8th Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the 8th convocation (Ukrainian: Верховна Рада України VIII скликання, Verkhovna Rada Ukrayiny VIII sklykannia) was a convocation of the legislative branch of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's unicameral parliament. The 8th convocation met at the Verkhovna Rada building in Kyiv, having begun its term on 27 November 2014 following the last session of the 7th Verkhovna Rada. Its five-year term came to an end on July 24, 2019, marking the end of its tenth session.^[1]

The 8th Verkhovna Rada's composition was based upon the results of the October 26, 2014 parliamentary election,^[2] which was contested eight months after the February 2014 Revolution of Dignity, which resulted in the overthrow of the pro-Russian regime of Viktor Yanukovych,^[3] alongside the subsequent Russian occupation and annexation of Crimea,^[4] as well as the outbreak of the Russian-backed War in Donbas (2014-2022).^[5][6] Ukraine's head of state during the parliament's 8th term was President Petro Poroshenko. Altogether, eleven parties were represented in the Verkhovna Rada, although only six of them surpassed the mandatory five percent election threshold to gain representation based on the proportional representation system.

On the first day of the parliament's session, five of the parliament's pro-European parties, the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, People's Front, Self Reliance, Fatherland, and Radical Party, signed a coalition agreement. Per the coalition agreement, the convocation of parliament was tasked with passing major reforms to ensure Ukrainian membership in European institutions such as the European Union and NATO, while dealing with the threat of further Russian aggression in the Donbas.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dissolved the 8th Verkovna Rada on 21 May 2019.^[7]

Before the parliament's official swearing-in ceremony, Volodymyr Groysman was the chairman of the parliament's preparatory deputy group, with Oksana Syroyid as deputy, and Pavlo Pynzenyk as the secretary.^[8] Two deputies, Vitali Klitschko and Ihor Palytsia, rejected their parliamentary mandates to remain in office as Mayor of Kyiv and Governor of Odesa Oblast, respectively.^[9] Meanwhile, the parliament's preparatory deputy group adopted a resolution that accepted Nadiya Savchenko's handwritten letter stating that she assumed her parliamentary mandate. Savchenko was held captive by the Russian government from June 2014 until May 2016, after being abducted during the pro-Russian unrest.^[10]

Eventually, a total of 27 constituencies were left unelected due to the civil unrest and armed conflict taking place in the country. Precisely speaking, a total of 10 constituencies in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and two in the City of Sevastopol were not elected due to the 2014 Crimean crisis and subsequent annexation of Crimea by Russia, while a further nine constituencies in Donetsk Oblast and six constituencies in Luhansk Oblast were not elected due to the war that Russian-backed separatists waged in Donbas.^[11] Elections in these regions can only take place after the reintroduction of Ukrainian control over the territories that have remained under the Russian occupation to this day (September 2025).^[12]

• November 27, 2014: Arseniy Yatsenyuk is confirmed as Prime Minister for a second term with 341 votes in favor.^[13][14]
• December 2, 2014: The second Yatsenyuk government is approved with 288 votes in favor.^[15]
• December 23, 2014: Ukraine's status as that of a neutral country, one of the coalition's key points of action, is removed with 303 votes in favor.^[16]
• December 25, 2014: The National Security and Defense Council's jurisdiction and authority is expanded with 316 votes in favor.^[17]
• December 29, 2014: Along with a collection of other economic policy laws, the 2015 Ukraine budget is approved with 233 votes in favor.^[18]

On 27 November 2014, the parliament elected Volodymyr Groysman from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc as the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada.^[19] The parliament's chairman, first deputy chairman, and deputy chairman are all unaffiliated people's deputies according to parliamentary procedure. Oksana Syroyid is the first woman to ever hold a deputy chairman position in the Verkhovna Rada.^[20]

During its 8th term, from November 2014 to August 2019, the Verkhovna Rada consisted of a total of 420 deputies, who belonged to one of six political parties' parliamentary factions, two parliamentary groups, alongside the 38 unaffiliated people's deputies.^[24] Moreover, for the first time in Ukrainian history, the Communist Party of Ukraine has failed to gain enough votes to pass the threshold required to have any representatives in the Verkhovna Rada.^[25]

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform (UDAR), which had 40 seats in the previous parliament's convocation, did not participate in the election independently. For the 2014 parliamentary election, UDAR merged its electoral lists with those of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, being allocated 30 percent of the bloc's electoral list.^[26]

A large portion of the 8th Verkhovna Rada's deputies were first-term deputies without prior legislative service.^[27] Additionally, this convocation of parliament also had the largest representation of women in the Ukrainian parliament's history. While the women's participation rate in parliament was lower than the 25.3 percent average of the OSCE member states,^[28] 49 of the deputies in parliament were women (approximately 12 percent).^[27]

Out of the newly elected deputies, 410 possessed an academic degree; a further 144 deputies possessed two or more such degrees.^[27] At that time, fifty-four deputies were candidates for doctoral studies, while 27 of them already possessed a doctoral degree.^[27] The oldest member of parliament was the Opposition Bloc's Yukhym Zvyahilsky, who was elected from a constituency seat in northern Donetsk.

The 8th Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada began its term on 27 November 2014. 421 people's deputies were elected during the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary elections.^[29]

Bold indicates majority caucus.

On November 21, 2014, the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, People's Front, Self Reliance, Fatherland, and Radical Party signed a coalition agreement.^[51] The coalition consists of a total of 302 deputies, which is more than the constitutional majority required by the constitution. The coalition agreement prioritized several key points, namely:^[52][53]

Meanwhile, the parliamentary opposition consists of the Opposition Bloc faction, People's Will, and Revival. The Opposition Bloc represents politicians from the Party of Regions, which formed the Second Azarov Government and the majority caucus in parliament after the 2012 elections.

On May 17, 2019, People's Front exited the ruling coalition in order to prevent the incoming President from dissolving the parliament ahead of schedule.^[54][55]

On December 4, 2014, the Verkhovna Rada approved the composition of its 27 committees and one special control commission.^[56][57] On 11 December 2014, parliament voted in favor of recalling all of the deputies who voted for the January 16 "dictatorship laws" of the previous convocation from their positions in committee leadership. Deputy Chairman Oksana Syroyid proposed this measure, which was adopted with 264 votes in favor.^[58]

On 11 December 2014, the Yatsenyuk Government presented its course of action for the following year. It was proposed that the number of deputies in parliament be decreased to 150. According to estimates, adopting such a constitutional amendment would save ₴424 million annually (approx. US$26 million).^[59] As part of a separate reform effort, the governing coalition proposed removing parliamentary immunity for deputies.

In the Verkhovna Rada, impersonal voting (referred to as button pushing, from the Ukrainian: "кнопкодавство") has been a serious problem in parliament for many years. The deputies of the 2014's convocation to vote impersonally have already been recognized less than a week into parliament's first session.^[60] Members of the nationalist Svoboda political party, which was elected into the parliament's previous convocation, proposed making deputies criminally liable for impersonating voters and banning them from holding any future parliamentary mandates.^[61] Additionally, members of the coalition's Petro Poroshenko Bloc have also recognized the need to ban impersonal voting.^[62][63]