“Yury Boyko, the head of the parliamentary group “Platform for Life and Peace” in the parliament, which was created from former members of the Ukrainian Communist Party, former minister and deputy prime minister during the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych, published a statement with pro-Russian theses about alleged “radicals” and “the ban on speaking in the native language” in Ukraine .”, — write: www.pravda.com.ua
Source: Boyko on TikTok, “Media Detector”, head of OP Andriy Yermak, head of CPD Andriy Kovalenko on Telegram
Details: On December 14, Boyko published videos on TikTok against the background of icons, where he declared about some “radicals” who “began to tear down monuments across the country, rename cities, forbid people to speak their native language, forbid them to go to the church they want to go to.”
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“Today we see that this movement continues, the violence against people continues. Therefore, more and more people support us – those who oppose such violence, for unity in the country, for the support of the people,” the former co-chairman of the banned OPZZ also stated.
At the same time, he did not name any specific facts, survey results, and did not even specify who he meant by the word “us”.
After that, the head of the OP Andriy Yermak wrote in Telegram: “Some politicians forget that protecting Ukraine and defeating Russia, and not spreading Russian narratives, is the key goal now.”
In turn, the head of the Center for countering disinformation at the NSDC Andriy Kovalenko in his post he emphasized that “it is strange to hear from Yuriy Boyko in 2024 words about “radicals”, some “language bans”, theses about the church, which are usually spread by Russians and about violence against people, without mentioning Russia”.
“I want to remind Boyko that the only ones who commit violence against Ukrainians are the Russians… And it would be very useful if the People’s Deputy (if, of course, he works in the interests of Ukraine) publicly reminded him about this. However, we see something else. And this is frankly, to put it mildly, infuriating,” Kovalenko added.
As “Detector Media” writes, since October of this year, former members of the banned OPZZ began to go to the new channel of propagandist Lana Shevchuk – the former host of the banned channel NewsOne, the banned “Nasho” and the YouTube channel, which was also recently blocked for Russian propaganda.
Since November, Boyko’s videos, in particular excerpts of an interview with Lana Shevchuk on classic electoral topics, have been appearing on TikTok. Boyko also continues to run a YouTube channel and a Telegram channel that have not been blocked yet.
Four pro-Russian politicians appeared in nine videos of the propagandist in two months. They talk about sensitive, electorally beneficial topics: corruption in power, poverty of Ukrainians, forced mobilization, de-Russification. During nine interviews, not a single member of the OPZZH mentioned the guilt of Vladimir Putin personally or Russia as a state in the war waged against Ukraine, limiting themselves to the “occupiers”, “Kremlin’s bellicose policy”, “the aggression of the Russian army” or the phrase “neighbors entered “.
For reference: OPZZH (Opposition Platform for Life) is a pro-Russian political party banned in Ukraine that operated in 1999-2022. The leaders of the party were Yuriy Boyko, Vadym Rabinovych, the best man of the ruler of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, Viktor Medvedchuk and Serhiy Lyovochkin, Nestor Shufrych was also a member of the party. In 2022, the activity of OPZZH was banned.
Suspected of treason, Medvedchuk was detained by the SBU in 2022 and later handed over to Russia in exchange for Ukrainian defenders of Mariupol, in particular, fighters from “Azov”.
In 2023, Shufrych was charged with treason. He is in custody.
The leadership of the “Servant of the People” party – Davyd Arakhamiya and Olena Shulyak – do not support the removal of the powers of deputies from the OPZZ. They and almost 70 other parliamentarians refused to sign an appeal to the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, Ruslan Stefanchuk, in which it was proposed to put a number of relevant draft laws to the vote. The “Fatherland” faction also became an opponent of this initiative, almost in its entirety.
Representatives of the “Servant of the People” party and the leadership of the Verkhovna Rada often state that people’s deputies from OPZZ are “useful”. The position of the head of the Servant of the People party, Shulyak, is also indicative, calling the cooperation with the former People’s Deputies of the People’s Party of Ukraine “constructive”. This “constructive” consists in the fact that the OPZZH saves the situation when its own deputies do not vote for scandalous draft laws.
What preceded: As “Ukrainian Pravda” wrote, according to the measurements of sociologists, after three years of full-scale war, the new conditional “Party of Regions” can still expand its activities in the electoral field to the extent of 20-30%.
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