Zelensky to MPs: You have to serve people either in parliament or at front
President Volodymyr Zelensky said he is ready to initiate amendments to the mobilization law under which members of parliament who lose their mandate would have to join the army.
He stated this while speaking with journalists, commenting on the recent failed votes in the Verkhovna Rada on draft laws whose adoption is required, among others, by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as well as on the desire of many MPs to resign their mandates, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.
"From the first days of the full-scale Russian invasion there were deputies who wanted to resign their mandate. There may be different motives and different attitudes toward them, but we are under martial law and the state must be defended. Therefore, members of parliament will have to either serve in parliament in accordance with Ukrainian legislation, or I am ready to discuss with representatives of parliament a law amending mobilization so that deputies can go to the front. If you are not serving the state in parliament, then serve the state at the front. That is my approach," Zelensky said.
He added that there is another option – to change legislation and hold elections.
"But I believe that elections are impossible during the war, and there are also relevant legal complications," he emphasized.
According to him, there can be many assessments of how parliament is working now, "but the situation needs to be corrected."
He also criticized the parliamentary opposition.
"Regarding opposition votes: unfortunately, opposition members do not add their votes for certain important bills – whether it is a legislative request from the IMF for financial support, or for unlocking EUR 90 billion, or bills necessary for European integration. Even for laws that are not controversial, we always have to negotiate with opposition forces and spend a long time persuading them in order to demonstrate unity, which they talk about so often. But besides words, unity must be demonstrated through actions."
Zelensky also commented on calls from some opposition leaders to create a Coalition of National Unity.
"A coalition of national unity means voting for and implementing the necessary laws or reforms aimed at national unity, not achieving narrow political goals during wartime," he said.
He added that parliament can debate certain new bills and internal issues, but matters of defense and finances for Ukraine should not be debated for long.
"Why does this or that law from the EU or the IMF have a thousand amendments? Who are these amendments for? Why should this one party, Servant of the People, sit and strike out these amendments? A parliamentary crisis? You know, the crisis is in people's heads. I’m not talking about society now, but about some of the so-called 'statesmen.' A crisis always exists when you are looking for it and certainly not solving it," Zelensky concluded.
As reported earlier, on March 10 the Verkhovna Rada failed to pass government bill No. 14025, which would introduce international automatic exchange of information on income received through digital platforms.
According to MP Yaroslav Zhelezniak, before the second reading the government planned to introduce amendments to the document to meet IMF requirements, including: abolishing the EUR 150 duty-free limit on parcels, introducing VAT for sole proprietors (FOPs) and fixing the increased military levy at 5% even after the end of martial law.
Now the Cabinet of Ministers will have to register a new bill incorporating these initiatives in order to fulfill Ukraine's commitments to the IMF.