Guests invited to attend opening of parliament's second session leave Verkhovna Rada

11:55, 05.02.2013 1 min read

Members of the Regions Party parliamentary faction have collected their voting cards from the voting slots at their seats in the sitting hall of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, as the opposition factions blocked today's parliamentary sitting.

According to an Interfax-Ukraine reported, the diplomats that were invited to attend the opening of the second session of the Verkhovna Rada of the seventh convocation have left their seats on the balcony.

The Veryovka National Academic Folk Chorus, which was supposed to sing the national anthem of Ukraine, has also left the sitting hall.

Around 200 MPs, including members of the oppositional and other factions, remain in the hall.

As reported, this morning members of the opposition parliamentary factions blocked the presidium and the rostrum of the Verkhovna Rada before the beginning of its second session.

Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Rybak called a meeting of the parliamentary faction heads in his office.