KIEV, October 5. /TASS/. Following the suspension of Chairman Dmitry Razumkov for conducting plenary sessions for two days, the Ukrainian parliament (Verkhovna Rada) has voted to remove his first deputy Ruslan Stefanchuk. However, the initiative ended in failure.

"Those in favor: 69 votes, no decision taken," Deputy Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada Elena Kondratyuk announced the voting results. After this, Stefanchuk continued to hold parliamentary sessions.

Alexey Goncharenko, a lawmaker from the European Solidarity party’s parliamentary faction, took the initiative to suspend the first deputy speaker. A similar question was brought up for a vote again, but it was not welcomed by the required number of deputies, gaining only 66 votes.

Earlier, Rada legislators suspended the head of the parliament from holding meetings for two plenary days "over a breach of rules." This proposal was supported by members of the presidential faction "Servant of the People", as well as the Trust and For the Future parliamentary faction. Before the voting, Razumkov said that the architects of his suspension were acting against the regulations and doing "whatever they want" because they need to carry out the suspension process "quickly and well." Later, the parliament decided to consider the issue of Razumkov's removal at a meeting on Thursday.

Yulia Paliychuk, Spokeswoman for the ruling Servant of the People faction, said on Saturday that the legislators had collected enough signatures (more than 150) to submit the issue of Razumkov's removal for consideration. President Vladimir Zelensky of Ukraine attributed the parliamentarians’ pursuit to change the speaker to disagreements between Razumkov and the party regarding the law on oligarchs and sanctions policy. The chairman of the parliament himself said that if he is removed from his post, he will leave politics.