MPs dismiss Razumkov as Ukrainian parliament speaker

Ukrainian MPs have removed Dmytro Razumkov from the post of the Verkhovna Rada chairman.

Some 284 lawmakers voted for such a decision at a plenary meeting on Thursday, October 7, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

Razumkov was elected chairman of the Verkhovna Rada on August 29, 2019. Prior to that, he headed the Servant of the People political party that nominated him for the post of parliament speaker.

On October 2, Servant of the People MPs collected 150 signatures needed to initiate Razumkov's removal from the post. According to Yuliia Paliichuk, spokeswoman for the Servant of the People faction, a total of 197 signatures were collected under the collective initiative of MPs to remove Razumkov from the post of parliamentary speaker.

The procedure for removing Razumkov from the post of the Verkhovna Rada chairman was launched on October 4 on the basis of a motion filed by David Arakhamia, head of the parliamentary faction of the Servant of the People.

During a plenary meeting on October 5, MPs suspended Razumkov from holding plenary meetings for two days.

In addition, they supported the initiative to include the issue of removing Razumkov from the post of parliament speaker in the agenda of the sixth session of the Verkhovna Rada and to consider the relevant issue on October 7.

Razumkov said that he would continue his political activity and announced plans to create a "big team."

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