Kiev has adopted a law simplifying the process of banning political parties that claim to be anti-Ukrainian Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The bill was signed into law on Saturday by the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. The legislation is aimed at political parties that are engaged in anti-Ukrainian activities.
The list of wrongdoings that can be used as a pretext to ban a political party suggests that challenging the official position of the Ukrainian authorities on the ongoing conflict with Moscow can lead to a ban.
It outlaws denial of the aggression against Ukraine, calling it an internal conflict, a civil war, and so on. Any positive remarks about those who are considered to be perpetrating aggression are outlawed as well as the forces of the breakaway Donetsk republics as insurgents. The new legislation also outlines a simplified procedure to ban a political party. A party that is outlawed requires a court ruling, with all related cases including pending ones being transferred to a court in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv for as long as the country is under martial law. A court ruling on such cases is final and can not be appealed, according to the new law.
In March, Ukraine s National Security Council suspended several political parties it deemed to be pro-Russian. The list included minor, primarily left-wing parties, Ukraine's second-largest Opposition Platform For Life, led by Viktor Medvedchuk, a businessman with alleged ties to Russia. In April of last year, the politician ended up in custody of the country's security services after previously being placed under house arrest.
Russia attacked the neighboring state in late February, after Ukraine s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, first signed in 2014, and Moscow s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The German and French protocols were designed to give the breakaway regions special status within the Ukrainian state.
The Kremlin has since demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists that the Russian offensive was unprovoked and has denied that it was planning to take the two republics by force.