Bezuhla responds to statements about the disruption of the National Security Committee’s work

18 September 23:01

Today, on September 18, MP Mariana Bezuhla disrupted a closed meeting of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence with the participation of representatives of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. This was reported by MP and member of the committee Iryna Friz on Facebook, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports

“Today, a closed meeting of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence was to be held to discuss a key issue for our defense capability – the financial support of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” she said.

Minister of Defense Denys Shmyhal and his deputies arrived to participate in the meeting.

“The Minister of Defense and his deputies arrived to participate in the meeting. There was supposed to be a professional discussion on the expenditures and needs of the defense sector. The leadership of the Ministry lost 45 minutes of their working time because Bezuhla disrupted the closed meeting of the Committee, refusing to leave the room and violating the Rules of Procedure of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine,” said Friz

She reminded that Bezuhla had previously been expelled from the National Security Committee because information leaks after closed meetings with her participation had led to the military leadership’s refusal to participate in such meetings.

Having switched to an open format, the Committee members familiarized themselves with the public part of the Minister’s presentation.

In her comments under the post, Bezuhla criticized the work of the parliamentary committee, emphasizing the lack of transparency in the processes and the delay in the consideration of important draft laws.

“This is just a simple hearing, the Committee is not authorized to recommend the budget, this is done by the Budget Committee. Nevertheless, each of the committees holds such hearings, which are open to all MPs. Moreover, the parliament is designed in such a way that every MP has the right to join any committee meeting without any restrictions,” Bezuhla said.

According to her, she has already used this right personally:

“For example, I recently took part in a meeting of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Law Enforcement dedicated to the investigation of the murder of Andriy Parubiy, and despite the fact that there were such characters as Ustinova and Buzhansky in the committee, I was able to do so freely. And it cannot be otherwise. This is the law.”

The MP emphasized that she had come to discuss the budget with “her old committee” from which she had once voluntarily left.

“There have never been any leaks from closed meetings, why are you lying and supporting Venislavskyi’s ‘servant’?” she addressed her critics.

At the same time, Bezuhla emphasized that the committee has been working non-transparently for years:

“The Committee has a tradition of avoiding any meetings with the expert community, trying to “freeze” MPs from other committees. The long-standing problem of the committee’s work and dozens of old problems are not being solved, and key bills are lying idle.”

According to her, the situation was repeated during the last consideration of the budget:

“Today they wanted to consider the budget in secret without any protocol, as usual. I forced them to consider it in detail, in the usual way. I hope there will be a protocol.”

The politician emphasized that she would continue to insist on the openness of the committee’s work.

In the end, she called for radical solutions:

“The committee must work or be dissolved and re-elected. The war is long and requires the work of MPs. It is too early to go into a standby mode. There is nothing to wait for – only to fight.”