Ecology and Natural Resources Minister Ihor Shevchenko has said that because of his anti-corruption actions and refusal to appoint corrupt officials to positions in his ministry, the Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk is now demanding his dismissal.

"Right now I'm addressing the people of Ukraine. The reason for my address is connected to political lynching, which is currently being done to me by the government's leaders... Believing in Maidan's ideals, as a minister, I sincerely started fighting corruption and brought back to the state 22 oil and gas deposits that were stolen from the people by Yanukovych's family. But I did it in spite of the position of the government's leaders that has current connections with all Ukrainian clans and protects their interests," Shevchenko said in a video address posted on the Internet.

The minister said that on numerous occasions, members of the Yatseniuk team and representatives of the People's Front faction asked him to appoint a corrupt official to a position in his ministry. According to him, this is how the Head of the Geological Service was appointed, despite his views and the law, and at the same time, the appointment of experts suggested by Shevchenko is still being blocked.

The minister said that it was his uncompromising attitude and anti-corruption actions that made Yatseniuk interfere with his private life and demand his dismissal.

Shevchenko also said that he had become the minister without the party quota. "I emphasize that I came not via any party quotas, as there's no ministers in the current government that works by a party quota. [I came] as an expert and a representative of the civil society," he said.

Shevchenko said Yatseniuk would have a moral right to demand his dismissal after the Prime Minister excludes his friend Mykola Martynenko from People's Front and deprives him of MP status, as he was responsible for corruption in Energoatom, and especially after a criminal case was opened against him in Switzerland. The same should be done to fellow party member Serhiy Pashynsky, who according to the media, is involved in stilling oil products worth UAH 1.5 billion that were supposed to be sent to army.

"I will continue fighting against the corrupt systems and continue reforming the branch that I'm responsible for as a minister," Shevchenko said.

As reported, Leader of the Radical Party faction Oleh Liashko urged the Prime Minister and MPs to fire Shevchenko as he had gone abroad when there was an ecological catastrophe in the country, the fire at the BRSM oil depot. Shevchenko refuted the accusations, and Liashko subsequently named the planes that the Ecological Minister had used to travel abroad. In turn, Shevchenko said that he had indeed traveled abroad but didn't see any corruption in those actions.

"There was a situation, it was hard to leave. I knew that there was this MP [Oleksandr Onyschenko] with a plane in Nice. [I] called him and asked for help," the minister said at a briefing in Kyiv on June 18.

"He agreed, I just flew with him. [I] didn't pay anything... There are no corrupt actions here," Shevchenko said.

He also added that he had been only been abroad on the weekend of June 6-7. In addition he had informed the Prime Minister of his departure beforehand. On Monday, June 8, Shevchenko was at work.

On June 22, Yatseniuk's adviser Danylo Lubkivsky said that Yatseniuk had asked the Batkivschyna Party to consider whether Ukrainian Ecology Minister Ihor Shevchenko should remain in office.

"Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk asks the Batkivschyna political party's parliamentary faction to consider the issue of Ihor Shevchenko's occupying his position and take a responsible political decision, which should be supported by the parliamentary coalition," Lubkivsky said, pointing out that Shevchenko was appointed as a minister as part of Batkivschyna's quota.

According to Lubkivsky, the government believes that Shevchenko's action entails direct management and ethical risks to the parliamentary coalition. "As the Prime Minister thinks, the circumstances that contain such signs constitute direct political, managerial and ethical risks for the coalition of the parliamentary factions that formed the incumbent government," he said.

This will be the third inspection of how the law on civil service, anti-corruption legislation and other regulations were observed by the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources recently, Yatseniuk said.

Lubkivsky said that the inspection, which was held in January 2015, revealed that the ecology minister has been to the United Arab Emirates for personal matters without permission.

The minister also traveled abroad on working days from May 5 to May 7 without the premier's permission, which is a violation of Ukrainian law.