Legal scholar Kyivets becomes Rada Member

Legal scholar and lecturer Olena Kyivets took the oath of office and assumed the duties of a Member of Parliament from the Servant of the Peoplei party, replacing Daria Volodina. The new MP took the oath during a session of the Verkhovna Rada on Tuesday, April 28, according to the Ukrainian News agency.

Kyivets was included in the Servant of the People party’s electoral list under No. 161 as an independent.

Kyivets, 48, is a professor in the Department of International and European Law at the Vadym Hetman Kyiv National Economic University.

In 2009, she co-founded the public organization "Association of International Law Lawyers," in 2015 — was a co-founder of the NGO "Ukrainian Agrarian Association—Kyiv," and in 2016 — of the public organization "League of Law Professors," one of whose co-founders was also Verkhovna Rada Chairman Ruslan Stefanchuk.

Kyivets served as an assistant to Rada Member Oleh Kulinich (the "Dovira" group); since 2020, she has headed the "Dovira" party, led by Kulinich.

According to information on the Verkhovna Rada website, including Kyivets, the Servant of the People faction comprises 228 MPs. To remain a majority, the faction must include at least 226 MPs, which is necessary for decision-making in parliament.

As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, on April 8, the Verkhovna Rada prematurely terminated the powers of Dariia Volodina, a MP from the Servant of the People faction.

On April 20, the Central Election Commission recognized Kyivets, a legal scholar and lecturer, as the elected Member to the Rada in place of Volodina.