Head of the Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office Oleg Kiper
The head of the Kyiv city prosecutor's office, 42-year-old Oleg Kiper, went abroad for 10 days over the New Year and Christmas holidays. He left Ukraine on December 29, 2022, and returned on January 8, 2023. This was reported by journalistsschemes(Radio Liberty).
Kyiv's chief prosecutor confirmed going on vacation abroad, citing “family circumstances,” but didn't disclose the destination country for security reasons, as “his wife changed her Russian citizenship to Ukrainian in the summer“. At the same time, Schemes found that the Russian authorities consider the Russian passport of the wife of the chief prosecutor of Kyiv, Irina Kiper, as valid.
Earlier in January, Prosecutor General Andrey Kostin fired his deputy Oleksiy Symonenko after the publication of Ukrayinska Pravda about his New Year’s holiday abroad, and President Zelensky enforced the decision of the National Security and Defense Council to ban all officials from traveling abroad on private business during martial law.
“At the end of December 2022, due to family circumstances and the need to travel abroad, I submitted an application for leave with the possibility of traveling abroad. All documents on the right to travel abroad were provided to the competent authorities for consideration, and after studying them and clarifying the grounds, they provided the appropriate permission“, – says the response of the prosecutor Oleg Kiper, handed over to “Schemes” by his press service.
Journalists tried three times to clarify in which country he spent his vacation during the New Year period, but Kiper refused to answer, only noting that “the vacation was not festive or New Year’s.”
The chief prosecutor of the capital refused to disclose details, referring to the fact that his wife in July 2022 “changed her Russian citizenship to Ukrainian” in connection with the events related to the war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine. Therefore, for the sake of her safety, I would not like to publicly report in which country she lives with her child, the prosecutor said.
“Schemes” discovered that the Russian passport of his wife Irina Kiper has not yet been canceled. The authenticity of the document as of the time of publication was verified by the journalists using the official service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia. This passport is not listed as invalid. Also, using the data of the passport, on the official website of the Federal Tax Service of Russia “Schemes” found her individual taxpayer number.
To the journalists’ clarification that his wife’s Russian passport is still valid, Kiper only replied that “the migration service of Ukraine dealt with these issues.”
To clarify how the Migration Service of Ukraine can help citizens of the Russian Federation to renounce Russian citizenship, the head of the Kyiv prosecutor’s office only noted that “these are issues that, among other things, fall within their competence,” and advised to contact the Migration Service directly for clarification .
In the Regulations on the State Migration Service of Ukraine statedthat the department, within its competence, “carries out proceedings on issues of admission to the citizenship of Ukraine and on the termination of citizenship of Ukraine and submits the relevant documents for consideration by the Commission under the President of Ukraine on Citizenship.” Among the tasks of the VHI there is no item regarding the allowance for renunciation of the citizenship of another country.
In clarifying the Schemes on how many times in general during the full-scale invasion the chief prosecutor of Kyiv traveled abroad for private purposes, Kiper noted that twice. In addition to the New Year’s holiday, he also said that he went on vacation to Vienna (Austria) in August 2022, according to him, the trip was for the purpose of treatment. In support of his words, he provided a receipt for payment for medical services in one of the Viennese private clinics in the amount of 1.5 thousand euros.
September 11, 2020 Oleg Kiper was appointed to the post of head of the Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office. Oleg Kiper started working in the prosecutor’s office in 2001. He worked in the Odessa region, in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, in recent years – in Kyiv. He was deputy head of the Main Investigation Department of the GPU during the times of Viktor Yanukovych.
In 2014, Kiper was included in the list of persons who are prohibited from holding public office, according to the law “On the cleansing of power.” Last year, Kiper won a court ruling that his lustration was “groundless”.
Recently, Ukrayinska Pravda reported that Deputy Prosecutor General Oleksiy Symonenko went on vacation to Spain in December and early January in the car of a Lviv entrepreneur.
On January 24, the Office of the Prosecutor General announced the resignation of Oleksiy Symonenko from the post of Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine.
On January 23, 2023, President Zelensky approved the decision of the National Security and Defense Council to ban officials from traveling abroad under martial law.
“There is a fundamental decision of the National Security and Defense Council on the departure of officials abroad. This applies to all officials of the central government, various other levels of local authorities. This applies to law enforcement officers, people’s deputies, prosecutors and everyone who should work for the state and in the state. If they want to rest now, they will rest outside the state service. Officials will no longer be able to travel abroad on vacation or for any other non-state purpose‘, the president said.
Skeleton.Info
