Verkhovna Rada Chairman Andriy Parubiy has officially announced the exclusion of the people's deputy Nadia Savchenko from the Batkivschyna faction.

"Deputy faction of a political All-Ukrainian Batkivschyna Union party at its meeting on December 16, 2016 decided to exclude MP Nadia Savchenko from the Batkivschyna faction," Parubiy said at the morning plenary session of the Verkhovna Rada on Tuesday.

As reported, on December 15 the Batkivschyna faction decided to expel Savchenko from the faction.

The faction recalled that at the parliamentary elections of 2014 the Batkivschyna party included Savchenko in its electoral list to release her from Russian captivity, but at present the principles and political convictions of Savchenko and the party diverge.

Batkivschyna, in particular, is strongly opposed to any negotiations with the terrorists, amnesty of assassins of the Ukrainian citizens, legalization of bandits' gangs in Donbas, while Savchenko confirmed that she was in Minsk on December 7 and met with representatives of the Russian Federation and DPR (self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic) and LPR (self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic) leaders Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky. Savchenko explained it by the need to settle the issue of hostages' swap and the expansion of the Minsk format. In addition, according to Savchenko, the leaders of separatists in Donbas Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky are not terrorists.