Ukraine’s parliament cancels session amid new attack threat
Published 6:46 am Friday, November 22, 2024
- Lawmakers in Ukraines parliament welcome an unexpected vote for a law that could pave the way for the quick release of jailed opposition icon Yulia Tymoshenko in Kiev on Feb. 21, 2014. Ukraine's parliament on Friday voted to return the ex-Soviet country to its 2004 constitution, which limits the president's powers and gives lawmakers the right to appoint key ministers. The constitutional change was supported by 386 deputies in the 450-seat Verkhovna Rada shortly after President Viktor Yanukovych and top opposition leaders signed a deal to end the country's three-month political crisis. should read (Genya Savilov/AFP/Getty Images/TNS)
Ukraine’s parliament canceled Friday’s plenary session due to the threat of a possible air attack on Kyiv’s government district, according to lawmakers.
The country is on high alert after Russia launched a “new” kind of ballistic missile at the city of Dnipro on Thursday, the latest escalation of hostilities in the long-running war. In the run-up to that attack, several embassies in the Ukrainian capital issued alerts and temporarily closed due to extraordinary risks.
While the Ukrainian capital comes under near-daily attack by Russian forces, this is the first such move by the legislature in recent months. Lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak told Bloomberg News that the session was postponed to next week.
The government is working as usual and employees will head to a shelter in the event of an air alert, Serhiy Nykyforov, a spokesman for President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, despite an earlier report from Ukraine’s public broadcaster Suspilne that some official institutions had reduced the number of staff on premise.
The move was not without criticism. In a video posted to social media, opposition lawmaker Oleksiy Honcharenko said that lawmakers still gathered in 2022 even as Russian troops stood 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) outside Kyiv. Canceling the current session “plays in favor of Vladimir Putin’s psychological attack,” he said.
Ukraine faced another drone attack Friday morning on multiple cities. Strikes on the north-eastern town of Sumy killed two and injured 12 civilians, according to local authorities.
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With assistance from Daryna Krasnolutska and Greg Sullivan.