The shaggy dog story on air of 112 Ukraine TV Channel not only causes outcry in Ukraine but also hits the trends on the English-language segment of the Internet.
Answering the question of a pensioner Lyubov Kolyucha, 66 years old, from the Kirovograd region regarding how to live on a pension of 2 000 UAH (80 USD) and at the same time pay utility bills, Yevhen Brahar suggested she should sell the dog if she has any.
“Living in these conditions is difficult, but we still do not know if she has any other property. [...] If there is a dog of the elite breed, then she can sell it at any time and easily pay,” the MP said.
Mr Brahar, 25, of the ruling Servant of the People party, later apologised on his Facebook page, saying he was a "novice in politics".
On Sunday, BBC News Ukraine journalist Anastasiya Dzubak visited Mrs Kolyucha in her small town.
As BBC revealed the dog is a 14-year-old blind mongrel called Sharik and Lyubov Kolyucha had no plans to sell him.
Responding to Mr Brahar's response to her complaint about her small pension, she believed he had embarrassed himself.
"I would tell him to sell his brain! One has to think first who, where and what to say," she said.
As we reported, from January 1, 2020, the minimum pension in Ukraine is 1638 UAH (65,5 USD), from July 1 it will increase to 1712 UAH (68,4 USD), from December 1 - up to 1769 UAH (70,7 USD).
Pension Fund of Ukraine has published data on the number of retirees and average pensions as of January 1, 2020.
According to the Pension Fund, as of January 1, there were 11,3 million pensioners in Ukraine, and the average pension was 127 dollars.
Gas prices for the people of Ukraine have increased 10 times since 2014, while four out of five retired Ukrainians receive a pension of less than 3,000 hryvnias ($119; £92) per month.
