Ukraine's parliamentary opposition has demanded that Verkhovna Rada Speaker Volodymyr Rybak file a lawsuit to deprive Defense Minister Pavlo Lebedev of his parliamentary seat.

"Today we have publicly appealed to Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Volodymyr Rybak demanding he immediately send a lawsuit to court to annul the parliamentary mandate of Lebedev," Leader of the Batkivschyna Faction Arseniy Yatseniuk said at a briefing on Tuesday.

He noted that Rybak was in a great hurry to execute Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's orders to deprive the defense counsel of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, Serhiy Vlasenko, of his parliamentary seat. However, for a month he has not fulfilled his constitutional duty to start the proceedings to terminate Lebedev's parliamentary mandate.

As reported, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych appointed MP Pavlo Lebedev of the Party of Regions to the post of defense minister on December 24, 2012. Lebedev was elected to the parliament in a single mandate constituency No. 224 in Sevastopol.