People's deputy from the "Servant of the People" faction Oleksandr Kunytskyi left Ukraine on September 23 on the basis of a business trip to the USA with the aim of "deepening Ukrainian-American inter-parliamentary cooperation." Since then, the people's deputy has not returned. This is reported by "Schemy" with reference to sources in law enforcement agencies and in the parliamentary circles.
"He went on this business trip already after the SBI in December 2023 began to investigate the circumstances of his other trip abroad, in the summer of 2023 - when Kunitsky received permission from the head of the Verkhovna Rada to go on a short-term business trip to Israel, instead came back in just three weeks," the message reads.
In a comment to "Schemes", head of the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Stefanchuk said that "the very fact of initiating a criminal case does not create any restrictions on the activity of people's deputies by legislation." The last time Kunytskyi took part in voting during the plenary sessions on September 17-20 this year, and the committee on law enforcement, of which he is a member, says that the last time the deputy was present was in October, in the mode of a video conference.
As "Schems" learned, Oleksandr Kunytskyi arranged a business trip to the USA in the period from September 21 to 28, 2024. The purpose of the trip is "to deepen Ukrainian-American interparliamentary cooperation."
The Verkhovna Rada did not provide information about this business trip at the request of "Scheme", noting that "information about official business trips of people's deputies of Ukraine during the special period is included in the list of information that constitutes official information." At the same time, the Apparatus of the Verkhovna Rada stressed that "reimbursement of travel expenses from the state budget was not carried out."
The deputy left Ukraine on September 23 - and as of December, he has not returned for three months. According to the electronic system of the Verkhovna Rada, the deputy last participated in the plenary sessions of the parliament from September 17 to 20 (on September 20, he "did not vote" all day). But back in October, in the mode of video conference, he was present at the meeting of his committee - on issues of law enforcement - its chairman Serhii Ionushas informed "Schems" about this.
"After that, he did not participate in committee meetings, as far as I know, and in VRU meetings, too," Ionushas noted.
In a comment to journalists, the first deputy chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, Oleksandr Kornienko, said that, according to his information, the Parliament's Apparatus tried to contact the deputy, but "did not receive a clear answer."
"As the leadership of the Verkhovna Rada, we always emphasize the need to observe discipline and the presence of deputies at meetings. The chairman always addresses the absent deputies in accordance with the regulations. Of course, this is an unpleasant situation. In addition, Kunytskyi is not the only case - there were other deputies with similar situations," Kornienko noted.
Kunytskyi received permission to travel abroad to the USA already after Ukrainian law enforcement officers began investigating the circumstances of his other trip to Israel, in the summer of 2023, under the conditions of a ban on travel abroad without proper grounds for officials.
Then, as "Schemes" found out, Kunytskyi received the approval of the Verkhovna Rada to leave for five days on a short-term business trip, but he stayed abroad for almost three weeks. After that, the then general prosecutor Andriy Kostin initiated criminal proceedings - under the articles "official forgery" and "use of a known forged document". "Schemy" turned to the State Bureau of Investigation, which is investigating this case, to clarify at what stage it is and what investigative actions have been taken, but in response, the State Bureau noted that this information is confidential.
It is noted that, at the same time, new stories appear on the Facebook page of the deputy almost every day, in particular, regarding the incident that happened at the beginning of the war. In March 2022, Kunytskyi was detained for filming a roadblock. The police are currently being prosecuted.
After the fugitive People's Deputy Artem Dmytruk from Ukraine, another elected official - Oleksandr Kunytskyi - probably escaped.
