MP from Odesa region refuses to comment on her vacation in Mallorca during the war

Iryna Malokhovych , a deputy of the Podil City Council in Odesa Oblast, posted photos of her vacation in Mallorca on her Instagram and refused to comment on them.

To be more precise, the politician simply blocked the journalist in response to an appeal on the same Instagram by the editor of Intent.

The editor's question concerned how Iryna Malokhovych was able to travel abroad despite her position as a deputy.

Photo: Iryna Malokhovych/Instagram

Photo: Instagram

Back in 2023, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, pursuant to a decision of the National Security and Defense Council, banned officials from traveling abroad without good reason during the war.

"MPs, government officials, local authorities, prosecutors, judges and many other officials can cross the state border on the basis of an official business trip. They can go abroad for negotiations, medical treatment, or to care for minor children. Going on vacation - no," said Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal at a government meeting on January 27, 2023.

Before that, on January 23, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a corresponding decree. Since then, local council members have been allowed to cross the state border only in four cases:

• on an official business trip;
• if the deputy is a woman or a man who is a single parent who is going to travel outside Ukraine to accompany his or her child or children under the age of 18 (inclusive), or to visit such children who are already there, which must be confirmed by relevant documents;
• if he or she needs medical treatment abroad, if he or she has a letter from the Minister of Health confirming that this person can be admitted to medical institutions abroad;
• if such a trip is caused by the death abroad of one of the deputy's family members of the first or second degree of kinship.

Iryna Malokhovych was elected to the Podil City Council in 2020 as a member of the Servant of the People party. In the council, she is a member of the committee on economy, entrepreneurship, transport, communications, and trade.

Last year, Ivanna Plantovska, a press officer at the Southern Regional Directorate of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, was fired after boasting on social media about her vacation in Paris.

Кирило Бойко