You're reading: Speaker:Lutsenko suspended as Ukraine’s interior minister

Yuriy Lutsenko has been suspended as Ukraine's interior minister, Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn has said.

“Today, I had a talk with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. According to a decision by the Verkhovna Rada, Lutsenko is not fulfilling ministerial duties. He has been suspended,” he said at a conciliatory council meeting on Monday.

On May 16, the parliament newspaper Holos Ukrainy published a parliament resolution on some issues in ensuring a study of the consequences of an incident with Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko at Frankfurt Airport.

A total of 423 MPs voted to pass a relevant decision on May 15.

In its resolution, parliament asked the government to hold a seven-day official investigation into the incident with the minister.

The government should also decide on Lutsenko’s suspension from duty for the time of the investigation.

The cabinet is to report to the Verkhovna Rada about the results of the inquiry. The factions are proposed to submit their candidates for the temporary investigative commission.

Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said that First Deputy Interior Minister Mykhailo Kliuyev would serve as acting Ukraine’s interior minister during Lutsenko’s suspension from duty.