Die Linke Council of Europe parliamentarian Andrej Hunko told Sputnik Deutschland that he was banned from his trip to Ukraine, blacklisted by the country's Security Service.
“Right now a delegation from the Bundestag is in Ukraine for talks. The agenda involves talks on the implementation of the Minsk II agreements. I am a member of this delegation, but the Ukrainian side has banned me from entry,” he said.
“They have left it to the delegation to decide whether I would be sent back from the Ukrainian airport, or if I would be let in and then immediately arrested. The accusation is that I have crossed the border into Ukraine from the Russian side carrying medication. That's why I'm on a Ukrainian secret service (SBU) blacklist, and they have launched a criminal case against me.”
The politician stressed that some members of the delegation, including the Chairman of the European Affairs Committee, Gunther Krichbaum, of the CDU (Christian Democratic Union), have taken Ukraine's side and asked him not to come along.
The German delegation is now in Kiev, without any representatives from the Left Party. So, the parliamentarian stresses, there are no opposition representatives to question the official line of the Ukrainian government, as, he says, the other parties in the Bundestag are “fairly consistent” with the line of the Ukrainian authorities.
When some of the money was sent to Donbass in November, the German legislators came under fire from the Ukrainian government, which was furious that it was being sent to children's hospitals in Eastern Ukraine.
Initially, Gerke and Hunko tried to send their humanitarian aid through Kiev, but then were forced to change their route and enter Donbass from Russia after the Ukrainian government refused to cooperate.