Former members of the OPZZH demonstrate an amazing level of political balancing act
“There is nothing worse than those who are...” Paradoxically, these are the words of Nestor Shufrich in the Verkhovna Rada. However, the politician said this not about himself and his colleagues from the banned pro-Russian Opposition for Life, but about EU People’s Deputy Alexei Goncharenko.
If before the big war, OPZZh speakers predominantly carried the Russian propaganda narrative about “surrendering the sovereignty of Ukraine in exchange for loans,” now they demonstrate an amazing level of political balancing act: they say that “Russia is a prison of nations that must be destroyed.” At the same time, pro-Russian people’s deputies talk about “harassing people for their language,” “beating up women, elderly people and priests,” and that “there are more traitors in the SBU and the police than in the UOC (MP).”
The “Honestly” movement analyzed transcripts of Verkhovna Rada meetings to demonstrate what topics were the focus of speeches by pro-Russian MPs in the Rada during the second year of the full-scale invasion.
Despite the fact that one of the leaders of the banned OPZH Nestor Shufrich has been under arrest in a pre-trial detention center since September 2023, the previous eight months were enough for him to take first place in the ranking of the biggest talkers among his colleagues in the group.
The number of his performances is the largest not only among representatives of the PZZHM group, but also among another part of the former OPZZH - the “Restoration of Ukraine” group.
As before, in his speeches Shufrich imitated “opposition” to the authorities and criticized the initiatives of the mono-majority, but as a result he called not to “dance and act like a fool,” but to support and vote sooner.
“We, of course, accept the decision of the mono-majority; it is their constitutional right to select and appoint certain candidates for both removal from office and appointment to positions. And I think that we should treat this with attention and respect, and not dance and act like fools now. There is a decision of a mono-majority, and it has the right to be implemented in accordance with the Constitution,” Shufrich said when discussing the resignation of Sergei Shkarlet from the post of Minister of Education.
However, Shufrych’s desire to collaborate with “Servant of the People” appeared not so long ago, because in 2020 he was convinced that “Servant of the People” was “the reincarnation of Poroshenko.” Criticism of the authorities was the main motive for the statements of both the entire party and Shufrich himself. But chameleon politicians are already accustomed to the practice of changing public rhetoric depending on the political situation: this happened both after the Orange Revolution and the Revolution of Dignity, and after a full-scale invasion.
It is significant that Shufrich himself, during one of his speeches, assessed politicians who change their positions depending on the situation. Of course, this was not about representatives of the banned OPZZH, he was reacting to Alexey Goncharenko’s demand to “throw out OPZZH” from parliament:
“I had the honor of being elected in 2006 to the Odessa City Council. And I remember those times. Yes, then there was the Party of Regions, then there was Lesha, who created the Yanukovych faction in the Odessa City Council and is now saying something about others. Leshenka, calm down. You know, both laughter and sin. Unfortunately, it was precisely from these people that police officers were recruited at one time. I would like this to stay in the past and never come back. There’s nothing worse than those who are there, turning over.”
The second in the number of speeches among the PZZhM deputies is Yuriy Pavlenko. He also demonstrates an incredible shift in public rhetoric. After all, before the full-scale invasion began, Pavlenko talked about “surrendering the sovereignty of Ukraine in exchange for loans,” reinforcing the Russian narrative about external control of Ukraine.
And already in 2023, Pavlenko spoke in his speeches about supporting the military, increasing Ukraine’s defense capability and the need to break all contacts with the aggressor country. Pavlenko often ends his speeches with the slogan “Glory to Ukraine!”, which until recently pro-Russian politicians used to “scare” their electorate. On the other hand, the deputy called for doing everything possible to ensure that Ukraine becomes a NATO member as quickly as possible.
“We undoubtedly support the appeal of the Ukrainian parliament to the participants of the NATO summit with the demand to make a fundamental decision on Ukraine’s membership. The last year and a half, almost a year and a half, have clearly defined who is friend and who is enemy, and clearly shown what the Ukrainian choice should be. And today, the overwhelming majority of Ukrainian citizens see the future of the Ukrainian state together with NATO, and I am convinced that the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine will unanimously accept the necessary appeal.”
However, despite the public declaration of patriotism and advocacy of the European course, Pavlenko remembers Russia and Russians in a positive context. During one of the meetings, the deputy noted that many representatives of small indigenous peoples of the Russian Federation are fighting and fighting for Ukrainian independence. Moreover, they are fighting not only for Ukraine, but also for the freedom of their peoples. Pavlenko summed up this speech with a call to help Russians: “We are obliged to maximally support and help every indigenous small people who exist today on the territory of the Russian Federation to gain freedom, to gain freedom, to become independent states. The prison must be destroyed. That is why I hope that the special commission, the creation of which we support, will develop the necessary action plan for how we can live after the victory with the new states that will arise on the territory of the Russian Federation. Because the victory of Ukraine is also the victory of many Russians. Glory to Ukraine!".
Despite the split of the banned OPZZH into two separate groups, in 2023 there was still an issue in parliament on which they spoke unanimously. This happened during the consideration of a draft ban on religious organizations associated with Russia (No. 8371). The deputies gave different arguments, but unanimously insisted on rejecting the initiative. The theses of the head of the PZZHM group, Yuri Boyko, caused a strong reaction, because, among other things, he managed to call the head of the Russian church in Ukraine Onufry a patriot: “Still, there were our wise predecessors who adopted the Constitution of Ukraine in 1996. And Article 35 of the Constitution, it separates the church, religious organizations from the state. And if someone wants to pass... a law, then they must first change the Constitution. Our group will not support this law because it contradicts the Constitution of Ukraine. And on a personal note, I know Bishop Onuphry, the rector of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. He is a patriot of Ukraine and enjoys the trust of believers.”
Actually, this vote and statements are expected for pro-Russian people’s deputies. The “Honestly” movement previously wrote that representatives of the OPZZH in recent years did not vote as a whole on key issues where there was at least some interest of the aggressor country. For example, during an appeal to international organizations in connection with Russia’s escalation of the security situation around Ukraine, non-recognition of the independence of the self-proclaimed formations of ORDLO, voting for Ukraine’s withdrawal from the CIS agreements. They did not even vote for the extension of the agreement between Ukraine and the Netherlands to investigate the downing of flight MH17.
Deputies of the “Restoration of Ukraine” group spoke out no less selflessly in defense of the Moscow church. For example, during his speech, former “servant” and Odessa majority leader Artem Dmitruk repeatedly emphasized the need to reject the project in order to avoid a split in society.
“Can we talk about democratic Ukraine today? Definitely no. But can we talk today about freedom of speech and religion? Definitely no. The persecution of people for their language, the barbaric attitude towards believers throughout the country, the raider seizure of churches, the beating of women, old people and priests - this happens every day in our state. Is this the kind of Ukraine Maidan stood for? Is this the kind of Ukraine that the best sons of our country are dying for?” – Dmitruk said during his speech.
Another former “servant” and Zaporozhye majority leader Yevgeny Shevchenko remembered the “schism” and even remembered Kievan Rus during his speech: “The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is historically the church of Kievan Rus, we are the descendants of Kievan Rus. It happened, this is history. At the Council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church on May 22, 2022, a decision was made that condemned Kirill and separated from Muscovy. What about traitors? We have more traitors in the SBU and the police than in the UOC. So what now, ban the SBU and the church? Do you know how many requests there are in society for the Verkhovna Rada to ban it? Why create this split in society?”
Pro-Russian people's deputies failed to convince the Rada to reject the bill, but the mentioned deputies continued to defend the Moscow Church. Dmitruk, Shevchenko and Boyko submitted hundreds of amendments to the text during preparation for the second reading. Later, in order to delay the final vote as long as possible, deputies began collecting signatures demanding that Ruslan Stefanchuk contact the Venice Commission regarding the conclusion. The draft is currently under consideration by the committee, after which it must be put to a vote in the second reading.
The “Restoration of Ukraine” group is a mix of people’s deputies from OPZZH, former representatives of “Servant of the People”, “Trust” and non-factional ones. The leader of the group in terms of the number of performances during 2023 was Anatoly Burmich. Last year, he talked about corruption and the children of officials, essentially repeating Russia’s narratives about the Ukrainian government, which sits behind the backs of citizens. Burmich disseminated similar theses even before the ban on OPZH and the start of a full-scale invasion.
“What is being done in the rear today to increase motivation to defend the Motherland? We see how tariffs are raised so that companies can live well, and government ones too, because there are foreign supervisory boards, they should receive high salaries. They intimidate people when, according to statistics, 14 million of us are below the poverty line. Today in our rear, no one is uniting people, but on the contrary, they are pushing heads against each other on a religious and linguistic basis.”
Despite the declared thirst for justice, bringing corrupt officials to justice and the struggle to motivate Ukrainians to resist the enemy, Burmich ambiguously commented on the opening of the register of declarations: “At the beginning of the aggression, we quite rightly decided to postpone the declarations. Why? Because security issues arose in terms of complexity and so on, and this is logical. What happened? We have already won and liberated the territory, returned people, registers, everything? And it happened simply because society and our partners see how individual government officials here are stealing the budget and the assistance that is provided to us. A simple declaration will not help us, we need to strengthen responsibility.”
Deputy Antonina Slavitskaya also commented on the declarations and the possibility of introducing a ban on repeated inspections. In addition, when discussing the bill on lobbying, she made a proposal that literally copied Russian legislation, which labels organizations and their representatives “foreign agents”: “We agree that public organizations that do not make a profit should not be subjects of lobbying. At the same time, those organizations that receive foreign funding, in our opinion, should still fall under certain categories of lobbying subjects.”
An interesting linguistic confusion occurred during the speech of Vladimir Moroz. During the next discussion, he called on the audience to vote in Russian. The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, Ruslan Stefanchuk, reacted to this and forced the deputy to repeat the phrase in Ukrainian. This probably happened due to the long-term policy of the OPZZH, from which Moroz was elected - full support and protection of the Russian language in Ukraine.
In the second year of a full-scale war, the majority of people’s deputies from the banned pro-Russian OPZZH are still working in the Verkhovna Rada. They influence what rules Ukraine will live by, decide what the features of military service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine will be, and the like.
But Ukrainians have already given a clear answer regarding how they see the future of such politicians. The results of a social survey commissioned by the Honest Movement indicate that only 1% of citizens consider it advisable to allow deputies of such parties to serve until the end of their term.
