This article presents the historical development and role of political parties in Ukrainian politics, and outlines more extensively the significant modern political parties since Ukraine gained independence in 1991.
Overview Ukraine has a multi-party system with numerous political parties, in which no one party often has a chance of gaining power alone, and parties must work with each other to form coalition governments. In the (October 2014) Ukrainian parliamentary election 52 political parties nominated candidates.Basic electoral statistics 2014 extraordinary parliamentary election , Central Election Commission of Ukraine In the nationwide (October 2015) local elections this number had grown to 132 political parties.Reform Watch - Oct. 1, 2015, Kyiv Post (Oct. 2, 2015)Rhinos, dill and hidden threats confuse voters in Kyiv, Kyiv Post (Oct. 2, 2015)
Many parties in Ukraine have very small memberships and are unknown to the general public. Party membership in Ukraine is lower than 1% of the population eligible to vote (compared to an average 4.7% in the European UnionResearch , European Union Democracy Observatory).Ukraine: Comprehensive Partnership for a Real Democracy, Center for International Private Enterprise, 2010Poll: Ukrainians unhappy with domestic economic situation, their own lives, Kyiv Post (September 12, 2011) National parties currently not represented in Ukraine's national parliament Verkhovna Rada do have representatives in municipal councils. Сергій Одарич формуватиме більшість у міськраді Черкас , Cherkasy city council website (November 8, 2010) Мером Львова обрано Андрія Садового , ЛьвівNEWS (November __, 2010) На виборах мера Полтави переміг Олександр Мамай , Дзеркало тижня (November 6, 2010) Официальные результаты голосования по выборам в Севастопольский городской совет , SevNews (November 5, 2010) Small parties used to join in multi-party coalitions (electoral blocks) for the purpose of participating in parliamentary elections, but on November 17, 2011, the Ukrainian Parliament approved an election law that banned the participation of blocs of political parties in parliamentary elections.Parliament passes law on parliamentary elections, Kyiv Post (November 17, 2011) Ukrainian society's trust of political parties is very low overall.Opinion poll: Do you trust political parties? (recurrent, 2001–2009, by Razumkov Centre) According to an April 2014 poll by Razumkov Centre 14.7%. Ukrainians believe the church, the army and the Ukrainian media, Ukrayinska Pravda (19 May 2014) According to a February 2020 poll by again Razumkov Centre, more than 70% of respondents said they rather or completely did not trust political parties.
The Ukrainian oligarchs play a key role in sponsoring of political parties and participation in every day politics.Ukraine’s oligarchs jostle for influence with President Zelensky, Financial Times (19 February 2020)
Legal framework Parties can only register with the Ministry of Justice if they can "demonstrate a base of support in two-thirds of Ukraine's Oblasts" (Ukraine's 24 primary administrative units) and in two-thirds of the raions of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.Link to a pdf-file INTERIM REPORT 2015 Ukrainian local elections, OSCE (9 October 2015)This year, 12 new parties have been created. 50 changed their names, Civil movement "Chesno" (13 October 2020) This means that 10,000 signatures needs to be collected in these areas. Including in Crimea, although Ukraine lost control of this territory in 2014 (to Russia). (The only way to fulfill this norm is to get signatures of Ukrainian citizens living elsewhere in Ukraine with Crimean residence.) Then within six months the party must establish regional offices in a majority of the 24 oblasts.Ukraine's Local Elections: New law, old problems by Melanie Mierzejewski-Voznyak, New Eastern Europe (22 October 2015) In practice these offices rarely stay active and open in-between elections. Because of the procedural difficulties of registering a party the practice of renaming existing political forces is widespread. (For instance, from January to September 2020 50 parties changed their name.) In practice this means that long career politicians in Ukraine regularly switch to a new party.
10 years in a row not nominating candidates for national parliamentary and presidential elections is a legal ground for liquidating a party.
Ukraine’s election law forbids outside financing of political parties or campaigns.Hacked PR documents accelerate political war, Kyiv Post (11 January 2013)
All data on any legal political parties as any other public organizations in Ukraine is kept at the Single Registry (, Yedynyi reyestr hromadskykh formuvan), with online version of which provided by the Ministry of Justice. On 1 January 2020 349 political parties were in this register. Non-partisan Ukraine, The Ukrainian Week (24 June 2020)
Major parties and political camps There have developed two major movements in the Ukrainian parliament since its independence:Pro-Russian bloc leads in Ukraine, BBC News (March 26, 2006) A pro-Western and pro-European general liberal national democratsNations and Nationalism: A Global Historical Overview, ABC-CLIO, 2008, (page 1629)Ukraine on its Meandering Path Between East and West by Andrej Lushnycky and Mykola Riabchuk, Peter Lang, 2009, (page 122) who from time to time featured individual politicians with a nationalist past (for example Andriy Shkil, Andriy Parubiy and Levko Lukyanenko) with the Our Ukraine Blocs and Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko (now FatherlandAfter the parliamentary elections in Ukraine: a tough victory for the Party of Regions , Centre for Eastern Studies (7 November 2012)) as its frontrunners;Communist and Post-Communist Parties in Europe by Uwe Backes and Patrick Moreau, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2008, (page 396) UDAR replaced the Our Ukraine Bloc in the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election.Party of Regions gets 185 seats in Ukrainian parliament, Batkivschyna 101 - CEC, Interfax-Ukraine (12 November 2012)UDAR submits to Rada resolution on Ukraine’s integration with EU, Interfax-Ukraine (8 January 2013) Electronic Bulletin "Your Choice - 2012". Issue 4: Batkivshchyna , Ukrainian Center for Independent Political Research (24 October 2012) In the 2014 parliamentary election UDAR did not participate but its members filled 30% of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc election list. Pilots, combat, and journalists. Who goes to the new Verkhovna Rada , Korrespondent.net (September 15, 2014)Klitschko: I lead my team to Parliament, UDAR official website (14.09.2014)Deadline for nomination of candidates running in early election to Rada expires, ITAR-TASS (September 15, 2014) The Petro Poroshenko Bloc won the election with 132 seats.Poroshenko Bloc to have greatest number of seats in parliament , Ukrainian Television and Radio (8 November 2014)People's Front 0.33% ahead of Poroshenko Bloc with all ballots counted in Ukraine elections - CEC , Interfax-Ukraine (8 November 2014)Poroshenko Bloc to get 132 seats in parliament - CEC, Interfax-Ukraine (8 November 2014) A pro-Russian, latently Eurosceptic, often anti-American and partly anti-liberal group of parties, which in the 1990s was dominated by the Communist Party of Ukraine, and was dominated by the Party of Regions from the late 2000s until the party disintegrated shortly after the Revolution of Dignity.Ukraine right-wing politics: is the genie out of the bottle?, openDemocracy.net (January 3, 2011) "Revival" "our land": Who picks up the legacy of "regionals", BBC Ukrainian (16 September 2015) Party of Regions: Snake return, The Ukrainian Week (2 October 2015)
The first movement (mentioned above) gets its voters mainly from Western Ukraine and Central Ukraine; the latter from Eastern Ukraine and Southern Ukraine.Eight Reasons Why Ukraine’s Party of Regions Will Win the 2012 Elections by Taras Kuzio, The Jamestown Foundation (17 October 2012)UKRAINE: Yushchenko needs Tymoshenko as ally again by Taras Kuzio, Oxford Analytica (5 October 2007)
Political campsPartisan-political structure . Analitik. 1999Pro-Western, pro-NATO, pro-European, anti-Russian, and Ukrainian nationalistDomination of Russian culture and preservation of Soviet culture, more Eurosceptic, often anti-American and partly anti-liberalRegional and local interests, city and oblast level politicsParliamentary groups, formed post-election and often with the backing of an oligarch and few shared positions among members Servant of the PeopleEuropean SolidarityBatkivshchynaHolosRadical PartyStrength and HonorUkrainian StrategyCivil PositionUkrainian Democratic Alliance for ReformSelf Reliance Democratic Axe Platform for Life and PeaceBanned:Communist Party of UkraineProgressive Socialist Party of Ukraine<br/ >Party of RegionsOur LandOpposition Bloc (2019)Opposition Platform — For LifeParty of ShariyNashiRussian Bloc Russian Unity PropositionSuccessful KharkivAll-Ukrainian Union "Cherkashchany"Svitlychna Bloc — Together!Native CityNative ZakarpattiaNative HomeBila Tserkva Together For the FutureTrust
Ideology Ukrainian parties tend not to have a clear ideology but to contain different political groups with diverging ideological outlooks.Against All Odds:Aiding Political Parties in Georgia and Ukraine by Max Bader, Vossiuspers UvA, 2010, (page 82) Unlike in Western politics, civilizational and geostrategic orientations play a more important role than economic and socio-political agendas for parties. An example is the membership of the social-democratic Batkivshchyna party in the economically liberal European People's Party. This has led to coalition governments that would be unusual from a Western point of view; for example: the first Azarov government included the Party of Regions, the centrist Lytvyn Bloc and the Communist Party of Ukraine.
Particularity of parties in Ukraine Professor Paul D'Anieri has argued (in 2006) that Ukrainian parties are "elite-based rather than mass-based,"Understanding Ukrainian Politics:Power, Politics, And Institutional Design by Paul D'Anieri, M. E. Sharpe, 2006, (page 189) while former Ambassador of Germany to Ukraine (2000–2006) Dietmar Stüdemann from Embassy of Germany, Kyiv believes that personalities are more important in Ukrainian politics than (ideological) platforms. "Parties in the proper meaning of this word do not exist in Ukraine so far. A party for Germans is its platform first, and its personalities later."Former German Ambassador Studemann views superiority of personality factor as fundamental defect of Ukrainian politics, Kyiv Post (December 21, 2009)
History Number of partiesDateAmount January 2009 161Official databases of political parties in Ukraine , Ukrainian Ministry of Justice July 2009 172Three new political parties registered in Ukraine, 172 in total, says Justice Ministry, Interfax-Ukraine (July 15, 2009) May 2010 179Justice Ministry registers 179th party in Ukraine – For Fairness and Prosperity, Kyiv Post (May 14, 2010)Justice Ministry registers Your Ukraine Party, Kyiv Post (May 5, 2010) July 2010 182Youth into Power party registered, Kyiv Post (July 2, 2010) September 2011 197Lavrynovych: Court cancels registration certificates of five Ukrainian parties, Kyiv Post (November 29, 2011) November 2012 201
Independent Ukraine, party forming (early 1990s)