Lawmaker Mariana Bezuhla said on July 17 that she had submitted an application to leave President Volodymyr Zelensky's Servant of the People parliamentary faction.
The central figure of many controversies, Bezuhla has repeatedly made headlines with her harsh criticism of the former and current military leadership, including ex-Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi and his successor, Oleksandr Syrskyi.
Bezuhla made the announcement shortly after she was dismissed as the head of the subcommittee on civilian oversight over the military. She presented her dismissal as a "reaction to speaking the truth about the problems in the Armed Forces."
Opposition lawmaker Iryna Herashchenko said that her colleague Iryna Friz from the European Solidarity group initiated her dismissal, adding, "Thank you to all committee members who supported this decision."
Bezuhla's attacks against Zaluzhnyi in November led her party colleagues to call for expulsion. Bezuhla announced her resignation from the party in January but has remained a Servant of the People's parliamentary faction member.
The lawmaker claimed at the time that Zaluzhnyi did not prepare military plans for 2024 and called for his dismissal. The comments came amid widespread speculations about a rift between the commander-in-chief and the Presidential Office, which resulted in Zaluzhnyi's dismissal.
Bezuhla then went on to criticize Syrskyi and other high-ranking generals. The lawmaker said in May that she traveled to the front line in Kharkiv Oblast only days after Russia launched a new offensive in the sector, lambasting Ukrainian commanders after the trip.
The MP spoke especially harshly about Yurii Sodol, the Joint Forces commander and head of the Khortytsia group of forces facing Russian troops in Kharkiv Oblast. Sodol himself was later dismissed after criticism from other officers.
Earlier this month, Bezuhla criticized Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk for a supposed lack of preparations for receiving F-16 fighter jets from Western partners.
The lawmaker said that her decision to leave the parliamentary group should be announced later this week. Opposition MP Oleksii Honcharenko explained that Bezuhla would remain in the parliament as an independent.
Martin Fornusek
