The Verkhovna Rada has created subgroups of people’s deputies who will work on legislative proposals for organizing future elections. The decision was announced on January 8 during a meeting of the parliamentary working group on electoral issues.
The group’s chairman, People’s Deputy Oleksandr Korniyenko, said that he had personally identified the leaders of the seven subgroups. They will deal with issues of election administration, security of the voting process, exercise of electoral rights of military personnel, participation of internally displaced persons, residents of temporarily occupied and frontline territories, Ukrainians abroad, information security, and fulfillment of Ukraine’s international obligations in the field of elections.
At the same time, part of the opposition criticized the principle of forming subgroup leadership. People’s Deputy from the European Solidarity faction Iryna Gerashchenko stated that such an approach does not comply with the principles of democracy and political proportionality, since there are no representatives of a number of parliamentary forces among the leaders, while individual deputies lead several areas at once.
“We insist that a representative of our faction will also lead one of the subgroups,” she emphasized.
In response, Kornienko assured that the political balance would be taken into account, and the final composition of the subgroup leaders would be announced later. According to him, by the end of January, each of the subgroups must prepare draft legislative works, although some of them may appear both earlier and later than the established deadline.
In addition, discussions are ongoing in the parliament regarding a possible peace plan, which may include holding an all-Ukrainian referendum and elections of the President of Ukraine. The head of the Servant of the People faction, David Arakhamia, stated that one of the options being discussed is a period of 90 days for preparing for the vote.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy previously noted that international partners have the potential to provide the necessary security and infrastructure conditions for holding the elections, as well as to influence Russia in order to guarantee the security of this process. He also warned that the Russian leadership is trying to involve Ukrainians from temporarily occupied territories and those in Russia in voting in order to question the legitimacy of the election results.
According to the law “On the legal regime of martial law”, any elections in Ukraine during its operation are prohibited. In February 2025, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a resolution on the impossibility of holding elections until the end of the active phase of hostilities, and the state budget for 2026 does not provide funds for this.
President Zelenskyy declared his readiness for presidential elections provided that security guarantees and the participation of millions of citizens abroad were guaranteed, while emphasizing that parliamentary elections were currently impossible. The topic of elections has also intensified against the backdrop of public statements by US President Donald Trump and statements from the Kremlin, which claim that Zelensky’s presidential powers allegedly ended in May 2024.
Currently, a working group under the leadership of Oleksandr Kornienko is working in the Verkhovna Rada, which is developing a special “post-war” electoral code. According to parliamentarians and the CEC, the current legislation does not take into account the large-scale destruction of infrastructure and a significant number of citizens who were forced to leave their homes. According to the Central Election Commission, only about 75% of polling stations are functioning, the rest were damaged or destroyed as a result of Russian aggression.
