13th Session: The Emergence of Counter-Reforms and a Record Decline in Efficiency

Key Findings:

1. During the 13th session, which lasted from February 4 to September 2, 2025, MPs supported 49 laws that, according to Reform Index experts, will have a significant and lasting impact on Ukraine. Two of these were classified as counter-reforms: one law that undermines the institutional independence of NABU and SAPO (–4.5 points), as well as a law that complicates the state’s ability to reclaim illegally acquired property (–1 point).
2. The share of reformer MPs declined sharply: only 53 out of the 399 MPs included in our ranking — 13% of Parliament — qualified as reformers, compared with 125 in the previous session. This is the lowest proportion of reform-minded lawmakers recorded during the 9th convocation.
3. Seventeen MPs ended the 13th session with zero or even negative Efficiency Scores. Most of them are lawmakers who have been implicated in corruption investigations, are wanted by law enforcement, or systematically fail to attend parliamentary sittings. The number of such MPs has continued to grow from session to session: in the previous session, 12 deputies recorded an Efficiency Score of 0%.
4. The largest share of reformers — both during the 12th session and across the entire period of the 9th convocation — continues to come from the Servant of the People faction. The factions that follow in terms of reform support are Holos and Dovira.
5. The lowest level of reform support is observed in Batkivshchyna, where 68% of MPs have an Efficiency Score below 40%. All other parliamentary factions are composed predominantly of moderate reformers.

Methodology

The MP Efficiency Score is a tool used to evaluate the performance of members of the Verkhovna Rada based on how they vote on reform and counter-reform draft laws.

The list of reform and counter-reform laws, along with their corresponding scores, is based on the Reform Index project’s database.

Over the course of the 13th session, which lasted from February to September 2025, MPs supported 49 significant laws (Figure 1). However, two of these were counter-reforms, which not only reduced MPs’ overall performance indicators but also dealt substantial damage to the government’s reputation both domestically and internationally.

In July 2025, Parliament fast-tracked a law that curtailed the independence of Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies — NABU and SAPO. This decision became one of the most substantial counter-reforms in the history of the Reform Index and received a score of –4.5 points. Following a wave of public protests, the President was compelled to submit a new bill that restored the independence of these institutions. Reform Index experts assessed it at +2 points. Another counter-reform — the law on protecting the rights of “good-faith purchasers” (-1 point) — complicates the recovery of assets obtained, among other things, through corruption schemes or corporate raids.

Despite these negative signals, the 13th session was not without progress, as Parliament also approved a number of positive changes (Figure 2). Thirteen laws received scores of +2 points or higher from Reform Index experts — a threshold that distinguishes substantial reforms from minor improvements.

Among them are several important EU-integration laws: the reform of ARMA (+2 points), which is expected to improve the management of seized assets; the law on vocational education (+2 points), which brings Ukraine’s system closer to European standards; the law on factoring (+2.5 points); and the reform of the civil service remuneration system (+2 points).

Main voting trends

During the 13th session of the Verkhovna Rada, MPs’ reform activity declined noticeably. The cumulative rating after the session shows that MPs supported reforms at an average level of 64%. Following the 12th session, this figure stood at 68%.

The most significant blow to MPs’ rankings came from the vote on the law that curtailed the independence of NABU and SAPO. A total of 263 MPs supported this counter-reform. The majority of MPs from European Solidarity and Holos, as well as several members of the mono-majority, opposed rolling back the independence of the anti-corruption agencies, but their votes were not enough to alter the overall outcome. As a result of supporting this law, most of the top performers of the 12th session were unable to maintain their positions.

This shift was reflected in the cumulative ranking. After the 13th session, the highest cumulative Efficiency Score belongs to Nataliia Laktionova, at 97%. However, her level of reform support during the session declined noticeably: her session Efficiency Score was 90%, placing her eighth in the session’s standings. Even so, her strong voting record in earlier sessions allows her to retain the top position in the cumulative ranking.

Second place in the cumulative ranking is shared by Servant of the People MPs Serhii Kostriichuk, Mykola Stefanchuk, Serhii Kozyr, Vladlen Nekliudov, Serhii Shtepa, and Oleksandr Vasiuk, each with an Efficiency Score of 96%. Third place, with an Efficiency Score of 95%, is shared by ten MPs — nine members of the mono-majority and non-affiliated MP Maryana Bezuhla.

The full ranking is available here.

Key trends of the 13th session

Based on the results of the 13th session, MPs filled 86 positions in the reformers’ ranking. The average level of reform support during the session was 62%. This is the lowest average Efficiency Score recorded for MPs during the 9th convocation (Figure 3).

Looking only at the 13th session, the top performers were Iryna Borzova, Serhii Ionushas, and Oleksandr Sterniichuk (all from Servant of the People), each with an Efficiency Score of 98%. This result is largely due to the fact that they did not vote for the counter-reform that curtailed the independence of NABU and SAPO: Iryna Borzova and Serhii Ionushas were absent from Parliament, while Oleksandr Sterniichuk did not participate in the vote. In the cumulative ranking, these MPs occupy the 6th, 7th, and 12th positions, respectively. For Oleksandr Sterniichuk and Serhii Ionushas, this is the strongest result they have achieved over the entire period of voting.

Roman Hryshchuk (Servant of the People) placed second with an Efficiency Score of 96%, while third place went to Viktoriia Podhorna (Servant of the People), whose Efficiency Score was 95%.

A negative development during the 13th session was the sharp increase in the number of MPs with zero or even negative levels of reform support. There were 17 such MPs — the highest figure in the past three sessions (for comparison: in the previous session, 12 MPs recorded zero effectiveness, and in the one before that, 9). MPs with a zero Efficiency Score represent every faction except Holos and European Solidarity.

The reason behind this trend is the growing number of MPs who have become figures in anti-corruption investigations and, as a result, have effectively dropped out of parliamentary work. During the 13th session, this list expanded to include Yevhenii Shevchenko (accused of state treason and fraud), Viktor Bondar (suspected of abuses in Ukrzaliznytsia procurement), and Iryna Kormyshkina, who was stripped of her mandate by the Verkhovna Rada in February after being implicated in cases of illicit enrichment and false asset declarations. Oleksandr Kunytskyi also received a zero Efficiency Score — he illegally left the country in December 2024, which effectively ended his parliamentary activity. Vadym Stolar’s Efficiency Score is negative (–3%). He is a habitual absentee, yet this did not stop him from voting in favor of the bill that curtailed the independence of NABU and SAPO.

Another problematic group consists of MPs with an Efficiency Score below 10%. Four of them — Anastasiia Liashenko, Serhii Taruta, Dmytro Isaienko, and Serhii Liovochkin — have long formed the core of the counter-reformers and consistently demonstrate very low results. Another low score (9%) belongs to Anna Kolisnyk, who resigned her mandate in June 2025. Before that, she typically fell into the category of moderate reformers: her average Efficiency Score across previous sessions was 64%.

Fewer reformers: how support for reforms is changing

As a rule, we categorize MPs into three groups based on their level of support for reforms: reformers (Efficiency Score from 100% to 89% inclusive), moderate reformers (from 88.99% to 40% inclusive), and counter-reformers (below 40%).

During the 13th session, there were only 53 reformers, or 13% of all MPs — almost twice fewer than in the previous session, when 125 MPs fell into this category (Figure 4). This is the smallest share of reformers recorded over the entire period of the 9th convocation of the Verkhovna Rada.

The drop in Efficiency Scores was expected, since most of MPs supported the counter-reform aimed at undermining the independence of NABU and SAPO. However, MPs’ declining efficiency is also the result of their increasingly infrequent votes for pro-reform initiatives.

Moderate reformers make up 66% of all MPs. Counter-reformers account for 21%, a share very close to the results of the 12th session, when counter-reformers made up 22%.

As usual, the group of reformers consists mostly of current and former members of Servant of the People, including Oleksandr Korniienko, who is formally non-affiliated due to his position. During the 13th session, Holos MP Roman Kostenko also joined the reformer group. Among counter-reformers, the largest share comes from Batkivshchyna — 17 MPs (representatives of this party have traditionally not appeared among the reformers).

Based on the results of the 13th session, most MPs across virtually all parties — except Batkivshchyna — are moderate reformers. In the previous session, nearly half of the mono-majority (123 out of 232 MPs) had an Efficiency Score of 89% or higher, whereas this time such MPs make up only 22% of the faction (Figure 5). Seventy-one percent of the faction’s members are moderate reformers, and the faction’s average Efficiency Score is close to 75%. There are 15 counter-reformers among members of the mono-majority.

The weakest support for reforms is observed in Batkivshchyna. Sixty-eight percent of the faction’s MPs have an Efficiency Score below 40%, and the faction’s average Efficiency Score is only 31%. This is the lowest result among the major parliamentary forces.

That said, Batkivshchyna has shown a few consistently solid performers over the past two sessions: Valentyn Nalyvaichenko (Efficiency Score 66%), Mykhailo Tsymbaliuk (59%), and Ivan Kyrylenko (56%). The faction’s main counter-reformer remains Anzhelika Labunska, who has not attended parliamentary sittings since the start of the full-scale invasion, yet still retains her mandate. She has recorded a zero Efficiency Score for five sessions in a row.

MPs from all other political groups are largely moderate reformers (Figure 5). In Dovira, they make up 79% of the faction; in the pro-Russian Platform for Life and Peace, 52%; and among MPs from Restoration of Ukraine, 65%. The share of moderate reformers has also increased in European Solidarity and Holos compared with the previous session. European Solidarity now has 67% moderate reformers (up from 55%), and Holos has 74% (up from 50%). MPs from these factions have become more diligent about attending sittings and participating in votes.

After Servant of the People, the faction that demonstrated the strongest support for reforms during the 13th session was Holos (Figure 6). Its average Efficiency Score is 54%. In third place is Dovira, with an average Efficiency Score of 51%. These figures reflect the broader trends observed throughout the 9th convocation, as representatives of these political forces consistently show some of the highest Efficiency Scores.

How do men and women vote on reforms?

Of the 85 women MPs included in our ranking, 8 were classified as reformers — 9% of the total. Among men, the share of reformers is 14%. The top female reformers of the 13th session were Iryna Borzova, Viktoriia Podhorna, and Hanna Bondar — all from Servant of the People. The top three male reformers were Serhii Ionushas, Valerii Sterniichuk, and Roman Hryshchuk.

The overwhelming majority of women lawmakers are moderate reformers — 73% of all female MPs. Among men, 64% fall into the moderate reformer category. Counter-reformers account for 22% of male MPs and 18% of female MPs. Notably, the number of female counter-reformers after the 13th session was three times lower. For example, Anna Kolisnyk and Iryna Kormyshkina had previously shown moderate support for reforms. Both resigned their mandates during the 13th session, but before that they had missed many votes, which resulted in low Efficiency Scores.

Which reforms do MPs support the most?

All reforms included in the Reform Index are grouped into six main areas: 1) Governance; 2) Public Finance; 3) Monetary Policy; 4) Business Environment; 5) Energy Independence; 6) Human Capital. This allows us to take a closer look at which areas of public policy lawmakers prioritize when they vote.

Traditionally, MPs show the strongest support for reforms in the areas of Human Capital and Governance. On average, they support around 70% of the laws in these policy areas.

Conclusions

The thirteenth session of the Verkhovna Rada once again highlighted Parliament’s inconsistency in supporting reforms. On paper, MPs continue to pass laws important for the country, yet decisions are appearing with increasing frequency that not only fail to strengthen institutions but actively undermine them. On the one hand, we see the smallest share of consistent reformers to date, a stable group of counter-reformers, and a record number of MPs with zero effectiveness. On the other hand, Parliament continues to adopt important EU-integration laws, and several factions still demonstrate relatively steady support for change. The main intrigue going forward lies in whether the Verkhovna Rada can regain the political will to prevent counter-reforms. The war will eventually end, and the quality of the institutions that outlast it will depend to a significant extent on how the current legislature votes.