People's deputy

Mykola Tyshchenko

claims that some representatives of the mass media discredit Ukraine in front of Vietnamese and Thai partners by covering his trip to Thailand.

Tyshchenko wrote about this on his Facebook page.

"It's unpleasant to admit, but today you really screwed up," the people's deputy told journalists.

Tyshchenko said that Russian narratives about the war in Ukraine are widespread in Vietnam and Thailand.

According to him, many residents of these countries do not realize that the Russian Federation has launched a full-scale war against Ukraine.

"Here, you should be aware, the war is perceived as a civil one. "Mezhduusobitsa" is what they call it here," Tyschenko continued.

According to the statement of the People's Deputy, "Russian influence in Asian countries puts pressure on Ukrainians living there." 

Tyshchenko also specified that his claims concern journalists who published his photos and videos from a vacation in Asia five years ago and joined the "spread of fakes."

"You discredit our state in front of Asian partners," he added.

Details of the scandal 

Previously,

Tyshchenko

wrote on social networks that he was on a business trip to Asia and was carrying out the task given to the deputies — "the development of friendly relations in the direction of Asia and Africa."

On January 26, the Embassy of Ukraine in Thailand announced a meeting between Mykola Tyshchenko and representatives of the Ukrainian community at the Novotel Hotel.

The deputy did not name the budget of the trip, only adding that this amount will be declared.

However, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada 

Ruslan Stefanchuk

 claims that he

 did not send Tyshchenko abroad

.

"As the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, I did not sign the order for a business trip to Thailand," Stefanchuk emphasized.

After the scandal with Tyshchenko, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that officials, deputies and all civil servants can go abroad only by decision of the National Security and Defense Council.

On January 23, the NSDC banned officials from traveling abroad without a valid reason.

In the wake of popular indignation, the deputy was expelled from the "Servant of the People" parliamentary faction, depriving him of the position of deputy head of the faction.

Read also:

  • A party during COVID-19, fights in the Council and the scandalous Velur restaurant: blunders and curious situations with Tyschenko

  • On vacation abroad - again: the government forbade officials to leave Ukraine during the war

  • "The business trip will continue as planned": Tyshchenko explained what he is doing in Asia and whether he plans to return