This parliament is unrecognizable. What happened to the Verkhovna Rada after seven years without elections – Pidozra

Over a record seven years 71 people's deputy lost their mandate, 47 districts remain without their representative

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

The war also brought to light one of the biggest flaws of the mixed system – the consequences of single-member districts. Because the elections in 2019 year were held under the old rules – before the new Electoral Code came into force – part of the parliament was elected in constituencies. Now, since by martial law it is impossible to hold by-elections, 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 constituencies has increased. As a result, the Rada sometimes lacks the votes for critically important decisions, for example, eurointegration measures. Deputy head of the Servant of the People faction Andriy Motovilovets explained this by the fear, fatigue, and bewilderment of parliamentarians caused by the actions of… anti-corruption bodies.

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

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

Appointments to the government, flights and deaths

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

Some pro-Russian parliamentarians could be 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 special 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, European Solidarity member Mykhailo Zabrodskyi resigned his mandate to fully devote himself to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

As for the staffing shortage in the Servant of the People faction, many deputies left in a “natural” way due to appointments to government positions. Most often representatives 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 replenish the Cabinet, as a rule, with party-list members from the ruling faction.

Thus, in July during another government reshuffle, the Verkhovna Rada lost Vitaliy Bezgyn and Denys Maslov. Ministers change quite often. Looking at cabinet changes, only Mykhailo Fedorov, who entered parliament on the Servant of the People list, continuously worked in the Cabinet from 2019 year until the scandalous dismissal in July 2026.

The number of people's deputies is now the smallest in the entire history of Ukraine – 390 out of 450. Therefore posts typically go to party-list candidates so the composition of the parliament can be at least somewhat replenished, because the next in line on the party list gets into parliament. In the case of single-member district deputies, such renewal during the war is blocked. Therefore now mandates are received even by 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 the coalition majority worked in the Verkhovna Rada after the Revolution of Dignity, the civic sector demanded electoral reform and election of parliament by open lists. Then there would be no single-member districts. And those who entered parliament from party lists would be the politicians with the greatest public support, not those who bought the top spots on a list.

Rally in support of electoral reform, 2018 year

footage from the 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 could become under-staffed did not make politicians give up 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 single-member system remained in effect. And European Solidarity, which by that time had already lost power, did not really benefit from this, because it managed to win “as many as two” mandates in the Lviv region. They went to Mykola Kniazhytskyi and Mykhailo Bondar.

Because of the annexation of Crimea and the temporary occupation of Donetsk and Luhansk, elections in 2019 year 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 challenge of an under-staffed Verkhovna Rada would not have arisen. Now the Rada has 178 single-member deputies and this is an extremely sensitive problem.

To understand, during the full-scale war another 27 districts became fully or partially occupied, or are now frontline territories – Mariupol, Bakhmut, Severodonetsk, Berdiansk, Nova Kakhovka. That is, deputies of these districts formally represent communities that physically live under occupation.

As the results of a sociological poll published by the International Republican Institute show, the need to refresh the parliament has split 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 commissioned by the International Republican Institute in various months of 2024–2026 years

Besides vacant districts whose deputies died, took other positions, or simply resigned their mandates, there are districts whose elected representatives simply fled the country but kept their mandate. The most brazen was the flight of the single-member district deputy from Odesa region Artem Dmytruk. The pro-Russian politician who blocked the ban on the activity of the Moscow Patriarchate even joined the law enforcement committee (!) meetings 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 the fugitives is also a Servant of the People MP – single-member district deputy from Kharkiv region Oleksandr Kunytskyi. Despite obvious reputational risks, he is not expelled, because formally the single-party majority must maintain the appearance of existence. At present the ruling faction counts the critical minimum of 226 deputies – and that is despite the fact that in 2019 year it began with 254 members.

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

Most likely, when postwar elections take place they will be proportional closed party lists. But new challenges have also emerged: a ban or regulation of Telegram is being discussed, organizing elections 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 rapidly and coherently adopted laws, in the Verkhovna Rada ended as soon as the pandemic began. And this is clearly visible 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 that stage. It’s just that during this period votes on opposition amendments, which the Servants massively ignored (did not press anything or voted “against”), became typical. Half of all votes in 2021 year 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 figures sank into amendment spam.

In 2021 year it was still possible to create a “renaissance” of the single-party majority and gather it on 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 the Servants of the People experienced their first serious political upheaval – Razumkov was removed from the post of speaker, he was one of the key figures and headed the party list in the elections. The politician immediately formed his own group and recruited people from the Servant of the People faction into it.

After the full-scale invasion only in 2022 year was there a moment of highest vote consolidation in parliament. The then head of the Servant of the People party Olena Shuliak reported that politicians began returning from the “Razumkov group” to the faction and added “but still a chill in relations remains.”

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

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

It is also worth noting that the Servant of the People faction itself lost many members. Some became non-affiliated because they received positions that require leaving the faction (Dmytro Razumkov, Oleksandr Korniyenko), and some were simply expelled, like Oleksandr Dubinskyi. Others fled to deputies’ groups For the Future or Revival of Ukraine.

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

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

During the consideration of the question of eliminating the independence of NABU and SAP, only a few representatives of European Solidarity voted with the red button, but importantly, there were votes against among the Servants as well. The red-button voters were Hanna Bondar, Dmytro Hurin, Roman Hryshchuk. These are single-member district deputies from the ruling faction.

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

When it comes to voting on eliminating the independence of anti-corruption bodies, one must not forget the names of those politicians who blocked the podium and physically could not press the “against” button.

People's deputies who blocked the podium during the vote to eliminate the independence of the anti-corruption bodies

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

This is a record among all types of votes and it is where the split between factions is maximal. If the Servants support staffing issues, European Solidarity, on the contrary, is 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 vote type across the convocation. Notably, former members of the banned party OPZZh who formed deputy groups vote for appointments more willingly than the democratic opposition.

The most scandalous was the latest cabinet change, when Defense Minister Fedorov was removed. However, the voting figures that time were not anomalous.

Although it is worth mentioning that during that appointment a new form of protest appeared – a statement of resignation of mandate as a political step. People's deputy Mykola Poturayev, a member of the party council who was called a political technologist of the Servants of the People, wrote a statement resigning his powers. Understanding the political reason for such actions, Poturayev's colleagues from Servant of the People, European Solidarity and Holos emphasized that they would vote “against” and would not allow Poturayev to resign his mandate.

By the way, Servant of the People members since 2022 year generally vote “against” less, but more often do not participate in votes – this can 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 concerns not only Servant of the People.

So, during consideration of the scandalous draft Civil Code of the 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 Herasyimov and Serhii Velmozhnyi voted “for” or abstained on matters of the agenda before and after the vote, but on the key question – consideration of the draft Civil Code in the first reading – simply did not vote. Only two parliamentarians from Holos voted against – Nataliya Pipa and Inna Sovsun. Another 86 politicians were simply absent.

But there is a silent protest manifested in non-voting, and there is outright sabotage among the Servants of the People. Among such saboteurs are politicians who, for example, hold pro-Russian views. They either pretend to be absent or vote against when on the agenda are issues important for national security, such as banning the Russian Orthodox Church or decolonization. Thus, the Servant elected in Dnipropetrovsk region Roman Kaptiielov voted against the final step of decolonization – the resolution on renaming 333 localities. 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 cards from the slots and pretend to be absent.

However the absence of some deputies at sessions of the Verkhovna Rada 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 Rudyk (For the Future group). Current MP from European Solidarity Yana Zinkevych is the steadfast commander and founder of the volunteer medical battalion Hospitallers.

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

Oksana Stavniychuk, data engineer and investigative journalist, Holka