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Ukrainian ombudsperson’s dismissal won’t hamper returning Azovstal soldiers: MP

TVP World correspondent Donald Arleth spoke with opposition figure and MP from the Fatherland party Serhiiy Sobolev about the recent vote of no confidence for the commissioner of human rights Lyudmyla Denisova.

Mr Sobolev confessed he himself voted against. “I think Lyudmyla Denisova is in her place,” he said, adding that he could not understand the logic behind the vote of no confidence. “I can’t understand why the majority decided to dismiss her from her position.”

MP Sobolev said that his party had refused to take part in the vote because they understood that finding a replacement for Ms Denisova could take more “than two months.” He said that the process of electing a new commissioner of human rights was intricate and the prevailing conditions of war would not make it possible to meet those procedures in two months.

When asked whether the Ladies of Iron, namely the wives of the Azovstal battalion soldiers who were making a heroic stand in Mariupol, could hope for somebody to fight for their and their husbands’ rights and have Russia uphold the Geneva conventions, Mr Sobolev recalled that “it is not just the responsibility of the ombudsman to protect these people and especially these women.”

Mr Sobolev went on to say that Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk would continue to take part in the negotiations with Russia on the governmental level.

“It’s not a struggle between Vereschuk and Denisova,” he stressed, adding that Deputy PM Vereschuk would not be directly engaged in the negotiation process. Instead, Ukraine’s secret services SBU are to play the first fiddle.

The MP said that the process of negotiating Azovstal members’ return home entered its initial stage. “It’s just the beginning.”

First of all, we need to get all the bodies… then the seriously wounded,” he said.

Mr Sobolev stressed that time was of the essence as the authorities of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics threatened to kill the Azovstal prisoners of war.

If you want to view the entire interview, click the video on top of the page.

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