Ukrainian lawmakers have not given their consent to prosecute a co-chair of the Opposition Bloc faction in parliament, Oleksandr Vilkul.

According to an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent, only 137 deputies voted for the offer at a plenary meeting on Tuesday, with at least 226 votes needed to make a decision.

Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko noted during his speech in parliament that the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Prosecutor's Office was conducting a pretrial investigation in criminal proceedings under Part 2 of Article 364 of the Criminal Code (abuse of office).

Earlier, at a meeting of the parliament committee on rules of procedure, Lutsenko said that based on the investigation materials, in 2011, Vilkul, while serving as head of Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration, leased land plots to Ordzhonikidze Mining and Processing Plant, which the regional administration had no right to dispose of as these lands were collectively owned.

According to Lutsenko, with one order Vilkul transferred 15 hectares of collective owned land, with one more order - 1.8 hectares, and with another one - 1.15 hectares. According to the expertise, two thirds of the transferred lands were subsequently virtually destroyed by quarries and cannot be used for agricultural purposes.

These actions, according to the prosecutor general, caused losses to the state in the amount of UAH 486,000.

The second episode of Vilkul's illegal activity, according to Lutsenko, also concerns land in Dnipropetrovsk region: "Realizing criminal intent aimed at changing the purpose of land that was owned by Artland LLC [...] Vilkul gave verbal instructions to head of Dnipropetrovsk district state administration Kobyliansky [...] to resolve the issue regarding land plots [...] without checking the technical documentation."

The prosecutor general said that the said head of the Dnipropetrovsk district administration had admitted his guilt in criminal negligence when signing documents and the case against him was closed due to the expiration of the statute of limitations under a court decision in March 2018.

"Vilkul [...] issued an order on changing the target destination of 26 hectares and 14 hectares of land [...] the difference, which was not received in full as compensation, was UAH 5.139 million," Lutsenko said.