Special parliamentary commission probing into failed Wagner mercenaries capture plot ruled they will not call Ukrainian president and his top aide to testify despite their alleged involvement in the story, informed ‘European Solidarity’ MPs in a briefing at the Verkhovna Rada Friday.
Special commission scheduled their own briefing on first results of the investigation for 3:30 p.m Friday, said the commission chair ‘Servant of the People’ MP Maryana Bezugla a day earlier, adding it was going to make public ‘maximum amount of information on Wagner mercenaries case’.
Friday meeting of the commission meeting was marred by criticism from ‘Golos’ MP Roman Kostenko who informed opposition ‘Golos’ and ‘European Solidarity’ lawmakers were barred from joining the meeting.
Later into the day, MP Maryana Bezugla confirmed the commission members chose not to haul in Volodymyr Zelensky and his top aide Andriy Yermak, which has long been pushed for ‘European Solidarity’ MPs in light of alleged leaks from top officials that led to failure of the Ukrainian intelligence operation.
European Solidarity MPs questioned the special commission refusal to seek testimonies from the president and his administration chief.
The former Verkhovna Rada speaker Andriy Parubyi called out the special commission over its ‘reluctance and unwillingness to provide unbiased investigation’.
‘There are reasons to assume that at Zelensky’s meeting, with Yermak in attendance, an [information] leak happened, and it was surely a serious blow.. for all the sector o our state security’, added Parubiy.
Another ‘European Solidarity’ MP Mykhailo Zabrodsky raised eyebrows over ‘strange enthusiasm of some commission members who were eager to invite the former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko but failed to invite the active president Volodymyr Zelensky who was involved [in the story] and has to be in the know about how the events unfolded last summer’.
The Wagner capture operation is back in the headlines after the latest CNN report shed new light on Ukraine’s involvement in the plot that suffered a setback due to alleged leaks from Ukrainian top officials.