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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
In August the IX convocation of the Verkhovna Rada will mark its 7-th anniversary of work. This is a unique event, but a forced one – because of Russian aggression and the martial law imposed in Ukraine, elections are impossible, and therefore renewal of the authorities, including the legislative branch, cannot take place.
Most deputies understand this and agree to shoulder the burden of responsibility beyond the norm; however, this does not apply to all people's representatives who took office in the now distant and relatively peaceful 2019-th. As a result of various circumstances, the Ukrainian parliament is missing many bayonets and greets its anniversary in a reduced form.
Colleagues from the Holka project investigated the reasons for changes and rotations in the IX convocation of the Verkhovna Rada over the past 7 years. 24 Channel presents the most interesting findings from their research.
Single-member districts proved to be the weak link
In the seventh year of the Verkhovna Rada's work, 47 single-member districts remain unrepresented.
Elections in 26 of them did not take place back in 2019 due to occupation of parts of the territories, and another 21 became vacant during the work of the IX convocation. At the same time, at least four single-mandate deputies fled the country – Yaroslav Dubnevych, Artem Dmytruk, Oleksandr Kunytskyi and Serhii Shakhov.
Unlike another fugitive – Illia Kiva – they still retain their mandates but do not work in parliament. Under such conditions these politicians do not properly represent the interests of their voters.
Losses of the Verkhovna Rada on the single-member front / Infographic of 24 Channel based on data collected by the Holka project
These representation problems in parliament arose because the elections in 2019 took place under the old electoral system, which was mixed and provided for both party lists and single-member districts. As a result, during the full-scale war the single-member system proved to be the weakest link for representation.
The trend indicates the situation will only worsen. At present there are sometimes not enough votes on important Eurointegration issues.
Majority on paper
The greatest erosion is recorded in the largest faction – Servant of the People. Currently the "Servants" faction numbers 226 people's deputies – exactly that many votes are needed for a bill to become law. But even these 226 bayonets exist only on paper. Therefore, to have the "magic number" from the faction, they do not exclude either the people's fugitive Kunytskyi, or those who get into high-profile corruption scandals and whose cases are still under consideration.
However, there are cases when verdicts in criminal cases are handed down against those who ran from Servant of the People. That was the case with the single-member deputy from Chernihiv region, Anatolii Hunko.
Besides Hunko, after court verdicts the mandates were lost by single-mandate deputies Fedir Khrystenko (Donetsk region) and Andrii Odarchenko (Kharkiv region). And representatives from Sumy and Odesa regions, Andrii Derkach and Ihor Vasylkovskyi, were deprived of citizenship and accused of state treason.
Trojan horses of Ukrainian parliamentarism
In total over the past seven years 71 people's deputies lost their powers. Most often politicians resigned of their own accord. Among them was the odious Illia Kiva, who turned out to be not that "small cog" at all.
A former member of the Right Sector, later a "candidate of sciences," a rapper, and also a favorite of Interior Minister Avakov and Putin's godfather Medvedchuk, at the beginning of the large full-scale war he fled to Russia.
From there he sent a statement renouncing his parliamentary seat. That was at least honest. Later he was liquidated. But these processes are not related to each other. Probably.
Interestingly, the official ban on pro-Russian parties did not mean the automatic loss of mandates for their representatives in the Verkhovna Rada.
As a result, some former members of OPZZh and other banned forces still remain in parliament. Moreover, they now actively vote for decisions necessary to ensure Ukraine's defense capability, and not for their previous object of affection.
The Rada as a bench of substitutes
Most often deputies resigned early of their own free will – there were about half a hundred such cases. Another 12 parliamentarians died or were killed, six lost their mandates due to termination of Ukrainian citizenship, and three – after guilty verdicts in court came into force.
Most of those who submitted resignation statements went to work in other key state positions.
Representatives of the parliamentary majority (the president's party Servant of the People) most often left the Verkhovna Rada due to appointments to the Cabinet or to other posts. This process began back in 2019, when ministers were recruited for Oleksii Honcharuk's government, and continues now, to replenish the Cabinet of Serhii Koretskyi.
Analysis of personnel losses of the IX convocation of the Verkhovna Rada over the past 7 years / Infographic of 24 Channel based on data collected by the Holka project
Thus, during the last government reshuffle in July of 2026, MPs from Servant of the People Vitalii Bezgin and Denys Maslov left parliament after respectively heading the Ministry for Communities and Territories Development and the Ministry of Justice.
At the same time, due to the inability to terminate the powers of pro-Russian deputies, there are still quite a few, as Christopher Nolan's characters would say, "Trojan horses" in parliament.
We are talking about Yurii Boiko (included in the NSDC decision on personal sanctions – he was deprived of state awards of Ukraine and other forms of recognition), Nestor Shufrych or Oleksandr Dubinskyi, who remain in parliament. The latter even recently tried to take part in a meeting of the parliamentary committee from Mensk Correctional Colony No.9.
Thirst for parliamentarism from Oleksandr Dubinskyi / Screenshot
This unfortunately testifies not only to the humanity and successes of the domestic penitentiary system, but also to gaps in the legislation that prevent removing this shame and have dragged the process out to truly Homeric lengths.
The Holka civic initiative's research was conducted based on open data within the framework of the "You Have the Power to Recharge the Country" project, which is supported by NED. Any citizen can obtain access to the digital service containing the systematized data by sending a letter requesting access to [email protected].
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Як Верховна Рада за 7 років роботи втрачала народних депутатів". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: Channel 24.
