On February 1, russians launched a missile attack on a residential area in the downtown of Kramatorsk, Donetsk region. As a result, 51 residential high-rises, a school, a clinic, and several shops and offices were damaged. Four civilians died and 20 more sustained injuries. The next day, on February 2, russians launched another attack, once again targeting residential buildings. They wounded six more civilians.
On January 30, the Canadian House of Commons unanimously passed the motion urging the government to “immediately designate” russia’s paramilitary organization Wagner Group as a terrorist entity. Heather McPherson, MP, who initiated the motion, said in an earlier press release that the Wagner Group, which is currently being used “to commit horrific atrocities in Ukraine,” “threatens international security, civilian life, and democracy.”
On January 31, 2023, Ukraine’s Parliament’s Speaker Ruslan Srefanchuk delivered a speech in the lower house of the French Parliament. He called for the recognition of russia as a terrorist state, supporting the resolution recognizing the Holodomor of 1932-1933 as genocide of the Ukrainian people. Besides, Ruslan Stefanchuk emphasized the need to establish a special tribunal.
On February 1, Bulgaria’s National Assembly voted to recognize the man-made famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine, known as the Holodomor, as a genocide of the Ukrainian people. The Parliament’s decision declared that every last Saturday of November will be a Day of Honor and Remembrance for the victims of the Holodomor.
In a European Parliament’s resolution adopted on February 2, Members of the EP restated their commitment to Ukraine’s future EU membership and invited Ukrainian authorities to align with EU membership criteria as soon as possible. They also called on the EU to step up its support for Ukraine, namely by accelerating military, political, economic, infrastructural, financial, and humanitarian support. Finally, the resolution emphasizes the importance of adopting a tenth package of sanctions against russia, where large oil and nuclear agencies still present in the EU market should be included.
During the visit to France on February 1, 2023, Viacheslav Shtuchnyi, the Secretary General of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, signed the memorandum of cooperation with his French counterpart Éric Tavernier, Secretary General of the Senate of the French Republic.
It is stated that the memorandum touches upon the following areas: legislative procedures, monitoring of government’s activities, strengthening of parliamentary work, the status of parliamentarians and ethics, decentralization and assessment of state policy in relation to local self-government bodies, international relations and parliamentary diplomacy. Accordingly, both sides will carry out missions to exchange experience and information and organize thematic educational visits and courses.
According to the Dzerkalo Tyzhnia media outlet, MPs of the former Opposition Platform for Life faction, Vadym Stolar and Ihor Abramovich, will resign next week.
Fedir Venislavskyi, MP, Servant of the People faction, and the representative of the President in the Verkhovna Rada, in his comment to Suspilne, claimed that MPs would consider several appointments in Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers during the upcoming week. In particular, he stated that Vasyl Malyuk might be appointed head of Ukraine’s Security Service. He has been acting head of Ukraine's Security Service since 18 July 2022.
In addition, Ihor Klymenko could be appointed as the minister of internal affairs. He has served as the acting minister of internal affairs since 18 January 2023.
The same media outlet writes that according to its sources, Kyrylo Budanov, current Chief of the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine, will be considered the next defense minister, replacing Oleksiy Reznikov. At the same time, Davyd Arakhamia, chair of the Servant of the people faction, noted that the appointment of the new defense minister would not happen this week.
According to MP, Yaroslav Zhelezniak, Holos faction, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine will prolong Ukraine’s martial law and mobilization for the sixth time since the start of russia’s full-scale war. The Parliament may vote on the aforementioned issues this week.
On January 31 and February 1, the Program arranged meetings with the VRU Committees on social policy and energy to outline the first stage of the PLS in the aforementioned Committees. According to the results of the first stage, more than 60 000 people participated in the survey regarding the implementation of the law on remote work, and around 700 people on the law on energy efficiency.
During the meeting, it was agreed that the Program would assist the Committees in preparing a short summary of the surveys discussed during the committees' sittings in order for the Committees to propose amendments to improve the legislation.
On February 2, the Program met with the Deputy Head of the VRU Secretariat, Artem Yanchuk, and Yulia Pachysiyk, a representative of the inter-parliamentary relations unit of the VRU Secretariat. The Program presented the main achievements regarding the work with the Parliamentary Research Service (PRS) and Model Committees. The parties discussed the coordination mechanism for the program’s implementation, as well as the upcoming meeting with USAID.
On February 1, the Program drafted a cooperation plan during a meeting with Yuliia Tishchenko, an expert who will help design an online course for parliamentary ethics.
On February 2, the Program arranged a consultation for 22 representatives of communication units of the VRU Secretariat and committees regarding how to use innovative media production methods for social media accounts. Also, at the request of the VRU Secretariat, Program’s experts analyzed and discussed several critical cases of VRU communication to learn from the experience and the audience’s feedback.
On February 1, the Program initiated a meeting with Mykola Shevchuk, deputy of VRU Secretary General, Taras Pastushenko, head of VRU Press Service, and other leaders of parliamentary communication units. The principles and pillars, methodology, and timeline for the upcoming strategy were discussed. Also, the participants drafted the list of an official VRU Working Group, including Program’s experts, to develop the strategy.
The agreed work plan was delivered to the VRU Secretariat and Olena Kondratiuk, VRU Vice Speaker, who is supposed to lead and supervise the strategy’s development process.
for MPs and their teams in cooperation with PRS Training Center. Registration is available via the link. The meeting will be available via the link.
from the series of sessions “Parliaments of the World Stand with Ukraine.” The participants will be able to learn how the French parliamentary and government system works and also some very interesting facts about this country, its people and traditions. Member of Parliament of Ukraine Alyona Shkrum and a representative of the Embassy of France in Kyiv will take part in the lesson. The lesson will be available via the link.
in Lutsk. The meeting will be available via the link.
for the VRU Secretariat in cooperation with the Parliamentary Research Service Training Center. Registration is available via the link.
for MPs and their teams in cooperation with the PRS Training Center. Registration is available via the link.