A Record Seven Years: How the Verkhovna Rada Changed During the War Without Elections

Over the past seven years, 71 people’s deputies have lost their powers. Most often, politicians resigned their mandates of their own free will. Among them was the odious Illia Kyva, who fled to Russia after the start of the great war, from where he sent a statement renouncing his parliamentary seat. Later, he was liquidated in Russia. At the same time, the ban on pro-Russian parties did not mean the automatic loss of mandates for their representatives. Consequently, former members of the OPZZh (Opposition Platform — For Life) and other banned forces still remain in the parliament.

A portion of pro-Russian parliamentarians was removed from the Verkhovna Rada only after they lost their Ukrainian citizenship. One of them was Viktor Medvedchuk. The special services managed to detain Putin’s crony and exchange him for Ukrainian prisoners of war.

But Ukrainian politicians also became victims of hostile special services. The most resonant was the assassination in Lviv of Andriy Parubiy—one of the key leaders of the Revolution of Dignity, who was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine.

Former people’s deputy from ES (European Solidarity) Mykhailo Zabrodskyi resigned his mandate to fully dedicate himself to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

As for the “Servant of the People” faction, many deputies resigned here due to appointments to government positions. Most often, representatives of the single-party majority moved to the Cabinet of Ministers. Over the years of the full-scale war, Volodymyr Zelenskyy never agreed to create a coalition government and continues to replenish the Cabinet, usually with party list members from the ruling faction.

Thus, in July, during another government reboot, Vitaliy Bezghin and Denys Maslov left the Verkhovna Rada. Ministers change quite often. Looking at the changes in governments, only Mykhailo Fedorov, who entered the parliament on the “Servant of the People” list, worked continuously in the Cabinet from 2019 until his resignation in July 2026.

The number of people’s deputies is currently the lowest in the history of Ukraine—390 out of 450. Therefore, positions generally go to list members so that the parliament’s composition is replenished, because this allows the next politician on the party list to enter the parliament. Consequently, mandates are given to those who would not have entered the Verkhovna Rada under other historical circumstances.

When Petro Poroshenko was the President of Ukraine, and a coalition majority worked in the Verkhovna Rada after the Revolution of Dignity, the public sector demanded an electoral reform to elect the parliament by open lists. Then there would be no majoritarian constituencies. And those politicians who had the greatest public support would enter the parliament from the party list, rather than those who bought the top spots on the list.

Still from a TSN broadcast. Rally in support of electoral reform, 2018

But in Ukraine, every ruling party tries to tailor the electoral rules to suit itself. Therefore, even the risk that the Verkhovna Rada could remain understaffed during the war did not force politicians to abandon 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 of the game with the majoritarian system remained in place. And “European Solidarity” certainly did not benefit from this, as it managed to secure 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 the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the 2019 elections were held not in 225 majoritarian constituencies, but only in 199. If the parliament had been elected by open lists before the full-scale invasion, there would not be such a serious challenge with the understaffing of the Verkhovna Rada. Currently, there are 178 majoritarian deputies in the Rada, and the majoritarian component has become a very palpable problem.

For context, during the full-scale war, another 27 constituencies became fully or partially occupied, or are now frontline territories—Mariupol, Bakhmut, Sievierodonetsk, Berdiansk, Nova Kakhovka. That is, the deputies of these constituencies formally represent communities that physically do not exist or are living under occupation.

According to the results of a sociological survey published by the International Republican Institute, Ukrainians’ opinions on the need to reboot the parliament were divided almost equally: 49% strongly support or somewhat support it, while 47% somewhat do not support or strongly do not support it.

The survey was conducted by the sociological group “Rating” on behalf of the International Republican Institute in various months of 2024-2026

Besides vacant constituencies, there are constituencies where politicians have simply fled the country but remain with a mandate. The most audacious was the escape of majoritarian Artem Dmytruk from the Odesa region. The pro-Russian politician, who blocked the ban on the activities of the Moscow Patriarchate, having fled the country, even joined the meetings of the law enforcement (!) committee and voted. Only after a scandal was he excluded from this committee, but he kept his mandate.

It is important to note that among the fugitives is also a people’s deputy from “Servant of the People”—majoritarian Oleksandr Kunitskyi from the Kharkiv region. Despite obvious reputational risks, he is not excluded, because purely formally, the single-party majority must maintain the appearance of existing. Currently, the ruling faction numbers a critical minimum of 226 deputies—and this is considering that in 2019 it started with 254 members.

After the 2019 elections, President Zelenskyy signed the Electoral Code, and local elections were even held under it. However, the post-war elections will likely be held under new rules. To this end, at the beginning of this year, the parliament involved the public sector.

Most likely, when the post-war elections take place, they will use proportional closed party lists. But new challenges have also emerged: discussions about banning or regulating Telegram, organizing elections abroad for a significant number of voters, etc.

It is not as important how many people’s deputies a faction starts a convocation with, as it is how many will remain in it before the next elections. The era of the “mad printer,” when the parliament quickly and harmoniously passed laws, ended in the Verkhovna Rada as soon as the pandemic began. And this is clearly seen if we plot the median and exclude anomalously high or low values

This in no way indicates the collapse of the single-party majority specifically at this stage. It’s just that during this period, voting for opposition amendments became typical, which the “servants” massively ignored (pressing nothing or voting “against”). Half of all votes in 2021 garnered fewer than a dozen “for” votes from the “Servants of the People”. It was these years that gave rise to the myth of a “single-party majority that supports nothing”: the faction’s average indicators drowned in amendment spam.

In 2021, it was still possible to have a “renaissance” of the single-party majority and gather it for specific issues. To mobilize votes, there was a special “Razumkov cipher”—at that time, Dmytro Razumkov was the speaker. From the rostrum, he would say: “Please make a decision 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 one.

But before the full-scale invasion, the “Servants of the People” experienced their first serious political upheaval—Razumkov, who was one of the key figures and headed the party list in the elections, was removed from the post of Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada. 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 was there a moment of peak consolidation of votes in the parliament. The then-head of the “Servant of the People” party, Olena Shuliak, reported that politicians from the “Razumkov group” began returning to the faction, adding, “but the chill in relations still remains.”

After several years of full-scale war, the parliament has transitioned into an era of slow fatigue. Andriy Motovylovets, deputy head of the “Servant of the People” faction, said in the spring that “the parliament is broken” and exhausted. According to him, they might not vote for laws coordinated with the EU due to the cases anti-corruption bodies are leading against people’s deputies.

Since the beginning of 2023, the single-party majority has never given more than 226 votes for any legislative initiative that later became a law. The calculation took into account laws adopted in the first reading (as a basis and as a whole) and in the second reading.

It is also worth noting here that the “Servants of the People” faction itself has lost many representatives. Some became unaffiliated because they received a position that obliged them to leave the faction (Dmytro Razumkov, Oleksandr Korniienko), and some were simply expelled, like Oleksandr Dubinskyi. Others fled to parliamentary groups—”For the Future” or “Restoration of Ukraine”.

Deputies have almost stopped voting with the red button since 2022. Even the opposition. This is clearly visible in this graph, where the red line represents people’s deputies voting “against”. This line is almost reduced to zero.

During the consideration of abolishing the independence of NABU and SAPO, only a few representatives of “European Solidarity” voted with the red button, but importantly, there were votes against among the “servants” as well. Hanna Bondar, Dmytro Hurin, and Roman Hryshchuk voted with the red button. These are majoritarian deputies from the ruling faction.

Those elected under the majoritarian system may have more agency, because the party can get rid of list members, but holding elections during a war in majoritarian constituencies, as already noted, is impossible, and under such conditions, every people’s deputy carries significant weight for the parliament. But the resistance of the majoritarians is not massive, and therefore this is another argument why ultimately the country should move to an open party list system and never again jeopardize the constitutional composition of the Rada at 450 mandates.

When talking about the vote on abolishing the independence of anti-corruption bodies, one cannot forget the names of those politicians who blocked the rostrum and physically could not press the “against” button.

People’s deputies who blocked the rostrum during the vote to abolish the independence of anti-corruption bodies

It is important to note that personnel appointments remain perhaps the only votes where the opposition ES and “Voice” continue to vote against. Conversely, the “servants” vote for appointments almost unanimously—83.3% “for”.

This is a record among all types of votes, and it is here that the split between factions is maximal. While the servants support personnel issues, ES, on the contrary, is in fierce opposition, giving only 28.3% “for” and 13.4% “against”—the highest share of open “against” voting by any faction on any type of vote throughout the entire convocation. Notably, those from the banned OPZZh party, who formed parliamentary groups, are more willing to vote for appointments than the democratic opposition.

The most scandalous was the very last government change, when Defense Minister Fedorov was removed. However, the voting figures this time were not anomalous.

Although it’s worth mentioning here that during this appointment, a new form of protest emerged—a statement of mandate resignation as a political step. People’s deputy Mykyta Poturaiev, a member of the party’s political council, who was called the political strategist of the “Servants of the People”, wrote a statement resigning his powers. Understanding the political reason for such actions, Poturaiev’s colleagues from “Servant of the People”, “European Solidarity”, and “Voice” emphasized that they would vote “against” and would not allow Poturaiev to resign his mandate.

By the way, representatives of the “Servant of the People” since 2022 have generally voted “against” less often, but increasingly do not participate in voting—this could be either a silent protest or sabotage, which allows minimizing conflicts within the faction. For context, the number of non-votes compared to the pre-war period increased from 5.9% to 19.9%. And this applies not only to the “Servants of the People”.

Thus, during the consideration of the scandalous draft Civil Code by Verkhovna Rada Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk in the first reading, 45 people’s deputies simply did not vote, likely so as not to spoil relations with the speaker. At least Maksym Pavliuk, Yuliia Yatsyk, Yuliia Ovchynnykova, Artur Herasymov, and Serhii Velmozhnyi voted “for” or abstained on issues before and after, but for the key issue—the consideration of the draft Civil Code in the first reading—they simply did not vote. Only two parliamentarians from “Voice” voted against: Nataliia Pipa and Inna Sovsun. Another 86 politicians were absent entirely.

But there is a silent protest manifested in not voting, and there is also outright sabotage among the “Servants of the People”. Politicians who have, for example, pro-Russian views resort to such sabotage. They either pretend to be absent or vote against when issues critical to national security are being considered, such as the ban on the Russian Orthodox Church or decolonization. Thus, Roman Kaptielov, a “servant” elected in the Dnipropetrovsk region, voted against the final step of decolonization—a resolution to rename 333 settlements. This people’s deputy in the ruling faction votes “against” the most—73.7%.

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

However, the absence of some deputies at the Verkhovna Rada sessions is understandable. There are politicians who stepped up to defend the country: Roman Kostenko and Roman Lozynskyi from “Voice”, Sviatoslav Yurash (“Servant of the People”), Serhii Rudyk (group “For the Future”). Another sitting people’s deputy from ES, Yana Zinkevych, is the permanent 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 solution is the institutionalization of what is already happening out of necessity every day—a broad coalition with opposition forces, with transparent rules for developing and passing laws instead of the ad-hoc “gathering of votes” for a specific decision.

The research on the parliament’s work was created on the basis of open data, which was systematized in a digital service as part of the “Recharge the Country is in Your Power” project, supported by NED.

Anyone can get access to the digital service containing systematized data by sending a request email to ngo.holka@gmail.com.

“Glavcom” acts as an information partner of the project.