How the Ukrainian parliament controls MPs’ wartime foreign travel
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Journalists recently found that Vitaliy Bort, an MP from a now-banned pro-Russian party OPFL, left Ukraine a “three-day business trip” during the war but stayed abroad for an entire month. NV inquired who controls foreign trips of Ukrainian lawmakers and whether there is a penalty for violating the wartime restrictions.
Serhiy Kalchenko, chairman of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) Ethics Committee, stated that during martial law, the parliament remains in session. At the same time, according to the law on the status of legislators, MPs are granted leave only between sessions.
"Since we do not have an intersessional period during martial law, there can be no paid vacations," he said.
“However, in some force majeure situations, people may be granted leave for a few days, but without pay.”
Meanwhile, the first deputy chairman of the parliamentary committee, Serhiy Yevtushok, recalled that according to a presidential decree, all business trips are granted to MPs only by order of the Verkhovna Rada’s Speaker.
"But there is another provision in the presidential decree that no one pays attention to," he notes.
“After the MP returns to Ukraine with a report, Ukraine’s SBU security service examines the fulfilment of the trip...; we should ask them why and how no one controls when they go on a business trip with an order in some official delegations and end up in a completely different place.”
Upon returning from a business trip, each MP should submit a report with photo and video evidence of what they were doing at the time, so that "the SBU would not have any questions," Yevtushok stated.
At the same time, the parliament does not provide for any sanctions against MPs who do not comply with these rules. It is impossible to strip an MP of their seat if such violations are detected. A sitting member of parliament can only lose their seat if convicted in a court of law.
Investigative journalists from Bihus.Info found that 51-year-old MP Vitaliy Bort left Ukraine in April and July 2023 for three-day business trips and stayed abroad for another month in both cases. After that, the State Bureau of Investigation announced that it was investigating Bort for possible forgery of travel documents.
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