Landmark Decisions

The draft resolution did not receive enough votes for adoption, falling short by fewer than 20 votes. Only 208 Members of Parliament voted in favor.

A few days later, an alternative resolution was submitted without the contested names, and it was supported by Parliament. However, the initial vote on the draft resolution remains politically significant, as it indicates which MPs did not support the measure viewed as part of national security policy.

During wartime, the process of derussification was expected to reach its final stage. The remaining task was the renaming of 333 settlements that still carried imperial or Soviet-era toponymic distortions. For this purpose, draft resolution No. 11188 was registered in Parliament.

The first three initiators were representatives of the “Servant of the People” faction, Olena Shuliak and Vitalii Bezgin, along with Romain Lozynskyi from the “Holos” faction.

The voting process was obstructed by a group of MPs informally referred to as the “Moscow Patriarchate” due to their pro-Russian positions. According to public criticism, MP Maksym Buzhanskyi and his allies opposed changes such as renaming Pavlohrad (linked to Tsar Paul I) to Matviiv, replacing Synelnykove (named after a Russian general) with Ridnopillia, renaming Yuzhnoukrainsk to Hrad, and changing Yuzhne to Port-Annenthal.

Civil society conducted an advocacy campaign in support of the resolution. The vote fell short by fewer than 20 votes, with only 208 MPs voting in favor. A revised resolution without the contested names was later adopted, but the original vote remains politically illustrative of parliamentary positions on decolonization and national security values.

The draft law allows the production of medical cannabis in Ukraine, which supports the recovery of wounded military personnel, assists cancer patients, and helps in the treatment of PTSD.

The adoption of the law was advocated by the NGO Patients of Ukraine.

The Verkhovna Rada supported legislative decisions aimed at restricting and banning the activities of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), often referred to in public discourse as the “FSB in cassocks.”

The initiative was driven by national security considerations in the context of Russia’s full-scale aggression against Ukraine. It addressed concerns regarding the use of religious structures as instruments of influence and hybrid warfare by the Russian Federation.

The law provides legal mechanisms for limiting the operation of religious organizations affiliated with a state recognized as an aggressor, as well as procedures for terminating their activities in Ukraine.

The decision reflects a broader state policy of safeguarding national security, protecting information space, and preventing the use of religious institutions for hostile influence operations.

The legislative initiative aimed to establish effective control over air emissions and wastewater discharges from industrial facilities. The draft law was also a requirement of Ukraine’s European partners.

The new European standards are to be implemented with defined transitional periods in sectors such as energy, mineral processing industries, chemical industry, and waste management, including waste incineration.

Industrial facilities operating in the above-mentioned sectors will be required to introduce best available techniques and management practices.

The law also introduces the concept of an integrated environmental permit, which becomes mandatory for relevant industrial installations. Permits will define emission limits for substances as well as vibration, heat, noise, and other physical and biological factors released as a result of the installation’s activities, based on conclusions derived from best available techniques.

The law incorporates provisions of EU Directive 2010/75/EU on industrial emissions (integrated pollution prevention and control). Its implementation is one of the requirements for Ukraine’s EU accession process and one of the indicators of the Ukraine Facility program, which provides up to €50 billion in EU financial support.

The requirement from European partners emerged after Members of Parliament failed to support a similar government draft law (No. 4167) in 2021. At that time, abstentions were recorded from members of “For the Future,” “Batkivshchyna,” and a significant part of “European Solidarity.”

Draft law No. 11355 was supported by civil society organizations including the Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group, Environment People Law, Zero Waste, and others. During the vote, only the “Batkivshchyna” faction abstained, while all other factions and groups voted in favor.

This legislative initiative was an EU integration–related proposal, but it ultimately failed to pass consideration in the Verkhovna Rada.

The draft law aimed to introduce a series of important reforms, including the launch of a long-term and complex process of industrial modernization to reduce environmental pollution and to mitigate the impact of industrial discharges and emissions on the health of Ukrainian citizens. The initiative was also designed to fulfill one of the key requirements of the Ukraine Facility program in order to secure expected financial assistance for Ukraine amounting to several hundred million euros.

Draft law No. 6004-d was developed in cooperation with experts from the international technical assistance project “Best Available Techniques and Management Practices for Ukraine.” The project has been implemented by GIZ on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection since 2019.

The draft law predictably faced resistance from the business community. During the vote, it fell short by just one vote: Members of the “European Solidarity” faction abstained, as did the “Batkivshchyna” faction, which has historically been criticized for obstructing consideration of environmental issues.

The NGO “Environment – People – Law” called on citizens to remember the recorded roll-call votes not only on draft law 6004-d but also on its referral for a second reading. The proposal to proceed received only 217 votes.

The Ukrainian National Platform of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum, which unites 140 organizations, issued a statement calling on MPs to publicly explain their positions to voters.

Despite the fact that Members of Parliament and public officials had not submitted declarations for an extended period, Parliament initially extended the suspension of declaration transparency for another year.

The Center for Combating Corruption emphasized that declarations would be accessible only with the consent of the declarant. By adopting this provision, MPs disregarded the position of the European Union, a statement by G7 ambassadors, the recommendation of the European Parliament’s rapporteur Michael Gahler, and—most importantly—the views of 91.7% of Ukrainians who supported open declarations.

Military serviceman Oleksandr Yabchanka submitted a petition to the President demanding a veto of the law. The petition gathered over 83,000 signatures in a single day, setting a record. Civil society organizations also called on the President to veto the law, including the Center for Policy and Legal Reform and Bihus.Info.

Ultimately, the President vetoed the law, and Parliament amended it accordingly, restoring public access to declarations.

The only MP who voted against the final decision was Dmytro Mykysha from the “Servant of the People” faction.

In 2023, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine supported a presidential draft law submitted by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, according to which May 8 is designated as the Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism in World War II (1939–1945) (draft law No. 9278).

As a result, May 9, which had traditionally been marked as “Victory Day,” was transformed—following a presidential decree—into Europe Day.

The only MP who voted against the draft law was Maksym Buzhanskyi, whose Telegram channel has been described by critics as part of a pro-Kremlin network.

Several MPs did not participate in the vote, despite voting “in favor” on subsequent issues. These included Nestor Shufrych, Oleksandr Dubinskyi, Serhii Liovochkin, Oleksandr Koltunov, Vitalii Bort, Serhii Larin, and Serhii Dunaiev.

Ukraine ratified the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, known as the Istanbul Convention. Ukraine participated in the development of this document and was among the first countries to sign it in 2011.

The United Nations called on Ukraine to expedite the ratification process. However, it took the country 11 years to fully ratify the Convention.

The ratification was delayed mainly due to stereotypical interpretations of the term “gender” and the position of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches, which argued that the Convention could threaten the “moral foundations and family values of Ukrainian society.”

Eight Members of Parliament voted against ratification. Members of the “Batkivshchyna” faction and the “For the Future” parliamentary group abstained.

As noted by the organization ZMINA Human Rights Center, ratification of the Convention was to some extent linked to Ukraine’s path toward obtaining EU candidate status, which contributed to the accelerated consideration of the document.

A civil society coalition, “Ukraine for the Istanbul Convention,” was established to support ratification in Ukraine.