Zelensky proposes purging top officials who worked in 2014-2019

He stated this in a video posted on the Facebook page of the Presidential Office.

"We have worked out a bill expending clauses on a clean-out of power. I propose adding to the list of positions subject to lustration the president of Ukraine, all people's deputies of Ukraine, the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, government members, the prosecutor general, the SBU chief, the heads of the Antimonopoly Committee and the State Property Fund, the heads of the state fiscal and customs services, the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, and the leadership of defense enterprises, who held their posts from February 23, 2014 to May 19, 2019," Zelensky said.

He noted that this bill would give a "public assessment" to the activities of the mentioned persons and added that their actions "will receive a fair legal assessment" in the future.

On September 16, 2014, the Verkhovna Rada adopted the law on the purge of government officials. The law imposes a ban on occupying certain positions for ten years for persons who, from February 25, 2010, to February 22, 2014, held certain government posts for more than a year. A similar ban applies to persons holding positions specified in the law for less than a year, but including the period from November 21, 2013, to February 22, 2014, and who did not tender their resignation.

In addition, those subject to lustration are persons who occupied positions in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union or a Soviet republic, from the secretary of a district committee to senior posts, in the Komsomol organizations and those who worked in the KGB.

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