Today, during the Trust the Deeds Forum of the United Opposition Forces, its delegates agreed that achieving peace solely through political and diplomatic means is a priority task of the Opposition Bloc.

For five years now, Ukraine has been in a state of war that claimed lives of more than 10 thousand people. About two million citizens became refugees. The infrastructure was destroyed. Yet, this is half the trouble as it can be restored, but you will never return those who died. Therefore, it is very important to stop the civil conflict in the southeast.

Seventy-five percent of Ukrainians want peace to be achieved through political and diplomatic ways. Unfortunately, the previous authorities were blind and deaf. They signed the Minsk Agreements with one hand and the laws that made their implementation difficult – with the other hand. We intend to seek peace solely through peaceful, diplomatic means. No military action, no war until final victory – this cannot happen. Full implementation of the Minsk Agreements is the way to peace!

Five years that have passed since the tragic events of May 2, 2014 in Odesa, finally believed the relatives of the victims of the Odesa tragedy in the inhumanity of the current Ukrainian authorities. Families of those killed in the House of Trade Unions are completely deprived of social support from the state. Moreover, all five years, Odesa residents, with the labels of “traitors to the Motherland”, which were previously attached to them by the current authorities without a trial, have been kept in remand prisons of Odesa, Mykolayiv and Kherson without convictions.

At a regular meeting with the relatives of the victims, the MP of the VII convocation, Svitlana Fabrykant, and the OPPOSITION BLOC team of Odesa Oblast handed over certificates to the families on the rehabilitation of children and outlined ways to help those whose loved ones are held in custody until the end of the investigation. Support was provided by the leader of the OPPOSITION BLOC parliamentary faction Vadym Novynskyi and his International Charitable Foundation in honor of the Protection of the Holy Virgin. The results of several meetings with relatives of the victims on May 2 were summed up by Svitlana Fabrykant, a member of the Vadym Novynsky team.

On 2 May 2014, Odesa saw a disaster that resulted in more than 250 victims, including 48 dead. During 5 years since then, the authorities have failed, and to be more correct, they did not want to find and punish either the perpetrators of this crime or its instigators. So far, the investigation has not given a single intelligible and honest answer.

I believe that such an obvious foot-dragging in the investigation process points to the likely organizers of the massacre. We said this earlier and we are saying it now: in our opinion, those responsible need to be looked for among the ranks of the outgoing authorities.

We hope that with the change of the authorities, Ukrainians will be able to feel safe again in their own country, and crimes of the authorities, which led the country in 2014-2019, will be investigated and those guilty ones will be punished.

Our political force will make every effort so that the memory of the victims is not forgotten, that their family members and friends receive worthy support, protection and respect, and most importantly – that justice triumphs, and all those guilty are given the deserved punishment. Moreover, a real and not fabricated truth about the 2^nd of May tragedy ought to become known to the general public and generally recognized both in Ukraine and in the world.

For the first time since 2014, which is since the beginning of hostilities in the east of Ukraine, the Holy Fire, brought to Kyiv from Jerusalem, was handed over to Donetsk. This is a signal to our brothers and compatriots staying in the territory not controlled by Kyiv: we remain united, no matter how they try to separate us. For people on the other side of the delimitation line, this is a chance to have a sense of inclusiveness and belonging to the great Feast, to feel unity with their brothers within the ambit of a single Church.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church plays an important role in the process of uniting the country. The Donetsk and Mariupol Diocese remains united despite the ongoing hostilities in the Donbas. Yet, the real unification of the country should begin with spiritual unity. Such steps can give much more to achieve peace than statements by politicians practicing in eloquence instead of taking concrete actions.

The news of the Resurrection of Christ and the accompanying miracles bring peace and love, uniting believers, rather than deepening enmity between the citizens of one state. The process of overcoming confrontation and the path to Peace begin with such particular steps.

Dear friends! Today we all celebrate the Feast of Orthodoxy! 

This feast was established in honour of the triumph of the Orthodox faith over heresies, when, after a long period of persecution from heretic iconoclasts against Orthodox Christians in the 8th century the persecutions finally stopped and the Orthodox faith triumphed again. 

Representatives of the authorities were behind those ferocious persecutions against Orthodox Christians. Yet, time judged who was right and who was not... 

Now, we are experiencing a similar situation in Ukraine. As more than 1,000 years ago, when iconoclastic rulers persecuted Orthodox Christians causing a terrible schism in the canonical Church, now their followers, anti-church rulers, organize persecution of the canonical Church and artificially provoke religious schism and hostility on religious grounds. 

As in those times in the past, now representatives of the authorities, who are far from the true faith and spirituality, are attempting to make the Church of Christ serve their political interests. 

On 1 March, I took part in the Oppositional Odesa Forum.

The Forum brought together MPs and local councillors, civil society activists, teachers, clergymen, students, manufacturers, entrepreneurs and retirees. The main unifying force to begin with was the understanding that we cannot give the current authorities a single chance to be re-elected for a new term.

To this end, at the coming presidential elections all like-minded people must rally and support a candidate who will restore peace, revive the economy, cancel all anti-popular reforms, reduce disastrous utility tariffs and will put an end to language-based and religious discrimination.

Efforts of the current authorities only worsened our life compared to 2014. It was only President Petro Poroshenko who improved his own life, while they ensured our life “in a new fashion”, having exacerbated acute socio-economic, humanitarian and political crises in Ukraine, having cynically split our society.

On the grounds of a high-profile investigation into the creation of criminal schemes around the state concern Ukroboronprom, involving the closest circle of President Petro Poroshenko, it is necessary to conduct a thorough investigation and bring those responsible to justice. Tomorrow's plenary day should begin precisely with the consideration of this issue by the Verkhovna Rada in order to soon look into the facts that were published by Ukrainian journalists.

Why do we consider the creation of the investigative commission to be so important? Since for quite a long time we have not had any trust to the Prosecutor General's Office, to the Specialized Anticorruption Prosecution, to the National Anticorruption Bureau or the State Bureau of Investigations controlled by the Presidential Administration. These law enforcement agencies repeatedly demonstrated that all the corruption cases against government officials or the President’s circle were soft-pedalled. That is why the creation of a temporary investigative commission to address this issue is the first and most important step.

On 18 February, discussing some of Ukraine’s vital problems in the HARD with Vlashchenko TV program, I expressed my opinion on the necessary actions that could help avoid a deepening split in the Ukrainian society and return peace to the country. Talking about the issues of the humanitarian sphere, most essential for different regions of Ukraine, it is necessary to underline a fundamental difference in the approach to their solution used by the current president and proposed by our team of the Opposition Bloc. By the way, these same principles lay the basis for the program of our candidate Aleksandr Vilkul.

For the humanitarian sphere not to be the line of demarcation in the Ukrainian society, all the regions of Ukraine must be respected: not only Lviv, but Donetsk region too. A new Constitution needs to be adopted, according to which humanitarian issues will be delegated to the regional level to be further considered and decided by the regions themselves.

In my speech at the round table on 15 February 2019 attended by the European Parliament Mission and dedicated to improvement in the efficiency of the Ukrainian parliament and harmonization of the legislation of Ukraine, I, as the head of the Opposition Bloc faction, said that in accordance with the "European Ukraine” Coalition Agreement of 2014, the Opposition Bloc is the only faction that has been deprived of controlling functions, and to this day representatives of the faction have not headed and do not head now a single parliamentary committee.

The ruling coalition has distributed all leadership positions among themselves. Our MPs are neither in the management of the Accounts Chamber nor in the Central Election Commission, nor in the National Council of Ukraine on Television and Radio Broadcasting.

In fact, the only real opposition, as represented by us, is deliberately deprived of the opportunity to influence the work of the law-making body.

The Minsk Agreements, it would seem, formulated a fairly clear road map how to achieve peace in Donbas, in the country and in the region: ceasefire, the adoption of the necessary laws, granting of a special status to Donbas within Ukraine, holding of the elections and return of control over the entire length of the state border to Ukraine. However, it turned out that the Minsk Agreements became a utopia. Peace never came, and there are several reasons for that.

Reason one. Lack of independence among politicians. There are not only the Ukrainian Joint Forces (ATO forces) and armed formations of the self-proclaimed republics warring in the East of Ukraine. There are interests of big world players behind each side. Ukraine is under the US protectorate. “DPR” and “LPR” (the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk Peoples’ Republics) are plainly puppet formations whose policies are completely subordinate to Russia. Accordingly, the conflict in the East of Ukraine is an extrapolation of the conflict relations between Washington and Moscow. That is where the keys to peace lie.

Today, we are witnessing political pressure put on those who, in fulfilling their professional duty, did not give Petro Poroshenko’s technologists the opportunity to make an outright provocation.

The police refused to play dirty political games and did not indulge the passions of aggressive “activists” from among the nationalist groups patronized by the authorities. Hooliganism must be suppressed, banditry must be eradicated and political terrorism must be barred.

Criminal cases were initiated against some police officers, while the rest were forced, in the worst traditions of Stalin's times, to dissociate themselves from their teammates and their views. Those in power do not notice how they themselves promote permissiveness for extreme radicals and demotivate law-enforcement officers.

In this situation, I decided to offer assistance to those against whom the authorities applied their repressions. I am ready to provide the police officers under investigation with the best legal counsels and to pay for their services.

This year, the International Charitable Foundation in Honour of Intercession of the Most Holy Mother of God (ICF) will provide almost UAH 15 million to create and equip a unique operating room at the Heart Institute of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine.

Within the framework of the project, special surgical and angiographic equipment will be purchased for one of the operating rooms of the medical institution. This will make it possible to do cardiac surgery using advanced minimally invasive and endovascular technologies. The project is unique for Ukraine.

In such an operating room, a patient will be able to receive all the necessary diagnostic and treatment procedures in one place. This will significantly reduce the number of surgical intervention stages, as well as the time of patients’ general hospital admission and recovery. Here, various specialists will be able to simultaneously carry out several diagnostic and therapeutic procedures for one patient.

Today, my colleague Aleksandr Dolzhenkov from the Opposition Blocfaction, and myself submitted a petition to the Constitutional Court on behalf of 47 MPs requesting to recognize unconstitutional the adopted law on freedom of conscience and religion.

Referring to Article 35 of the Constitution of Ukraine, we advocate that everyone's right for freedom of religion should be exercised and adhered to. The unconstitutional Law of Ukraine "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations", adopted on 17 January 2019, contains a number of provisions that testify to government’s interference with and deliberate over-regulation of religious organizations' activities. This is an outrageous breach of our citizens' rights. We, the MPs from the Opposition Bloc faction, believe that the law passed with gross violations of the rules of procedure is contrary to the Constitution of Ukraine! In addition, it grossly infringes the rights of one of the denominations, the canonical Orthodox Church, and is aimed at its discrimination. The essence of this law is to do so that to facilitate the transition of parishes from the canonical Orthodox Church to the newly created, the so-called Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which is essentially a political organization.

An anti-Ukrainian decision to amend the Constitution adopted today is completely politically illiterate and serves the purpose of Poroshenko’s election campaign! In fact, the President and his entourage are not interested in the EU and NATO. They are interested in staying in power for another five years. Yet, we have already seen five years of continuous lies, unfulfilled promises and disastrous impoverishment of Ukrainians. Ukraine will succumb to five more such years!

The only faction that voted against this anti-Ukrainian decision was our faction of the Opposition Bloc party. All of us voted against it because we are confident that this decision was made unlawfully, without taking into account the opinion of Ukrainian citizens. According to the Constitution, only the Ukrainian people have the right to change the state’s foreign policy course enshrined in the Basic Law. There is only one way to find out the opinion of Ukrainians that is to hold a national referendum.

Yesterday, at the conciliatory council meeting between the heads of parliamentary factions, I reminded my colleagues that once again during four years we, the Opposition Bloc party, insist that the Verkhovna Rada adopt the package of laws necessary to implement the Minsk Agreements and fulfil the commitments undertaken by Ukraine on 12 February 2015. Over this time, while the Minsk Agreements are not implemented, thousands of people, both civilians and military, have died in our country, but despite this, not a single step has been taken to establish peace in Donbas. 

The second most important issue for consideration in the Verkhovna Rada, admitting of no delay, is to address urgent economic problems of the population, I believe. We must pass laws that will be improving lives of Ukrainians, will be improving their well-being.

The International Charitable Foundation in Honour of Intercession of the Most Holy Mother of God (ICF) of Vadym Novynskyi provided more than UAH 195.5 million for humanitarian and charity projects in 2018.

Last year, with the financial support from the Foundation, charitable projects in the field of historical and cultural heritage, health care, and protection of motherhood, childhood and family were implemented. The Foundation also became a co-organizer of festivals, conferences, competitions and other events.

One of the Foundation’s activity areas is support to an orphanage at Buncheny Ascension Monastery. More than 400 orphans live and are brought up there, including children with disabilities and serious illnesses, HIV-infected among them. This project is more than three years old, and the Foundation provides monthly assistance for the maintenance of the shelter. In 2018, it amounted to more than UAH 16 million.

This week I took part in the World Economic Forum in Davos (Switzerland).

The main topic of discussion on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum was globalization in the era of the fourth industrial revolution. Its idea was described by the founder of the World Economic Forum, the German economist Klaus Schwab.

Unfortunately, Ukraine came to a halt at the stage of the third industrial revolution, which approximately corresponds to the 70s of the last century in global industry. We are not moving anywhere and we are not developing. Our economy is stagnating and unfortunately, the government’s reports about its growth are nothing more than manipulation of statistics. However, no one in the world will be waiting for us. Investment will come to Ukraine only after we put an end to the war and begin to build a rule-of-law state.

During the Forum, I also attended the Ukrainian Breakfast organized by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation. The topic of discussion about Ukraine was focused on the challenges facing Ukraine and the choices lying ahead with the upcoming presidential elections.

Yesterday, speaking at the debates of the session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, I drew the attention of parliamentarians of European states to violations of the basic document of the Council of Europe – the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in Ukraine.

The opposition bloc challenged in courts the closure of polling stations in the Russian Federation as a gross infringement of the electoral rights of Ukrainian citizens living in the Russian Federation, but the Supreme Court decided on the legality of such actions, arguing that three million Ukrainians will be able to vote in neighbouring states: Finland, Kazakhstan and Georgia. I consider this decision politically motivated: the authorities did not allow citizens, who left for work and who were fleeing the war, to go to the polls, because they do not intend to vote for the current president.