada opened the historic 13th session of the ninth convocation, but MPs lacked the votes to adopt the session’s agenda and legislative work plan.
- Due to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Verkhovna Rada of the IX convocation has been working for the longest time in history.
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