Heletey refuses to answer questions about Ilovaysk in journalists’ presence

The Minister of Defense of Ukraine Valeriy Heletey was summoned as a witness to the session of the parliamentary temporary investigation committee for investigating the events in Ilovaysk but refused to answer the questions of MP Andriy Senchenko, the committee’s chair, because of the classified status of the materials. In particular, he refuses to answer in presence of journalists, as Ukrinform reports.

Both the minister and the MP blame each other of attempts to gain political capital by the games around this issue. Mr. Senchenko also says that the committee members have not asked the Minister a single question yet.

The chair of the parliamentary investigation committee also said that when he studied the materials pertaining to this topic, many of them were labeled “classified.” In particular, the lists of those who perished in Ilovaysk and of those who were rewarded are both labeled «for internal use only».

«Because of this, I had to address the Security Service of Ukraine’s main office for them to verify whether the Defense Ministry and the General Staff labeled the documents as “classified” on legal grounds», the MP remarked.