The global membership and the secretariat of Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA) express the most sincere solidarity with, and heartfelt condolences to, the family, friends, and colleagues of Mr. Denys Monastyrskyi, MP, Member of PGA since 2019 and Minister of the Interior of Ukraine since 2021, as well as to the people, Government and Parliament of Ukraine.
Since 24 February 2022, the illegal, full-scale war of aggression in and against Ukraine has caused immense suffering and victimization amongst Ukrainian civilians and has led to an impressive number of casualties in the armed ranks of the aggressor-State(s) – the Russian Federation and its closest allies – and of the State exercising its inherent right of self-defense – Ukraine.
Mr. Denys Monastyrskyi was serving his country in the morning of 18 January 2023 when he was traveling in a helicopter with his Deputy, Mr. Yevgeny Enin, and other personnel from the Ministry of Interior, including Mr. Yuriy Lubkovych, the Secretary of State of the Ministry, to a combat-zone. The helicopter crashed in Brovary, a small town east of Kyiv, tragically hitting a kindergarten in which nine persons died, including three children. All the persons on board of the helicopter died, too.
The President of PGA, Mr. Naveed Qamar, MP (Pakistan), directed a letter to condolences to the Chairperson of the PGA Ukraine National Group, Dr. Galyna Mykhailiuk, MP, who serves as the Deputy Head of the Law Enforcement Committee, which was chaired by Mr. Monastyrskyi until July 2021. On behalf of the PGA Board, President Qamar expressed the solidarity and support of our global network of 1200 individual Lawmakers in 140 countries and reiterated PGA’s strongest possible condemnation for the ongoing war of aggression, which caused the occurrence of this deadly incident.
Mr. Monastyrskyi was an important leader in Ukraine’s ruling party, the Servant of the People, and was playing an essential role in the Cabinet of President Zelenskyi since he was appointed Minister in July 2021. In 2019, when he became Parliamentarian, he assumed the prominent role of Chairperson of the Law Enforcement Committee. He joined PGA on 28 November 2019, when he attended a PGA expert discussion hosted by the Rada’s Committee on Foreign Affairs on the imperative for Ukraine to ratify the Rome Statute of the ICC. Immediately after the session, he asked for a bilateral consultation with PGA’s Secretary-General, Dr. David Donat Cattin, to discuss hosting a similar conference in the Law Enforcement Committee, with the view of relaunching a draft legislation to incorporate into Ukrainian Law all relevant norms and standards of International Criminal Law and International Humanitarian Law, including the ones of the Rome Statute.
Mr. Monastyrskyi and his team, led by special assistant Ms Viktoriya Mozgova, worked with the PGA team coordinated by Ms. Frederika Schweighoferova and with relevant partners, such as the Center for Civil Liberties, in preparing and organizing Roundtable on “The relevance of the implementation of the provisions of international criminal and humanitarian law on the prosecution of international crimes into the Criminal Code of Ukraine”, which took place on 7 February 2020. The Roundtable served to promote the adoption of the Bill no. 2689 “On amendments to certain legislative acts on the Enforcement of International Criminal and Humanitarian Law”, authored by Mr. Denys Monastyrskyi with the input by PGA, Ms. Mozgova, and other international partners, including international lawyer Mr. Scott Martin, Mr. Konstantin Zadoya from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, as well as Mr. Anton Korynevych, the then Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and current Ambassador-at-Large of Ukraine for the establishment of the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression.
The commitments discussed in the Roundtable were swiftly translated into concrete action through the parliamentary process spearheaded by Mr. Monastyrskyi which led to the adoption of the Bill on 20 May 2021 with an overwhelming majority of 248 votes in favor out of 363 Members present. This Bill was not signed into law by the President of the Republic, who instead tabled a new legislation, based on the Bill no. 2689, in the Rada on this critical subject-matter in April 2022, two months after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation. The invasion has been characterized by the perpetration of the crime of aggression as well as war crimes, crimes against humanity and possibly also genocidal conduct targeting the civilian population.
Mr. Monastyrskyi became Minister of the Interior of Ukraine in July 2021. Following the full-scale invasion by the Russian Federation, Mr. Monastyrskyi’s Ministry, responsible for internal security and the police, played a crucial role in the war. PGA continued its cooperation with him and his team, as well as the new leadership of the Law Enforcement Committee, to reinforce international support for Ukraine. PGA is committed to honor his legacy as lawyer, parliamentarian and representative of the Ukrainian people to ensure that the pivotal legislation on which he had been working will become law.
