You're reading: Communist Party still demands liquidation of presidency

The Ukrainian Communist Party is not joining the united opposition in the collection of signatures for the impeachment of the president, but has long demanded the liquidation of presidency, Communist Party leader Petro Symonenko has said.

“The current opposition in our country is when an oligarch is against an oligarch. And all these statements [by opposition members] are only an attempt to come to power and enrich themselves even more. I want to remind you that these people – I won’t mention their names – were various ministers, including defense minister [Anatoliy Hrytsenko, the former defense minister, the leader of the Civil Position Party]. They have done their best to destroy the Ukrainian army and the country’s defense capability. And now they are talking about their Ukrainian values,” the party’s press service quoted him as saying at a press conference in Cherkasy on Monday.

Symonenko recalled that when Viktor Yushchenko served as Ukrainian president, the Communist Party faction in parliament had repeatedly raised the issue of the president’s impeachment, but at that time it had not been supported by those who are currently initiating the dismissal of the president.

“The previous and current government was the same, but nobody, apart from the Communists, was talking about impeachment,” Symonenko said.

He noted that the Communist Party had long demanded the liquidation of presidency in Ukraine.