This Parliament Is Unrecognizable. What Happened to the Verkhovna Rada in Seven Years Without Elections

The parliament is entering its record eighth year in session. During this time, people's deputies 2019 of the convocation have resigned their mandates, moved to work in the government, fled Ukraine, lost citizenship, died during the war, become subjects of criminal proceedings for state treason or corruption, and some voluntarily took up the defense of Ukraine by joining the Armed Forces.

The war also exposed one of the biggest flaws of the mixed system – the consequences of majoritarian districts. Since elections in 2019 took place under the old rules – before the new Electoral Code came into force – part of the parliament was elected in single-member districts. Now, because by martial law by-elections cannot be held, 47 districts remain vacant, and a number of regions have effectively lost representation in parliament.

Moreover, due to the temporary occupation of parts of the regions by the enemy, the number of nonfunctioning districts has increased. As a result, the Rada sometimes lacks votes for critically important decisions, for example, on European integration. Andriy Motovilovets, deputy head of the Servant of the People faction, explained this by deputies’ fear, fatigue, and bewilderment caused by the actions of… anti-corruption agencies.

After the parliamentary elections in 2019, Servant of the People was proud to have formed a single-party majority. However, since 2023 it has existed only on paper: the faction has practically lost the ability to independently secure the minimum 226 votes for laws. Currently it formally lists exactly the minimally required 226 deputies. But this number is precarious and is maintained in part thanks to those who fled abroad and to subjects of criminal proceedings who have long since stopped attending the Rada.

The civic initiative Holka analyzed all parliamentary votes up to the seventh anniversary of its work and studied how party discipline has changed over these years, how deputies behaved during politically sensitive votes, such as the repeal of the independence of NABU and SAP and the formation of a new cabinet without Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov.

Appointments to government, escapes, and death

Over the last seven years 71 people's deputies lost their powers. Most often politicians resigned their mandates voluntarily. Among them was the notorious Illia Kiva, who fled to Russia after the start of the full-scale war and from there sent a statement renouncing his parliamentary seat. He was later liquidated in Russia. At the same time, the ban on pro-Russian parties did not automatically mean loss of mandates for their members. As a result, former members of OPZZh and other banned forces still remain in parliament under different political banners.

Some pro-Russian parliamentarians were removed from the Verkhovna Rada only after losing Ukrainian citizenship. One such case was Viktor Medvedchuk. Security services managed to detain Putin’s godfather and exchange him for Ukrainian prisoners of war.

But Ukrainian politicians also became victims of enemy intelligence services. The most high-profile was the murder in Lviv of Andriy Parubiy – one of the key leaders of the Revolution of Dignity, a former speaker who was posthumously awarded the title Hero of Ukraine.

Former people's deputy of European Solidarity Mykhailo Zabrodskyi resigned to fully devote himself to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Regarding the factional personnel deficit in Servant of the People, many deputies left in a “natural” way due to appointments to state positions. Most often members of the single-party majority moved to the Cabinet of Ministers. During the years of the full-scale war, Volodymyr Zelenskyy still did not agree to form a coalition government and continues to fill the Cabinet, as a rule, with list MPs from the pro-government faction.

Thus, in July during yet another government reshuffle, Vitalii Bezgin and Denys Maslov left the Verkhovna Rada. Ministers change quite often. If you look at government turnover, only Mykhailo Fedorov, who entered parliament on the Servant of the People list, worked continuously in the Cabinet from 2019 until his scandalous resignation in July 2026.

The number of people's deputies is now the smallest in Ukraine's history – 390 out of 450. Therefore positions usually go to list MPs so that the composition of parliament can be replenished somewhat, because the next politician on the party list enters parliament. In the case of majoritarians, such replenishment during the war is blocked. So now mandates go even to those who would not have entered the Verkhovna Rada under other historical circumstances.

A record under-staffed Rada. How could this have been avoided?

When Petro Poroshenko was president and a coalition majority worked in the Verkhovna Rada after the Revolution of Dignity, the civic sector demanded an electoral reform to elect parliament by open lists. Then there would have been no single-member districts. Those who entered parliament from party lists would have been the politicians with the greatest support among the people, not those who bought the top spots on party lists.

Demonstration in support of electoral reform, 2018

footage from a TSN report

But in Ukraine every ruling party tries to change the electoral rules to suit itself. So even the risk that during the war the Verkhovna Rada might remain under-staffed did not force politicians to renounce their own political interests.

When Volodymyr Zelenskyy became president, he did not wait for the next parliamentary elections and dissolved the Verkhovna Rada. Thus the old rules with the majoritarian system applied. And European Solidarity, which had by then already lost power, did not benefit much: it managed to win “only two” mandates in the Lviv region. They went to Mykola Kniazhytskyi and Mykhailo Bondar.

Due to the annexation of Crimea and the temporary occupation of Donetsk and Luhansk, elections in 2019 were not held in 225 single-member districts, but only in 199 districts. If the parliament before the full-scale invasion had been elected by open lists, this serious under-staffing challenge of the Verkhovna Rada would not have arisen. Now the Rada includes 178 majoritarians, and this is an extremely sensitive problem.

For context, during the full-scale war another 27 districts became fully or partially occupied, or are now frontline territories – Mariupol, Bakhmut, Sievierodonetsk, Berdyansk, Nova Kakhovka. Thus deputies of these districts formally represent communities that physically live under occupation.

According to the results of a sociological survey published by the International Republican Institute, the need to reboot parliament has divided Ukrainians. 49% definitely support or rather support this idea, while 47% rather do not support or definitely do not support it.

The poll was conducted by the Rating sociological group on behalf of the International Republican Institute in different months of 2024–2026.

In addition to vacant districts whose deputies died, took other positions, or simply resigned, there are districts whose elected representatives blatantly fled the country but kept their mandates. The most audacious was the escape of majoritarian MP from Odesa region Artem Dmytruk. This pro-Russian politician, who blocked the ban on the activities of the Moscow Patriarchate, even joined a law enforcement (!) committee meeting remotely and voted while outside the country. Only after the scandal was he removed from that committee, but he kept his mandate.

It is important to emphasize that among those who fled is also an MP from Servant of the People – majoritarian from Kharkiv region Oleksandr Kunytskyi. Despite obvious reputational risks, he is not expelled because, formally, the single-party majority must retain the appearance of existence. Currently the ruling faction counts the critical minimum of 226 deputies – and this despite the fact that in 2019 it started with 254 members.

After the elections in 2019 President Zelenskyy signed the Electoral Code and local elections were even held under it. However postwar elections will likely be held under new rules. To develop them, at the beginning of this year parliament involved the civic sector.

Most likely, when postwar elections take place, they will be proportional closed party lists. But new challenges have also emerged: discussion surrounds banning or regulating Telegram, organizing voting abroad for a significant number of voters, and so on.

From turbo mode to fatigue

It is not so important with how many people's deputies a faction begins a convocation as how many remain in it before the next elections. The era of the “mad printer,” when parliament quickly and smoothly passed laws, in the Verkhovna Rada ended as soon as the pandemic began. This is clearly seen when analyzing the median number of votes, which does not take into account abnormally high or low values.

This in no way indicates the collapse of the single-party majority at this stage. It just became typical during this period to vote on opposition amendments that the “Servants” massively ignored (do not press anything or vote “against”). Half of all votes in 2021 gathered fewer than ten “for” votes from Servant of the People. These years gave rise to the myth of a “single-party majority that supports nothing”: the faction’s average indicators sank into amendment spam.

In 2021 it was still possible to stage a “renaissance” of the single-party majority and gather it for specific issues. To mobilize votes there was a special “Razumkov code” – at that time the speaker was Dmytro Razumkov. From the podium he would say: “please decide and vote” and “please support and vote.” In the first case it was a signal to press the yellow or red button, and in the second – the green.

But before the full-scale invasion Servants of the People experienced their first serious political shock – Razumkov was removed from the position of speaker; he had been one of the key figures and headed the party’s list in the elections. The politician immediately formed his own group and recruited people from the Servant of the People faction.

After the full-scale invasion only in 2022 was there a moment of the highest consolidation of votes in parliament. At that time the party chair of Servant of the People, Olena Shuliak, reported that politicians began returning from the “Razumkov group” to the faction and added “but a chill in relations nevertheless remains.”

After several years of the full-scale war the parliament entered an era of slow fatigue. In spring Andriy Motovilovets, deputy head of the Servant of the People faction, said that “parliament is broken” and tired. According to him, laws coordinated with the EU may not be voted for because of cases that anti-corruption agencies are pursuing against people's deputies.

Since the beginning of 2023 the single-party majority never gave more than 226 votes for any legislative initiative that later became law. The count included laws adopted in first reading (as a basis and in general) and in second readings.

It is also worth noting that the Servant of the People faction itself lost many members. Some became non-factional because they received a post that requires leaving the faction (Dmytro Razumkov, Oleksandr Korniienko), and some were simply expelled, like Oleksandr Dubinskyi. Some fled to parliamentary groups For the Future or Ukraine Restoration.

Agency in parliament. Who does not stay silent during important votes?

Deputies almost stopped voting with the red button after 2022. Even the opposition. This is clearly visible on this chart, where the red line represents deputies voting “against.” That line is almost reduced to zero.

When considering the issue of liquidating the independence of NABU and SAP, only a few members of European Solidarity voted with the red button, but importantly, there were votes against among the Servants as well. The red-button votes were cast by Hanna Bondar, Dmytro Hurin, Roman Hryshchuk. These are majoritarians from the ruling faction.

Those elected in single-member districts may show more agency because a party can get rid of list MPs, and holding elections in single-member districts during a war, as noted, is impossible, and under such conditions each people's deputy is very important for parliament. But majoritarian resistance is not mass, and this is another argument why the country should ultimately move to a system of open party lists and never again jeopardize the constitutional composition of the Rada at 450 mandates.

When it comes to voting on the liquidation of the independence of anti-corruption agencies, one cannot forget the names of the politicians who blocked the podium and physically could not press the button against.

People’s deputies who blocked the podium during the vote on liquidating the independence of anti-corruption agencies

It is important to note that personnel appointments remain almost the only votes where the opposition European Solidarity and Holos continue to express dissent. The Servants, on the contrary, vote for appointments almost unanimously – 83,3% “for.”

This is a record among all types of votes, and here the split between factions is maximal. If the Servants support personnel issues, European Solidarity is instead in the fiercest opposition and gives only 28,3% “for” and 13,4% “against” – the highest share of open “against” of any faction on any type of vote during the entire convocation. Notably, former members of the banned OPZZh who formed deputy groups vote for appointments more willingly than the democratic opposition.

The most scandalous change was the last cabinet reshuffle, when Defense Minister Fedorov was removed. However, the voting indicators this time were not anomalous.

It is worth remembering that during this appointment a new form of protest appeared – a statement of intent to resign as a political move. People's deputy Mykola Poturaiev, a member of the party’s political council who was called the Servants’ political technologist, submitted a statement of resignation. Understanding the political reason for such actions, Poturaiev’s colleagues from Servant of the People, European Solidarity, and Holos emphasized that they would vote “against” and would not allow Poturaiev to resign his mandate.

By the way, Servant of the People members from 2022 generally vote “against” less, but increasingly do not participate in voting – this may be either a silent protest or sabotage that allows minimizing conflicts within the faction. For context, the number of non-votes compared to the postwar period increased from 5,9% to 19,9%. And this applies not only to Servant of the People.

Thus, during consideration of the scandalous Civil Code draft proposed by Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk in the first reading 45 deputies simply did not vote, probably so as not to spoil relations with the speaker. At least Maksym Pavliuk, Yuliia Yatsyk, Yuliia Ovchynnikova, Artur Herasymov and Serhii Velmozhnyi voted “for” or abstained on procedural issues before and after the vote, but on the key question – consideration of the Civil Code draft in the first reading – simply did not vote. Only two female MPs from Holos voted against – Nataliia Pipa and Inna Sovsun. Another 86 politicians were simply absent.

But there is silent protest, manifested as non-voting, and there is outright sabotage within Servant of the People. Included among such saboteurs are politicians who, for example, hold pro-Russian views. They either pretend to be absent or vote against when matters important for national security are on the agenda, such as banning the Russian Orthodox Church or decolonization. Thus, elected in Dnipropetrovsk region, Servant Roman Kaptielov voted against the final step of decolonization – the resolution on renaming 333 populated places. This people's deputy in the ruling faction votes “against” most often – 73,7%.

Servants who try to block issues important for national security can simply remove their cards from the slots and pretend to be absent.

However, the absence of some deputies at Verkhovna Rada sessions can be understood. There are politicians who took up the defense of the country: Roman Kostenko and Roman Lozynskyi from Holos, Sviatoslav Yurash (Servant of the People), Serhii Rudy (For the Future group). Sitting MP from European Solidarity Yana Zinkevych remains an unwavering commander and founder of the volunteer medical battalion Hospitallers.

The legislative branch in its seventh year of work can no longer rely on the arithmetic of a single faction. A mature decision would be to institutionalize what is already happening daily out of necessity – a broad coalition with opposition forces, with transparent rules for drafting and adopting laws instead of repeatedly “collecting votes” for each specific decision.

Oksana Stavniichuk, data engineer and investigative journalist, Holka