Zelenskiy says parties such as Viktor Medvedchuk’s Opposition Platform for Life are ‘aimed at division or collusion’
Highlights
- Eleven Ukrainian political parties have been suspended because of links with Russia.
- Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy says they are ‘aimed at division or collusion’ Most of the parties affected were small, but one of them has 44 seats in the 450-seat parliament.
- The Opposition Platform for Life, Ukraine’s biggest opposition party, is led by Viktor Medvedchuk, a pro-Moscow oligarch with close ties to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
- Party officials later said the suspension “had no legal basis” in a video address on Sunday.
- The move was slammed by senior Russian officials on Sunday, with the chair of the Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, saying “it was another mistake”