The territory of all 11 electoral districts in Luhansk Oblast is fully or partially occupied. It should be added that 5 of them have been occupied since 2014 and have not been represented in parliament. The subject of the study was the electoral districts occupied by the Russians after 24 February 2022.
Concerning Kharkiv Oblast, as of 1 September 2024, after a successful counter-offensive by the Ukrainian military in autumn 2022, the territories of 176 and 177 electoral districts are partially occupied.
Luhansk Oblast
The 105th electoral district, part of which was occupied ten years ago, while the other part covered the city of Shchastia, is represented in parliament by MP Viktoriia Hryb, who was nominated by the pro-Russian OPFL as a non-partisan.
Since the commencement of the full-scale invasion, she has co-authored 39 draft laws or resolutions of the VRU, of which 13 have been adopted. After 24 February 2022, the MP took part in 68.8% of the VRU’s votes.
On her Facebook page, the MP mostly actively comments on current political news, events and her work or provides explanations to Ukrainians who leave the frontline settlements.
The 106th electoral district, located in parts of Sievierodonetsk and Alchevsk raions and also partially occupied in 2014, is represented by Oleksii Kuznietsov, elected as a non-partisan member of the Servant of the People party, who is currently a member of the party’s faction in parliament.
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Kuznietsov has co-authored 205 draft laws and resolutions of the VRU, of which 63 have been adopted. During the studied period, the MP participated in 86.7% of parliamentary votes.
On his Facebook page, the MP regularly posts or shares statements by agencies, officials or President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Kuznietsov also actively participates in and shares posts related to fund-raising, orders and needs of the Ukrainian military, primarily units in eastern Ukraine.
The 107th electoral district, located in the agglomeration of Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk and partially in the territory occupied in 2014, is represented in parliament by self-nominated Oleksandr Sukhov, who is currently a member of the Dovira group.
Since 24 February 2022, he has co-authored 15 draft laws or resolutions of the VRU, of which two resolutions have been adopted. Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Sukhov has participated in 77.7% of the VRU’s votes.
The MP regularly publishes information about his work in parliament, usually a review of the day’s work of the VRU.
The 112th electoral district, located in Rubizhne and the territories occupied for ten years, is represented by Serhii Velmozhnyi, who was self-nominated and is currently a member of the Dovira parliamentary group.
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, he has co-authored 118 draft laws or resolutions of the VRU, of which 43 have been adopted. Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the MP has participated in 82.1% of the VRU’s votes.
The MP is active on both his Facebook pages, where he covers legislative activities, assistance to IDPs from the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine, including those from his own electoral district, and the work of the temporary investigative commission.
The 113th electoral district, located in the Svatove, Starobilsk, and Sievierodonetsk raions of the oblast, is represented by Oleksandr Lukashev, an MP from the banned OPFL party who is currently a member of the Restoration of Ukraine group.
During the full-scale invasion, he co-authored 71 draft laws and resolutions of the VRU, of which eight were adopted. Since the start of the invasion, Lukashev has participated in 52.7% of parliamentary votes.
Lukashev has not maintained his own Facebook page since 10 March 2022, when he last wrote about the transfer of aid to residents of his own electoral district.
The 114th electoral district, located in Starobilsk and Novoaidar raions, is represented by Serhii Shakhov, who was self-nominated and is currently a member of the Dovira group.
The MP has been actively featured in journalistic investigations since the commencement of the full-scale invasion. In 2023, the High Anti-Corruption Court put Shakhov on the wanted list after the NABU completed its investigation into him.
There is no information on the exact whereabouts of the MP. At the same time, according to journalists, he posts archival photos of himself in the session hall or panoramas of Kyiv.
This information is easy to verify, as Google tools can show that the post was published on one of the MP’s pages on 12 August this year, illustrated with a photo from an old post by Shakhov on another Facebook page from November 2020.
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, he has co-authored 19 draft laws and resolutions of the VRU, of which eight have been adopted. Shakhov took part in 45.3% of the voting only in the 7th and 8th sessions of the 9th convocation, and since then, the MP has not registered for any meetings.
Kharkiv Oblast
The 176th electoral district, which is partially located in Kupiansk Raion, was represented by Dmytro Shentsev, who was elected to parliament as a non-partisan from the former OPFL.
After 24 February 2022, the MP was not registered at any parliamentary session and did not co-author any draft laws. In September 2022, Shentsev himself announced on his Facebook page that he had decided to resign as an MP and take up the affairs of a charity foundation.
In addition, he continues to maintain a private Facebook page, where posts are devoted to holidays and memories of the former MP, including those of odious political figures such as Yevhen Kushnarov.
The 177th electoral district, which is located in Izyum Raion of the oblast, is represented in the Verkhovna Rada by Dmytro Liubota, who was elected to the parliament from the Servant of the People party as a non-partisan.
Since the start of the full-scale invasion, the MP has co-authored 41 draft laws and resolutions, of which 11 have been adopted. He also took part in 84.6% of parliamentary votes.
Liubota is active on his own Facebook page and describes all the latest sessions of the Verkhovna Rada.
MPs’ positions
The results of the voting for draft law No. 8371 showed that in this regional list, four out of eight MPs in the sample supported the adoption of the document, which should regulate the activities of the UOC (MP) in Ukraine. On the other hand, in this particular regional sample of electoral districts, two MPs, namely Viktoriia Hryb and Oleksandr Lukashev, clearly voted against the document.
It is also worth noting that by the time of the vote, one MP had resigned (Dmytro Shentsev), and another, Serhii Shakhov, had been absent from all sessions for a long time, albeit in an attempt to actively demonstrate his presence in Ukraine, while his exact whereabouts remain unknown.
The specific list of MPs is quite active on social media, with most MPs actively covering general overviews of the Verkhovna Rada’s sessions and social issues affecting voters representing the electoral districts where they were elected.
This regional sample is also highly active in the session hall. Three MPs voted in more than 80% of cases, another in more than 70%, and one MP participated in voting in more than 60% and 50% of cases, respectively.
