“Now it’s a constitutional crisis”: why Zelenskyi’s decision on Tupytskyi will create new problems for Ukraine

What does the decree say?

"To cancel the decree of the President of Ukraine dated May 14, 2013, No. 256 'On appointing Oleksandr Tupytskyi as a judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine,'" the president's press service said in a statement.

Zelenskyi also canceled Yanukovych's decree on appointing another judge of the Constitutional Court, Oleksandr Kasminin.

The president tried to rely on the decision of the Verkhovna Rada of February 17, which claims that Yanukovych usurped power between 2010 and 2014. However, there are also questions about the legality of this parliament's decision, since, in 2010, the fugitive president won the elections and held office legitimately. Zelenskyi also insists that Tupytskyi on the post poses a "threat to national security." It's another argument that can be challenged.

Tupytskyi hasn't commented on this decree in any way, and Fedir Venislavskyi, the president's representative in the CCU, predictably spoke in his defense.

"After this decree, Mr. Tupytskyi lost his status as a CCU judge. He's no longer a judge, has no status or relation to the CCU. I think that from today on he'll be removed from the state guard as a person who has lost this right," Venislavskyi told reporters.

"His purchasing a land plot (in Crimea, – ed.) under the laws of the Russian Federation actually means that with his actions, he recognized: Crimea has been annexed legally… I'm sure that it can be used by our enemies to confirm the legitimacy of the Russian regime in Crimea," the representative of the CCU added.