CHESNO movement has named parliamentarians who were absent in the Verkhovna Rada during the war

The parliamentarians who were absent in the Verkhovna Rada during the war were named. The CHESNO public movement analyzed how peopleʼs deputies voted in April-May 2022 and who was absent all this time.

Almost all of the peopleʼs deputies absent in April-May are former representatives of the pro-Russian OPZZh party. At the same time, the same deputies were formally and remotely involved in the regrouping process after the dissolution of the OPZZh faction. Some of them first remotely wrote statements about leaving the faction, and later also remotely moved to the group Platform for Life and Peace (PZZHM), curated by the MPs Yuriy Boyko and Serhiy Lyovochkin. These are, in particular, Yuriy Solod, Natalia Korolevska, Serhiy Lyovochkin, Oleg Voloshyn, Oleksandr Ponomaryov, and Oleksandr Puzanov.

Other deputies from of OPZZh joined the group Restoration of Ukraine. According to media reports, these MPs also left Ukraine in mid-February.

It should be noted that some of the absent deputies from the OPZZh hold senior positions in the Verkhovna Rada committees:

• Igor Abramovych is a Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Finance and Taxes;
• Oleg Voloshyn is a Deputy Chairman of the Committee on European Integration;
• Natalia Korolevska is a Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Social Policy;
• Vadym Rabinovych is a Chairman of the Subcommittee on Migration Policy and Citizenship.

In total, during the plenary sessions from April 21 to May 22 in the Verkhovna Rada there were 66 votes for the bills in total, and during these votes there 17 MPs were absent.

The analysis did not take into account the parliamentarians who were absent for good reasons, such as those who take part in hostilities, are on maternity leave, or had work visits abroad.