Zelenskyy offered nothing new on mobilization law changes – MP Ivchenko

“First, we have lawmakers who are mobilized, and there are lawmakers who can spend more time at the front if they wish. The law does not prohibit members of parliament from serving in Ukraine’s Armed Forces, and such cases exist. So the president has not said anything new,” Ivchenko said on Radio NV.

He added that after the end of their term, lawmakers will fall under mobilization laws like other citizens.

“There are absolutely no problems today for those lawmakers who can and want to spend more time on the front line.”

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

Parliamentary crisis

In an interview published on March 13, Andrii Motovylovets, first deputy head of the Servant of the People faction, said that about 40 lawmakers in the Verkhovna Rada are ready to resign their mandates. According to him, it is becoming increasingly difficult for the faction leadership to gather votes for bills needed to form the budget and meet 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 collect votes in parliament, I clearly understand which lawmakers are definitely ready to support a particular bill… Previously, I could count on 180 Servant of the People lawmakers. Now the core of the faction consists of 111 lawmakers,” he said.

According to Motovylovets, the situation worsened after the scandal surrounding the rollback of the law on eliminating the independence of NABU and SAPO, when lawmakers who supported the bill faced criticism and consequences for their decisions.

Asked how close Ukraine is to a deeper parliamentary crisis and a loss of functionality, he said that “the situation is such that we cannot vote for our obligations.”

In December 2025, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau said it had uncovered a criminal group that facilitated bribes to lawmakers in exchange for “necessary” votes. Five MPs were named as suspects.

Media reported that lawmakers from the Servant of the People faction — Yevhen Pyvovarov, Ihor Nehulevskyi, Yurii Kisel, Olha Savchenko and Mykhailo Laba — received suspicions in the case.

On Jan. 14, NABU released audio recordings in which a woman’s voice, believed to be that of Yulia Tymoshenko, discusses amounts and gives instructions on whether to vote for or against specific bills, including those related to appointments or dismissals.

During a hearing at the High Anti-Corruption Court on Jan. 16, Tymoshenko said another lawmaker heard on the NABU recordings was Servant of the People MP Ihor Kopytin, who she said staged a “provocation” against her at the bureau’s request. She denied all corruption allegations and called the NABU audio false.

On Jan. 23, the court said the full bail amount of 33 million hryvnias had been posted for Tymoshenko.