Prague, July 3 (CTK) – Ukrainian authorities did not allow Chamber of Deputies member Milan Sarapatka (unaffiliated) to enter the country where he travelled with members of a Czech delegation to a meeting of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly on Sunday, he has told CTK.
Sarapatka had to stay in the airport transit area in Kiev and he returned to the Czech Republic on Monday.
“I asked about the reasons, but they told me that they are not obliged to tell me. I really stayed in the transit area, while my colleagues left,” Sarapatka said.
“I will ask the foreign minister to send a protest note, I will ask the Chamber of Deputies chairman to issue a reciprocal ban on travel of certain Ukrainian deputies,” Sarapatka said.
Sarapatka was in Crimea three years ago as an observer to a referendum on the Ukrainian peninsula’s annexation to Russia, but he does not put this in connection with the current developments.
“Since then I have been to Ukraine several times using the same passport, I had never had any problem,” Sarapatka said.
Ukraine knew about his current journey in advance and it could advise him that his presence in Ukraine is not desirable.
The Czech Republic just as the whole EU does not recognise the occupation of Crimea by Russia.
Members of the standing delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly were on their way to attend a Rose-Roth seminar. The organisational committee of the Chamber of Deputies approved the journey in mid-June.
The delegation included Antonin Seda and Vaclav Klucka (both Social Democrats, CSSD), Martin Sedlar (ANO) and Josef Nekl (Communists, KSCM).
Seda told CTK that he dealt with Sarapatka’s case with Czech ambassador to Ukraine Radek Matula and the delegation’s secretary Iva Masarikova on Sunday.
“As far as I have been informed, he is banned from entering Ukraine for security reasons until 2018. However, the Ukrainian bodies are not obliged to specify the reasons,” he added.
Seda said he will turn to the Czech Foreign Ministry after return from Ukraine.
In January 2016, Ukrainian diplomacy protested against a private visit by deputies Zdenek Ondracek and Stanislav Mackovik (both KSCM) to the Donetsk area, which is controlled by separatists.
Earlier this year, deputy Jaroslav Holik (opposition Freedom and Direct Democracy), was banned from entering Ukraine for five years. He attended celebrations of the 3rd anniversary of Crimea’s occupation by Russia.
