The first full-fledged plenary day of the Verkhovna Rada after the opening of the new session, which was supposed to be 'productive', ended up being virtually fruitless. On February 10, the parliament failed to ensure stable attendance and failed to vote even on basic decisions that had previously passed without problems. This was reported by MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak on his YouTube channel 'Iron MP'.
According to the parliamentarian, this day was supposed to demonstrate the presence of a majority to international partners, as personnel decisions and laws related to financing and obligations of Ukraine were postponed to it. However, the real picture turned out to be the opposite: there was a lack of deputies in the session hall, and some factions and groups failed to provide support.
Plenary day of the Verkhovna Rada on February 10: what went wrong
After several hours of work, the Rada held a signal vote, which showed only 211 deputies in the hall. The chairman of the meeting, Oleksandr Korniyenko, closed the meeting and postponed the consideration of issues.
Even the formal approval of the agenda for the session was adopted with great difficulty - the decision was supported by 233 deputies, only seven votes more than the minimum required.
The distribution of support during this vote looked like this:
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the 'Servant of the People' faction - 178 votes;
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the 'Platform for Life and Peace' group - 18 votes;
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the 'Revival of Ukraine' group - 12 votes;
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the 'Trust' group - 15 votes;
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independent deputies - a few votes.
At the same time, the 'For the Future' group did not give a single vote.
IMF and Personnel: Why Votes are Becoming Fewer
As Zheleznyak explains, the key reason for the failures is unpopular decisions that international partners expect from Ukraine. These include, in particular, the IMF's requirements:
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taxation of digital platforms;
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fixing the military tax at 5%;
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preparation of the draft law on VAT for private entrepreneurs.
Moreover, there are still vacant positions of Minister of Justice and Minister of Digital Transformation, complicating negotiations regarding European integration.
Amid weak coalition discipline, this creates a risk of failure of decisions related to financing from the IMF and EU funds, particularly within the Ukraine Facility. According to Zheleznyak's forecast, by March, the parliament may enter a full-scale political crisis due to the lack of votes for critically important decisions.
Let us remind you, MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak evaluated the work of the President's Office of Ukraine after the appointment of Kyrylo Budanov.