Ukraine’s parliament can operate under difficult conditions despite crisis – David Arakhamia

“Today, the Verkhovna Rada confirmed that it can act in difficult conditions and, as I said earlier, this parliament has repeatedly demonstrated its readiness to make the most difficult decisions in the toughest times,” Arakhamia wrote.

According to him, the interests of the state “have always been and remain the top priority.”

“Decisions are being made, and we are preparing more formats for joint work,” the faction leader wrote.

On the morning of March 25, lawmaker Oleksii Honcharenko wrote that the Verkhovna Rada session “has been going on for 20 minutes, and the number of Servant of the People members is not increasing,” and posted a photo of an almost empty chamber. According to him, six lawmakers are on vacation and 10 are on business trips.

Later, lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezniak said that “lawmakers’ bills are being passed calmly” in parliament. In particular, the Rada adopted a bill on forms of state support in education, as well as exemptions for residents of damaged housing from utility payments and taxes during the reconstruction period.

“This is a lawmakers’ initiative, and as you can see, all the votes were quickly found. This is for those who tried to push the narrative that ‘lawmakers are afraid of NABU’ or that ‘there are no votes,’” he wrote.

Parliamentary crisis — what is known

In an interview published on March 13, Andrii Motovylovets, first deputy head of the Servant of the People faction, said about 40 lawmakers in the Verkhovna Rada are ready to resign their mandates. He said it is becoming increasingly difficult for the faction’s leadership to secure votes for bills needed to form the budget and fulfill international obligations.

Motovylovets said the main reason for the difficulties is lawmakers’ fear of anti-corruption bodies.

“The key problem is that the Servant of the People faction has lost its core. What is the core? When I gather votes in parliament, I clearly understand which lawmakers are ready to support a particular bill. Previously, I could count on 180 Servant of the People lawmakers. Now the faction’s core consists of 111 lawmakers,” he said.

On March 14, during a meeting with journalists, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said lawmakers would have to either serve in parliament or he is ready to discuss legislation on changes to mobilization rules so that lawmakers could go to the front.