The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has replaced former member of the Verkhovna Rada Serhiy Vlasenko with MP Andriy Shevchenko (both of the Batkivschyna faction).

"The assembly today decided to deprive Serhiy Vlasenko of his mandate and to ratify the credentials of Andriy Shevchenko," the PACE said in a statement on Thursday.

In the resolution adopted on the basis of the report by Natasa Vuckovic (Serbia, SOC), PACE noted that Shevchenko belongs to the same political faction as Vlasenko. Furthermore, he was appointed to replace Vlasenko by the head of the Batkivschyna faction, in conformity with the procedures of the Verkhovna Rada, and his appointment is not incompatible with the fair representation of political groups and parties in the current composition of the Verkhovna Rada.

Moreover, PACE considers that it should not appraise the validity of the judicial decision to revoke Vlasenko's parliamentary mandate.