Honcharenko Tops MPs’ Media Prominence Ranking for Second Week in a Row

Last week (31 August - 6 September) among all members of the Verkhovna Rada, media quoted Oleksii Honcharenko, a deputy from the European Solidarity faction, the most. Thus Honcharenko tops the Verkhovna Rada media prominence ranking compiled by Informator from media monitoring data for the second week in a row. In second place is Verkhovna Rada Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk.

The most quoted was Honcharenko’s comment about the operating mode of the Verkhovna Rada. He said that parliament continues to work in the session hall, not in a shelter — and that it is not working very productively because it has to pause for air raid alerts.

"This week there will be no question time for the government! Air raid alert, ministers sat for an hour, the alert continues. So everyone left. That’s it for the plenary week," — this exact quote from Honcharenko was the media’s most mentioned line last week.

Who made headlines last week

The top three were Oleksii Honcharenko (92,4), Ruslan Stefanchuk (64,2) and Petro Poroshenko (48,1). The first two places are separated by more than 28 index points — the largest gap at the top of the ranking in recent weeks.

Oleksii Honcharenko, European Solidarity - 92,4

Ruslan Stefanchuk, Chair of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine - 64,2

Petro Poroshenko, European Solidarity - 48,1

Yaroslav Zhelezniak, Holos - 45,7

Roksolana Pidlas, Servant of the People - 43,2

Danylo Hetmantsev, Servant of the People - 36,5

Olha Vasylevska-Smahliuk, Servant of the People - 35,2

Vadym Stolar, Revival of Ukraine - 34,3

Ruslan Horbenko, Servant of the People - 29,4

Andrii Zhupanin, Servant of the People - 28,8

But Honcharenko was mentioned not only for comments about the Verkhovna Rada’s work. He also remained at the top because of statements related to the activities of the temporary investigative commission he chairs. In particular, he accused former Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov of ignoring a commission meeting. Almost half of all mentions during the week (48%) were focused on this topic.

"Fedorov did not appear at the TSK meeting today and provided no response. The commission regards this as disrespect to parliament," — Honcharenko, NV

Media attention to Honcharenko peaked on 4 September. On that day leading media mentioned the deputy 5 times more often than the weekly average.

The silent majority

Of 392 members of parliament, at least once last week 103 were mentioned — meaning that 271 deputies, almost seven out of ten, did not appear in the monitoring even once. Among the silent ones are experienced parliamentarians such as Davyd Arakhamia and Volodymyr Ariev, whose names are usually heard, but this week they did not appear in any of the 30 monitored newsrooms.

Who made noise when

3 September was the day the news feed was filled with the resignation of Estonia’s defense minister over a scandal concerning shell procurement for Ukraine, a missile strike on a high-rise in Odesa that left eight injured, and Erdogan’s statement about Turkey’s readiness to assist peace. Against this backdrop, it was on 3 September that two deputies — Andrii Zhupanin and Ostap Shypailo — experienced simultaneous peaks, whose indices matched to the tenths (28,8).

Honcharenko’s peak came on 4 September, Stefanchuk’s on 1 September, when the speaker publicly apologized for failed votes. Poroshenko’s and Zhelezniak’s peaks were on 31 August, in the midst of debate about the possible voting of deputies from shelters during alerts.

Who was given the floor

The most direct quotes — six — were collected by Honcharenko, although he is already the leader by index.

Stefanchuk had four quotes,

Zhelezniak had three,

Stolar, Hetmantsev and Vasylevska-Smahliuk, despite high positions in the ranking, received no direct quotes in the monitoring that week — they were only mentioned in the context of other news.

Among factions, Servant of the People pulled ahead with a total index of 437,1 — thanks to 65 deputies in the ranking. European Solidarity scored 165,5 points with only eight deputies, meaning its average per person is higher.

"This voting format will be used only during prolonged air raid alerts. In other cases the Verkhovna Rada will operate in the usual mode in the session hall," — Stefanchuk, Gordon

One-day stars

For Andrii Zhupanin and Ostap Shypailo, almost everything written about them that week came out on a single day — 3 September: each had 18 publications, and 83% of them fell on that date. A similar story applies to Kyrylo Rudyk: 83% of her mentions were published on 6 September.

Iryna Borzova and Maryan Zablotskyi also experienced one-day spikes — 75% of their publications were released on 31 August, when discussions about the start of the school year and first-graders’ statistics were underway.

What they said

"In the new school year, three million children will study in Ukrainian schools. About 240 thousand girls and boys will enter first grade. And this is, unfortunately, 10% less than last year," — Borzova, Ukrainska Pravda

"Winter will be very tough. We must prepare. People should think about how they will get through it," — Kozyr, TSN

"There will never be forced mobilization of women in Ukraine. The duty to defend Ukraine lies only with men," — Kostenko, Informator

Although Honcharenko also placed first in the media prominence ranking the previous week, the overall picture was markedly different. For example, the notorious deputy Stolar “fell” in mentions from 2 place straight to 8.

How we calculated it

The monitoring covers 30 leading Ukrainian outlets; 17728 articles were checked during the week. The prominence index takes into account the number of publications with mentions, their weight depending on the outlet, the place of the mention in the text — headline, lead or body — and the presence of a direct quote, which adds more points than a simple mention of the surname. The data cover the period from 31 August to 6 September 2026. Informator previously described in detail the methodology by which we compile our ranking. It appears weekly.