The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyi, signed a decree that implemented the decision of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) to deprive people of state awards recognized as traitors to Ukraine. 34 people got into the first list, informs Office of the President.
Former high-ranking officials, deputies, heads of the Security Service of Ukraine and the Prosecutor General’s Office, prosecutors, artists, as well as Russian political, religious and cultural figures are among those deprived of awards. All of them lost the awards of Ukraine forever.
The maximum package of 21 types of sanctions was applied to ten of these persons, including blocking of assets, cancellation of licenses, complete suspension of trading operations, in addition to deprivation of state awards. Seven of them were sanctioned for the first time.
The list includes:
- Oleksandr Yefremov – ex-head of the faction of the Party of Regions, awarded the Order of Merit and Prince Yaroslav the Wise;
- Renat Kuzmin – former Deputy Prosecutor General, had the Order of Merit and the title “Honored Lawyer of Ukraine”;
- Viktor Medvedchuk – ex-deputy, awarded the Order of Merit and Prince Yaroslav the Wise, had the title “Honored Lawyer of Ukraine”;
- Dmytro Tabachnyk – former Minister of Education, had the title “Honored Worker of Science and Technology”;
- Mykola Azarov – former Prime Minister of Ukraine, awarded the Order of Merit and Prince Yaroslav the Wise, had the title “Honored Economist of Ukraine”;
- Viktor Pshonka – former Prosecutor General of Ukraine;
- Andriy Derkach – former People’s Deputy;
- Patriarch Kirill is the abbot of the Russian Orthodox Church, a former agent of the KGB.
Russian artists, including Mykola Baskov, Philip Kirkorov, Oleksandr Malinin, Igor Kruty, Ani Lorak (Karolina Kuyek) and Taisia Povaly, were stripped of the honorary titles of “People’s Artist of Ukraine” and “Honored Artist of Ukraine”.
Earlier, the Verkhovna Rada adopted draft law No. 11410, which allows to deprive people convicted of serious crimes or those who justify Russia’s aggression and occupation of Ukraine from state awards.
