New plot in Ukraine to disrupt Zelensky's presidential inauguration

Petro Poroshenko's team is preparing a plan to disrupt the inauguration of Vladimir Zelensky, the Ukrainian website Strana.ua reported citing sources.

According to this news, the current President's supporters intend to make the Constitutional Court pass a decision to dismiss Stanislav Shevchuk, the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court, as soon as possible. According to Ukrainian law, during the inauguration of the new president, the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court himself will take the oath of office. If Shevchuk is dismissed, he cannot attend the inauguration, and Zelensky cannot take the oath of office as president on time, the inauguration will be postponed indefinitely until the election of a new Chief Justice.

Sources say that this is why Poroshenko's supporters intend to remove Shevchuk from office. To do so, the Standing Committee of the Constitutional Court on Rules and Ethics must come to the conclusion that Shevchuk violated discipline and disregarded his duties. According to the news site, a draft resolution has been prepared. For example, among the violations, the document mentions Shevchuk's statement that he will not administer the oath to the winner of the election if the election results are rigged.

In an interview with Sputnik, Director General of the Institute of Regional Problems Dmitry Zhuravlev commented on this information from the Ukrainian media.

“Such actions will not change anything. There are two options: either they want to buy time to “lose track” while they are still in power, or, contrary to common sense, they still want to block Zelensky’s progress. In fact, this is comparable to an attempted coup. In the first case, this is quite naive, and in the second, of course, this is an adventure,” said Dmitry Zhuravlev.

The second round of presidential elections in Ukraine was held on April 21. The two candidates were incumbent President Petro Poroshenko and first-round leader Vladimir Zelensky. According to the Central Election Commission, Zelensky won an overwhelming victory with 73.22% of the vote.