Vice Speaker Of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada Not Allowed To Enter Belarus

The representative of Ukraine at Minsk talks, the current First Deputy Chairpersin of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Iryna Herashchenko entered Belarus on a temporary permit.

The authorities of Belarus tried to ban entry to the first Vice Speaker of the Ukrainian parliament, a representative of Ukraine at Minsk talks, Iryna Herashchenko. It has been said today at a briefing by Ukrainian Presidential Administration Deputy Head Kostiantyn Yeliseyev, glavcom.ua reports.

“Yesterday we felt deep outrage when we learnt that the Belarusian authorities had decided to ban entry to the territory of Belarus for Iryna Herashchenko out of considerations that such a ban had been imposed by Russia,” – he said.

He specified that at night serious contacts with the Belarusian ambassador to Ukraine have taken place, as a result of which Herashchenko was given a temporary permit for entering the country for a month.

“It has been issued for a month. I underline that, since the midnight April 26 till May 25, 2016,” – said the Deputy Head of the Ukrainian Presidential Administration, UNIAN reports.

As said by Yeliseyev, Ukraine is to insist on unlimited entry permit for Herashchenko. “The actions that took place yesterday, are absolutely inacceptable for a civilized negotiations process,” – Yeliseyev said.

The Belarusian Foreign Affairs Ministry stated that the Vice Speaker of the Ukrainian parliament can visit our country.

“Mrs Herashchenko, as before, can visit Belarus for participation in the contact group on Ukrainian issue settlement without hindrance ,”– the spokesperson of the Belarusian Foreign Affairs Ministry Dzmitry Mironchyk commented on the situation, tut.by reports.

To the question what is to happen in a month, when the term of the permit for visiting the country is to expire, Mironchyk said that he cannot comment on Ukrainian mass media and had already given comprehensive information.

Herashchenko herself has written on her Facebook page, that she stayed in Minsk: “I am in Minsk. With adventures. But let details of my adventures stay behind the scenes for now.”

Later she posted copies of the documents banning entry for her, and the temporary permit for visiting Belarus and wrote:

“Yes, it’s true, I had been barred from entering Belarus. The FSB doesn’t sleep…

Our Foreign Affairs Ministry has sent notes of protest, and then Belarusians gave me a permission to enter the country for a month, until May 25.

The Belarusian side had made a commitment to provide a venue for peace talks. But it caved in to the pressure of Russia, and thus is trying to influence the format of Minsk groups and oust those who continue firmly uphold the positions of defending Ukraine’s national interests.

At the same time the impostors, representatives of the terrorist organisations “LNR-DNR”, the so-called “speakers-ministers”, who represent militants and occupiers, are welcomed guests both in Moscow and in Minsk (where they enter on Ukrainian passports, by the way, not on their own meaningless “pieces of paper”).

Barring the first Vice Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, a participant of the talks, from entering the country is a gross violation of the paragraph 12 of Minsk accords, guaranteeing security to negotiators. It is a deliberate invalidating of Minsk negotiations venue.”

On March 21 Russian border guards denied entry to Iryna Herashchenko. She has been banned from entering the Russian Federation for 5 years – until 2021.

We remind that on April 25 Belarusian border guards together with KGB officers refused entry to a People’s deputy of Ukraine, Ihor Huz, on grounds that he had been put on lists of persons banned from entering Russia.