Ukraine Charges Zelensky Party Politician For Going on Holiday During Wartime

A member of parliament from Volodymyr Zelensky’s Servant of the People party has been accused by the intelligence services, accused of breaking the ban on non-essential foreign travel to enjoy the Maldives.

The Security Service of Ukraine confirmed on Wednesday they were investigating a Member of Parliament for breaking the wartime rules on foreign travel, allowing servants of the state only to leave the country on official business, when he took his family to the exclusive Waldorf Astoria hotel in the Malvices in mid-July.

The Member of Parliament in question has been named by several Ukrainian news outlets as Yuri Aristov, a politician from President Zelensky’s Servant of the People Party. Radio Free Europe reports the Ukrainian parliament voted to punish Aristov on Thursday evening by stripping him of his parliamentary mandate, meaning he has now lost his seat over the issue.

According to Ukraine’s intelligence agency, Aristov travelled to Europe for official government business, and at the end of his trip declared himself unwell. It is alleged medical records were then falsified to cover for his having flown his wife and children to the Indian Ocean to enjoy the luxury five-star resort.

The Security Services say when they raided the home of the suspected politician, they recovered passports with Republic of Maldives visa stamps. They also revealed they would be investigating who, if anyone, Aristov met while abroad, implying a suspicion of potential espionage.

The fact a lawmaker would break the law to go on holiday while the country is under martial law is being treated as a major betrayal by some in Ukraine, which banned such travel back in January. That change in the law was itself triggered by a public prosecutor going on holiday to Spain, and blocked Ukrainian men aged 18 to 60 from going abroad without permission from the government.

Zelensky himself called the luxury holiday a “betrayal”, saying it had caused “rage”. The President said, addressing politicians and civil servants: “You must work in Ukraine and for the interests of the Ukrainian people”.

Ukrainian Pravda reports to discourage any other politicians from trying to sneak off on their summer holidays the government is considering special punishments. Per the paper, “particularly scandalous” cases would see Parliamentarians stripped of their position as Aristov has been, and then be conscripted into the army, presumably to be sent to the front to fight.