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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.

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.

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.