You're reading: Regions Party: Kliuyev is legitimate head of Interior Ministry

First Deputy Interior Minister Mykhailo Kliuyev is the legitimate acting interior minister, Regions Party MP Anna Herman has said.

"There’s currently no interior minister, so the legitimate [acting interior minister] is his first deputy – the person who, according to the law, was his first deputy and fulfilled the interior minister’s duties when Yuriy Lutsenko went on vacation while holding the minister’s post," she said at a press conference in Kyiv.

She also pointed to a court ruling suspending Lutsenko’s appointment as first deputy interior minister and acting interior minister.

"Only the minister can submit the candidacy of first deputy minister," Herman said.

As reported, the Ukrainian parliament voted to dismissLutsenko as interior minister at the Regions Party’s request on Jan. 28. On the same day, the government took a decision appointing Lutsenko as a first deputy interior minister and acting interior minister.

Kyiv District Administrative Court, in turn, suspended the government’s decision until the end of an investigation into his appointment, under an appeal lodged by a Regions Party MP.

The government said that Lutsenko was a legitimate head of the Interior Ministry, as it had not received any court ruling on the matter.