MOSCOW, November 8. /TASS/. Ukrainian lawmaker Artyom Dmitruk called on Vladimir Zelensky to step down from his post, saying the move would be the "best gift" for the country.

The lawmaker also criticized Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andrey Yermak.

"Only in Ukraine can the chief of staff threaten a sitting member of parliament [Yevgeny Shevchenko] for making a statement in the interests of all the people of Ukraine. And Zelensky's resignation would be the best gift for millions of Ukrainians and the entire country because the deaths would stop," Dmitruk wrote on Telegram.

Earlier, Shevchenko urged Zelensky to begin settlement talks with Russia. Otherwise, the people who "applauded him yesterday" in the West would force him to leave. In response, Yermak accused Shevchenko of acting in Russia’s interests and wanting Ukraine to fail.

Dmitruk expressed confidence that Shevchenko wrote what millions of Ukrainians think but are too afraid to say out loud.

"Can you imagine any senator or congressman being prosecuted just because he said something about Biden somewhere? I don't. Not only in the US, but also in any other country in the world, this is unacceptable. Except in Ukraine! Yermak belongs in a hard-labor prison," the lawmaker said.

Dmitruk, who spoke in parliament against the oppression of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, was charged by the Ukrainian prosecutor's office in absentia with assaulting a law enforcement officer and a military serviceman, after which he reportedly illegally left the country and took up residence in London. Another criminal case was opened against Dmitruk later. In August 2024, Ukraine placed him on an international wanted list.