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. 

Yesterday, resorting to the most flagrant violations of the Law of Ukraine "On the Rules of Procedure of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine" and to the mass “button punching”, the Verkhovna Rada voted on the so-called “anti-church” law no. 4128-d, discriminating and infringing the rights of the majority of confessions and religious organizations of Ukraine and, above all, of the only canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church headed by His Beatitude Onufriy, Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine.

This bill was written at the dictation of the Presidential Administration and the only reason for its appearance is to please the presidential election campaign, under pressure from law enforcement authorities and local authorities to ensure a massive transition of parishes from the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church to an artificially created Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

We continue our fight for the rights of voters. Our team of the Opposition Bloc has filed a lawsuit with the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal in Kyiv about illegality of the Central Election Commission's decision to close polling stations in the Russian Federation. In violation of the Constitution of Ukraine and electoral legislation, on 31 December, the Central Election Commission (CEC) closed down five polling stations in the Russian Federation, depriving at least three million Ukrainian citizens of their voting rights. Let me remind you that these polling stations are located in the diplomatic missions of Ukraine, that is, on the Ukrainian, and not the Russian, territory. Ukrainian diplomats and not the Russian authorities were dealing with organization and holding of the elections there.

As it has become known from reliable sources, representatives of the Presidential Administration gave some unofficial instructions to the management of the National Kyiv-Pechersk Historical and Cultural Reserve and Kremenets-Pochayevsky State Historical and Architectural Reserve to terminate the lease agreements with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. By the hands of these museums' officials, the authorities commit an illegal takeover of the two Orthodox shrines – Kyivo-Pecherska and Pochayiv Lavras. In addition, regional and district administrations received instructions from the Ministry of Culture about organization of mass “voluntary” communities’ transitions to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in the regions. If the Ukrainian courts legalize this illegal takeover by their decisions, this will be a signal that the possibilities of the Ukrainian justice for the protection of religious rights have become exhausted. We will appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

We consider this decision to be unconstitutional and anti-Ukrainian one. By this decision, about three million Ukrainian citizens living in the Russian Federation are practically deprived of their right to vote. It is symbolic that the Central Election Commission made this decision on the day when the presidential election campaign started – almost on New Year's Eve.

It was the deadly economic policy of Petro Poroshenko that forced millions of Ukrainians to leave the country in search of earnings. Now he makes it clear for them that their Ukrainian passports no longer mean anything, since their votes in the upcoming elections may prevent him from prolonging his term in office.