You're reading: Ukrainian parliamentarians collecting signatures to dismiss Interior Minister Avakov

Ukrainian parliamentarians have started collecting signatures for a draft resolution on the dismissal of Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Arsen Avakov, one of the initiators of the resignation, independent MP Ostap Yednak has said.

“We are collecting signatures with Hanna Hopko [independent MP, head of the parliamentary committee on foreign affairs] under a draft resolution on Avakov’s resignation. I wonder how many lawmakers will have the guts,” Yednak wrote on Facebook on June 5.

Yednak also published a photocopy of the draft resolution, on which there are two signatures – Hopko’s and his.

“Citizens sense a threat from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but it should be the other way around! The police do not protect but kill citizens. The police do not investigate crimes, but cover criminals,” Yednak wrote.

Under Paragraph 12 of Article 85 of the Constitution of Ukraine, the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, is authorized to decide on the dismissal of the Prime Minister and members of the Cabinet of Ministers. The draft resolution on Avakov refers to this provision.

At a recent government meeting, Avakov said he was not going to resign over the murder of a five-year-old boy shot by two police officers in the town of Pereyaslav Khmelnytsky in Kyiv region. But he said that Ukraine’s parliament may handle his dismissal.