KIEV, June 19 (RIA Novosti) – Ukraine’s parliament upheld the president’s proposal to relieve outspoken Ukrainian Acting Foreign Minister Andrii Deshchytsia of his duties Thursday. The proposal, which needed 226 votes for majority approval, was backed by 319 lawmakers.
Deshchytsia, 48, made headlines when he shouted obscenities directed against Russian President Vladimir Putin outside the Russian Embassy in Kiev when it was under attack by a mob of several hundred people last Saturday. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said his Ukrainian counterpart went beyond the limits of decency and Moscow has nothing to talk about with him.
Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, has voted to approve Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, Pavlo Klimkin, to the post of foreign minister. The Russian Foreign Ministry has said it is "ready for contact" with Klimkin.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko appointed Deshchytsia to the post of ambassador to an unspecified foreign diplomatic mission and the former foreign minister has accepted the proposal.
Asked whether Deshchytsia could become Ukraine’s ambassador to Russia, Poroshenko said: “Please don’t insist on the country. We’ll decide on this with Deshchytsia.”
