Exactly 5 years ago, on 29 August 2019, the first meeting of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the 9th convocation took place. The Verkhovna Rada includes representatives of five parties under the proportional system and five more parties under the majority system. On the first day of the session, 405 MPs out of 424 registered by the Central Election Commission registered in the parliament. Currently, their number is 401. During the work of this convocation, the Prime Minister and heads of a number of ministries have changed. Some MPs have been stripped of their mandate, and there are those who have fled abroad.
Despite all this, the Verkhovna Rada continues to work: to develop new legislative initiatives and pass laws. Kommersant Ukrayinsky has compiled its TOP laws that have radically changed the country in 5 years and the TOP examples of legislative “spam populism”.
TOP laws from MPs of the 9th convocation of the Verkhovna Rada
The Rada has lifted parliamentary immunity
In 2019, MPs passed a draft law amending the Constitution of Ukraine regarding the immunity of MPs, which came into force in January 2020. The law removes from Article 80 of the Constitution the provision that guaranteed MPs parliamentary immunity and the inability to be prosecuted, detained or arrested without the consent of the Verkhovna Rada.
Ukraine opens land market
on 31 March 2020, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted Law of Ukraine No. 552-IX “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine Regarding the Terms of Agricultural Land Turnover”, which lifted the 20-year moratorium on the sale of agricultural land. Four years later, in 2024, a new stage began: the market was opened to legal entities.
MPs are engaged in de-oligarchisation
on 23 September 2021, the Verkhovna Rada passed a law on de-oligarchisation. It establishes criteria for identifying oligarchs and requirements for transparency of contacts between politicians and officials and oligarchs or their representatives. The National Security and Defence Council is supposed to keep a register of oligarchs. However, the register still does not exist. According to the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, Ruslan Stefanchuk, Ukraine has agreed with the European Commission that the implementation of this law, including the creation of a register of oligarchs, will begin after the war is over.
MPs pass law on media
At the end of 2022, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed the Law on Media, which established the National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting as the state media regulatory body and supervisory authority in this area. The law also specified requirements for transparency of the ownership and control structure of the media.
The political regime of the Russian Federation was recognised as racist
In the second year of the full-scale invasion, in 2023, MPs legislated to recognise the political regime in Russia as “racism” and condemn it. The resolution was adopted as a statement: “Statement of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine “On Defining the Political Regime Existing in the Russian Federation as Racism and Condemning Its Ideological Foundations and Social Practices as Totalitarian and Misanthropic”. According to the initiators of the resolution, it should “allow to define the forms of aggression and encourage the condemnation by the states of the world of the Russian Federation’s policy, which leads to the commission of war crimes and genocide of the Ukrainian people”.
The law on mobilisation was adopted
on 18 May 2024, the law on mobilisation came into force in Ukraine the law on mobilisation. Its adoption was preceded by a broad discussion among both MPs and the people. However, despite all the disagreements, the law was eventually passed. The law stipulates that citizens between the ages of 25 and 60 are subject to mobilisation.
During mobilisation, men aged 18 to 60 are required to carry their military registration document with them at all times and present it at the request of a representative of the Military Commissariat or a police officer or border guard. The law also specifies who among Ukrainians is entitled to a deferment. You can read the provisions of the law at by following the link.
The UOC-MP was banned
on 20 August this year, MPs passed a law banning religious organisations associated with the Russian Orthodox Church. According to this law, the activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) may be suspended. As the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, Ruslan Stefanchuk, explained earlier, the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) will be banned in Ukraine. At the same time, “Ukrainian religious organisations suspected of collaborating with the ROC will have 9 months to sever ties with Moscow”.
Bills that never became laws
“Day of Thanksgiving to God”
MP Viktor Myalyk from the Rivne region initiated a draft law on the establishment of a holiday – the Day of Thanksgiving to God. The MP proposes to celebrate the new holiday on an interfaith level on the last Sunday of September, when the harvest is traditionally completed:
“On this day, everyone will have a special opportunity to turn to the Almighty with a prayer for cleansing from sins and spiritual healing, with gratitude for the prosperity and good harvests in our country, with a request to preserve peace, unity and independence of our state,” the MP said.
Ultimately, the draft law is still only the MP’s own initiative. Such a holiday does not currently exist in Ukraine.
“On daily prayer”
MP Georgiy Mazurashu of the Servant of the People party authored a bill to “declare a nationwide daily prayer time for the victory and liberation of the entire territory of Ukraine from Russian occupation.” His initiative proposed to make 9 am the time for daily prayer for Ukrainians. Mazurash’s document has been under review by the Verkhovna Rada Committee for more than six months.
“On the decriminalisation of pornography”
At once, 25 MPs initiated a bill to decriminalise pornography. As one of the co-authors of the document, Yaroslav Zheleznyak, explained, their bill was supported by NGOs and some government agencies.
“There is still a political decision that the committee cannot make. This is the Law Enforcement Committee,” the MP said, stressing that the draft law is not being adopted because of “emotions, not logic”.
“Childlessness tax”
Servant of the People MP Serhiy Hryvko initiated the so-called “childlessness tax” – draft law No. 11264 “On Amendments to the Tax Code of Ukraine and Other Laws to Create Preconditions for Improving the Demographic Situation in Ukraine”. It was proposed to make all individuals – residents of Ukraine aged 21 to 58 years – payers of the “demographic tax” with the following tax rates: 1.5% of the taxable object – for individuals without children; 1% of the taxable object – for individuals with one child; 0.5% of the taxable object – for individuals with two children.
This initiative was received by the public quite ambiguously, and after a wave of outrage on social media, the MP withdrew his draft law and apologised.
“Payment of debts for deceased relatives”
Another bill that never became law was initiated by MP Oleksandr Lukashev. He proposed to prohibit Ukrainians from renouncing their inheritance if the deceased had debts.
The explanatory note to the draft law states that there are cases when the property inherited by the heir is burdened with certain debt obligations. In this case, Article 1282 of the Civil Code of Ukraine provides for an obligation for the heir to satisfy the creditor’s claims in full, but within the value of the inherited property.
At the same time, it is noted that “given the right to refuse to accept the inheritance, as defined by law, in order to avoid foreclosure on property to repay a debt, heirs often refuse to accept the already inherited property in violation of the principles of integrity and good faith in civil relations, to conceal the debtor’s assets from foreclosure by individual creditors under the debtor’s obligations, thereby causing damage to such a creditor”.
Therefore, Lukashev proposes to clarify the provisions of the Civil Code of Ukraine regarding the exercise of the right to refuse to accept the inheritance in case of foreclosure on the inherited property by a creditor. In other words, to pay the debts of a deceased relative after the fact.
“Introduction of imprisonment for those who “misappropriate state functions”
Another scandalous bill was an initiative by MPs Mariana Bezuhla and Halyna Tretyakova. They proposed to criminalise “misappropriation of state functions”. If this draft law had been passed, those citizens who wanted to help Ukraine and defend its interests abroad on their own could have faced 10 years in prison or life imprisonment.
In justifying the draft law, the authors explained that there is a certain category of citizens in Ukraine whom they called “shameful citizens”. These “disgraceful citizens” dare to take over the representative functions of the state on international platforms.
The public reacted to this initiative of the MPs with outrage. As a result, the draft law was withdrawn for revision.
Author – Aliona Kaplina
