Ukraine's interim president and Verkhovna Rada speaker, Oleksandr Turchynov, has ordered the Prosecutor General's Office, the Security Service of Ukraine and the State Border Service to explain within the next three hours the reasons why the "people's governor" of Luhansk region Valeriy Bolotov on Tuesday, May 13 managed to leave the territory of Ukraine through the Dovzhansky checkpoint.
An Interfax-Ukraine reporter said that this order had been given after a speech by MP Oleh Liashko, who referred to the State Border Service asserting that it had no grounds to ban Bolotov’s departure from Ukraine.
“I’m asking the secretariat to issue a formal instruction to the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Security Service and the State Border Service to provide official explanations of the fact, which has just been announced from the rostrum of the Verkhovna Rada. Immediately sign this instruction and provide [explanations] within three hours,” Turchynov said.
The State Border Service confirmed to Interfax-Ukraine that Bolotov had legally left Ukraine.
“We confirm that yesterday he left through the Dovzhansky checkpoint. Ukrainian border guards let him go, because there were no restrictions and instructions from the concerned departments with regard to him,” State Border Service spokesman Oleh Slobodian said.
