Diplomatic passports of some Ukrainian politicians declared void as documents not returned to foreign ministry for storage
Official and diplomatic passports for Ukrainian politicians and officials have been declared invalid as the passports were not returned to the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine for storage, the Foreign Ministry's spokesperson, Mariana Betsa, has said.
"Diplomatic or official passports of persons from the list published in the media are declared invalid, as the grounds for declaring them invalid were established – the passports were not returned to the Foreign Ministry for storage," Betsa said in response to a request from Interfax-Ukraine.
She said that official and diplomatic passports are declared invalid on the basis of the regulations on the diplomatic and official passport of Ukraine approved by president's decree No. 264 dated May 12, 2015.
The grounds for declaring official and diplomatic passports invalid are the following: revoking of citizenship of Ukraine, the loss or theft of passports, the loss of grounds for registering and using passports (removal from the office or change of the place of work), and death of person.
The Foreign Ministry also has the right to declare diplomatic passports invalid if the passports are not returned to the ministry for storage in the ten-day period from the date of returning from the trip of duty, if mistakes are found in the information added to the passport and the expiration of the passport or if passports become unusable.
As reported, Ukraine's Foreign Ministry through 2014-2015 revoked 230 official and diplomatic passports for Ukrainian citizens, representatives of the former and present government.
"Following media requests, we report that based on the clauses 16 and 18 of the provisions on the diplomatic passport of Ukraine, as well as clause 15 and 17 of the provisions on the official passport of Ukraine, which were approved by the presidential decree No. 264/2015 dated May 12, 2015, through 2014-2015 Foreign Ministry informed the Administration of Ukraine's State Border Guard Service and Ukrainian Bureau of Interpol on the list of the citizens whose diplomatic and official passports became invalid," the Foreign Ministry said on its website providing a list naming 230 citizens.
This list includes the following representatives of the former authorities (working under the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych): first deputy head of Ukraine's presidential administration Iryna Akimova, Andriy Portnov' vice-premier Serhiy Arbuzov' health minister Raisa Bohatyriova' interior minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko' ecology and natural resources minister Oleh Proskuriakov, Mykola Zlochevsky' income and tax minister Oleksandr Klymenko, justice minister Olena Lukash, interior minister, chairman of the Crimean Council of Ministers Anatoliy Mohyliov, agrarian policy minister Mykola Prysiazhniuk, defense minister Dmytro Salamatin, energy minister Eduard Stavytsky, education and science minister Dmytro Tabachnyk, emergency situations service head Mykhailo Bolotskykh and others.
Besides, the list contains the names of ex-head of Ukraine's state youth and sports service Ravil Safiullin, NBU governor Ihor Sorokin, NSDC secretary Andriy Kliuyev, first deputy prosecutor Renat Kuzmin, head of the National Investment Project Management Agency Vladyslav Kaskiv, Kyiv city head Leonid Chernovetsky.
Some representatives of the current authorities, namely parliamentarians, have also been deprived of diplomatic and official passports. Among them are the following: people's deputies Viktor and Ivan Baloha, Oleksandr Vilkul, Mykhailo Dobkin, Oles Dovhy, Nestor Shufrych, Natalia Korolevska, Valeriy Pysarenko and others.
Besides, head of the State Fiscal Service Roman Nasirov, Oschadbank chairman Andriy Pyshny, Ukraine's representative in security subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group Yevhen Marchuk, interior ministry adviser Zorian Shkiriak, metropolitan of Pereyaslav-Khmelnytsky and Vyshnevsky Oleksandr (Drabynko) and others also mentioned in this list.