The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s legislature, appears to be facing its most serious crisis of recent years, threatening President Volodymyr Zelensky’s source of stable support, which may soon evaporate, as indicated by comments from both representatives of the various parties and non-affiliated lawmakers
The reported readiness of dozens of legislators to resign could potentially threaten the stability of the majority (or, as it was previously called, the mono-majority) in the Verkhovna Rada, or even cause a legislative, if not constitutional, crisis.
So, what stands behind this? Fatigue? Blackmail? Demoralization? Or something more sinister – blackmail of a sort that ensures continuation of alleged under-the-table financing.
What’s happened
The instigator of the concern was a statement of the First Deputy Head of Zelensky’s “Servant of the People” party, Andriy Motovylovets.
In an interview with Forbes, he stated that some deputies are considering the possibility of quitting their mandates.
According to him, “about 40 deputies” may leave the Verkhovna Rada. And they likely have already written their resignation letters.
Motovylovets links this trend to several factors. One of the main ones is the fear of anti-corruption bodies. He openly states that deputies are afraid of being investigated by the anti-corruption bodies, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), and therefore avoid actively participating in voting.
In addition, the lawmaker emphasizes the party’s internal transformation. According to him, “Servant of the People” has lost its so-called “core” — a group of deputies the leadership could reliably count on during votes. If there were about 180 of them earlier, there are approximately 111 now.
This indicates not only a potential outflow, but also a serious crisis of discipline and manageability within the country’s largest legislator grouping.
Even more telling is Motovylovets’s emotional assessment of the situation:
“Fatigue, multiplied by confusion and fear…”
In his view, this is what essentially characterizes the psychological state of some lawmakers.
People’s Deputy Oleksandr Yurchenko, who was previously elected as a “Servant of the People” member but later left the party, has been even blunter. According to him, the scale of the problem may be even greater, namely, not 40 deputies are ready to lay down their mandates, but “several dozen deputies… 50 to 60 of them.”
Yurchenko claims that some deputies have already prepared resignation statements.
Unlike Motovylovets, he emphasizes not only fear of law enforcement agencies, but also more “everyday” reasons:
- fatigue from long-term work in the Verkhovna Rada
- dissatisfaction with the level of wages
- general burnout
However, representatives of the president’s party have questioned these statements, emphasizing that Yurchenko does not have access to up-to-date internal information.
So far, no one has seen a single statement from any deputy about resigning their mandate.
Therefore, as a source within the majority told Kyiv Post, Motovylovets’s statement may not be so much a statement of fact as a threat to the authorities, or a warning.
After all, it is no secret that many majority deputies are dissatisfied with the authorities’ communication with the Verkhovna Rada, which the Office of the President has hardly considered an independent structure. This was evident from the unproductive meetings of the president with deputies of his party, which focused on Andriy Yermak, the controversial long-term Head of the president’s office, before his resignation at the end of 2025.
“Everyone is tired, and many are dissatisfied. Many think they are not properly appreciated,” says one of the deputies.
And it is no secret that most members of the “Servant of the People” party are not professional politicians.
In 2019, many of them were elected to the Verkhovna Rada against the backdrop of Zelensky’s overwhelming popularity, although they had no political experience, were engaged in small businesses or activism, and hardly imagined the scale of responsibility or how long they would have to face it.
Not everyone turned out to be ready for the historical challenges that Ukraine faced.
And the role of the legislature remains decisive – it is the institution which determines the approval of laws, resolutions, agreements on which international relations, funding of the army and the social sphere, issues of recovery, etc., depend.
Anti-corruption pressure: why NABU went after deputies
However, beyond fatigue, a key factor is evident in Motovylovets’s messages – fear of investigations by anti-corruption structures.
The NABU is the most effective Ukrainian law enforcement agency. Unlike others, it is the only body that conducts investigations by representatives of the current government. Something that has never happened before in Ukraine’s history.
At present, several dozen deputies of the pro-government party “Servant of the People” are under suspicion of corruption. Along with some ministers, like the heads of the energy and justice ministries.
Motovylovets believes that the main reason for problems with voting is precisely the fear of some deputies of the anti-corruption bodies. He explains that since the beginning of the year, five people’s deputies have been suspected by NABU and SAPO.
Why? According to anti-corruption bodies, they might receive between $2,000 and $20,000 per month for voting for certain draft laws. According to NABU, episodes of this sort stem back to 2021, that is, before Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Motovylovets revealed that within the framework of this investigation, 17 deputies from the mono-majority were summoned for questioning.
NABU has noted that the actual number of lawmakers involved in the case is larger. It clarified that the deputies are currently treated as witnesses and that the investigation is continuing.
According to the deputy, after these events, it became much more difficult for the party leadership to secure votes. Even for important draft laws.
Viewed from this perspective, threats to resign mandates look like blackmail: no protection from anti-corruption bodies, no voting.
And there are already earlier examples. For instance, earlier, for example, members of Yulia Tymoshenko’s party “Batkivshchyna” was a stable ally of the majority, but after the events of several months ago, when NABU accused Tymoshenko of bribery – taking money for voting – the alliance folded.
Now Zelensky can rely only on the “Servant of the People” party members in the Rada, whose ranks are diminishing, and on situational allies among non-affiliated deputies. And it is far from always possible to gather the required majority of 226 votes needed to adopt legislation.
Causes: systemic crisis or informational exaggeration?
Rumors that deputies take bribes, that is, “extra payments” for voting for certain laws, have been circulating for years.
The problem is that people’s deputies have been on a “meager ration” since 1991. Since the times of the USSR, it was assumed that being a deputy is not a professional activity, but an honorary title (which indeed it was in the USSR), and therefore, a lawmaker does not need a high salary.
And indeed, currently the official salary of a deputy is Hr.30,000 (or around $700). This is extremely low.
However, their real incomes are much higher. Expensive cars and a mass of undeclared real estate worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, which NABU has been discovering, confirm this.
Deputies, thanks to their powers, have many options for “shadow” earnings – hidden lobbying, or conversely, sabotaging laws, helping to resolve issues in districts – with land, business, etc., for money or a “kickback,” and so on.
Political leaders themselves also understand – a person cannot adequately adopt laws worth billions of dollars if they live on 700 dollars a month.
That is why, in the Verkhovna Rada, there is constant talk of unofficial additional payments to deputies. In cash – in “envelopes.” Or taking money for voting for certain laws – as a “bonus.”
It was already popular to boast about this during the times of President Viktor Yanukovych. So far, only Yulia Tymoshenko suffered any consequences due to this.
All this indicates that Ukrainian the legislature needs fundamental changes. To eradicate the problem, it is necessary to remove its source – low official salaries of deputies who adopt laws worth billions of dollars.
However, among Ukrainians, who traditionally have an extremely negative attitude toward their own elected officials, the idea of raising deputies’ salaries (especially during the war, when military salaries are very low) is incredibly unpopular.
The recent increase in funding for deputies’ activities, without which their work is impossible (compensation for business trips, expenses for assistants and lawyers, etc.), caused such a wave of public dissatisfaction that pro-government speakers did not even try to justify it.
In addition, it is clear that official, above-board salaries would make deputies more independent, unlike cases in which they take money to vote, becoming accomplices in a potential investigation.
But for now, the situation remains as it is. And the rumblings within the legislative body suggest further trouble ahead.