Ruslan Oleksiyovych Stefanchuk (Ukrainian: Руслан Олексійович Стефанчук; born 29 October 1975)[1] is a Ukrainian politician and lawyer serving as the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada since October 2021.[2][3]
Ruslan Stefanchuk | |
|---|---|
Руслан Стефанчук | |
.jpg) Stefanchuk in 2022 | |
| Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada | |
| Assumed office 8 October 2021 | |
| Preceded by | Dmytro Razumkov |
| First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada | |
| In office 29 August 2019 – 8 October 2021 | |
| Chairman | Dmytro Razumkov |
| Preceded by | Iryna Herashchenko |
| Succeeded by | Oleksandr Kornienko |
| Representative of the President to the Verkhovna Rada | |
| In office 21 May 2019 – 7 October 2021 | |
| Preceded by | Iryna Lutsenko |
| Succeeded by | Fedir Venislavskyi |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Ruslan Oleksiyovych Stefanchuk 29 October 1975 Ternopil, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union |
| Political party | Servant of the People |
| Education | Khmelnytskyi Institute of Regional Administration and Law [uk] Khmelnytskyi National University |
Stefanchuk was touted as the ideologue of Volodymyr Zelenskyy's election campaign in the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election.[4] He was elected to the Ukrainian parliament as a member of the Servant of the People party (placed 2nd on the party list) in the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election.[5]
Biography
editStefanchuk received a law degree from the Khmelnytskyi University of Management and Law. He also studied at the Khmelnytskyi National University. Doctor of Law, Professor.
First Deputy Chief Editor of the Law Magazine "Law of Ukraine".[6]
He was Assistant of Member of Verkhovna Rada Anatoliy Matviyenko (2007–2012).[7]
Stefanchuk is a corresponding member of the National Academy of Legal Sciences of Ukraine. Honored Worker of Science and Technology of Ukraine (2017).[8]
Stefanchuk is one of the authors of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's 2019 election program.[9] Zelenskyy won the election, in the second round of the election he defeated incumbent president Petro Poroshenko with nearly 73% of the vote to Poroshenko's 25%.[10]
Stefanchuk was the Representative of the President of Ukraine Zelenskyy at the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's national parliament) from 21 May 2019[11][12][13] until 7 October 2021.[12]
In the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election, Stefanchuk was elected into parliament (placed 2nd on the party list) Servant of the People party.[5] His brother Mykola Stefanchuk was (in the same election) elected for the same party in the single-mandate constituency 187 (located in Khmelnytskyi Oblast).[5][nb 1] In total Servant of the People won 124 seats on the nationwide party list and 130 constituency seats.[15]
On 29 August 2019, Stefanchuk was elected First Deputy Chair of the Verkhovna Rada.[16]
On 7 October 2021, the Verkhovna Rada voted to dismiss Dmytro Razumkov from his post as Chairman of the parliament.[17] The following day Stefanchuk was elected Chairman of the parliament with 261 members backing the appointment.[2]
On 15 October 2021, Stefanchuk was appointed as member of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine by President Zelensky.[18]
On the morning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, Stefanchuk was rushed to the Mariinskyi Palace, amid reports of assassination attempts on Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as his role meant he would have to take command of the country had the president been killed.[19]
Talking about the minority rights in the context of the accession of Ukraine into the EU, Stefanchuk said in November 2023 that there cannot be a "Russian ethnic minority" in Ukraine and that "if these people show aggression rather than respect towards Ukraine, then their rights should be correspondingly suppressed."[20]
Following what was supposed to be the expiration of President Zelenskyy's mandate under peacetime conditions on 20 May 2024, Stefanchuk has been touted by Russian president Vladimir Putin as Ukraine's head of state, citing the presidential succession. However, Stefanchuk has rejected Putin's claims, citing the legal inability to hold elections under martial law and the Ukrainian Constitution setting the presidential mandate to last until the election of a successor at the end of martial law.[21][22]
See also
editNotes
edit- ^ Mykola Stefanchuk won single-mandate constituency 187 (located in Khmelnytskyi Oblast) for Servant of the People with 35.83% of the votes.[14] Runner up Vitalii Didenko from Svoboda gained 29.44%.[14]
References
edit- ^ "Стефанчук Руслан Олексійович". Central Election Commission (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 19 July 2019.
- ^ a b "Stefanchuk Of Ukraine's Ruling Party Becomes New Parliament Speaker". RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. 8 October 2021. Retrieved 8 October 2021.
- ^ "Новим спікером став Стефанчук: шлях від КВН до голови Верховної Ради". bbc.com. BBC News Ukrainian. 8 October 2021.
- ^ "Zelenskiy's First Moves as President in Case of Victory". Hromadske International. 10 April 2019. Retrieved 19 July 2019.
- ^ a b c "Велика рідня-2019. Хто кому кум, брат, син і донька у новій Верховній Раді - новини Еспресо TV | Україна". espreso.tv.
- ^ "Chief of Editorial Council". Pravo Ukraine. Retrieved 19 July 2019.
- ^ "Посіпаки: Стефанчук Руслан Олексійович, помічник народного депутата". posipaky.info.
- ^ "УКАЗ ПРЕЗИДЕНТА УКРАЇНИ №398/2017 Про відзначення державними нагородами України з нагоди 26-ї річниці підтвердження всеукраїнським референдумом Акта проголошення незалежності України 1 грудня 1991 року". president.gov.ua (in Ukrainian). 1 December 2017. Retrieved 19 July 2019.
- ^ "Zelenskyi presents his team two days before election". censor.net.ua. 19 April 2019. Retrieved 19 July 2019.
- ^ Ukraine election: Comedian Zelensky wins presidency by landslide, BBC News (22 April 2019)
- ^ "Ruslan Stefanchuk becomes president's representative in VR". Ukrinform. 22 May 2019. Retrieved 19 July 2019.
- ^ a b Zelensky dismisses Stefanchuk from duties of presidential rep in parliament, Interfax-Ukraine (7 October 2021)
- ^ "First hundred candidates on Servant of the People's election list: who are they?". Interfax-Ukraine. 12 June 2019. Retrieved 19 July 2019.
- ^ a b "Електоральна пам'ять". ukr.vote.
- ^ CEC counts 100 percent of vote in Ukraine's parliamentary elections, Ukrinform (26 July 2019)
(in Russian) Results of the extraordinary elections of the People's Deputies of Ukraine 2019, Ukrayinska Pravda (21 July 2019) - ^ Stefanchuk elected First Deputy Rada chairman of IX convocation, Interfax-Ukraine (29 August 2019)
- ^ "Ukrainian Lawmakers Vote To Remove Parliament Speaker Razumkov". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 7 October 2021. Retrieved 7 October 2021.
- ^ (in Ukrainian) Zelensky castled the National Security and Defense Council, Ukrayinska Pravda (15 October 2021)
- ^ "Russian hitmen 'parachuted into Kyiv to kill Zelensky' at start of war". Independent.co.uk. 29 April 2022.
- ^ "Жодних російських нацменшин в Україні немає і не може бути – Стефанчук" (in Ukrainian). ТСН. 20 November 2023. Retrieved 20 November 2023.
... жодних російських нацменшин в Україні наразі не може бутию... Якщо цей народ не демонструє поваги, а навпаки - здійснює агресію проти України, то його права мають бути ущемлені в цій частині.
- ^ "Parliament speaker dismisses Putin's claims on Zelensky's legitimacy". The Kyiv Independent. 29 May 2024.
- ^ "Ukraine's Speaker Stefanchuk explains why he does not hold presidential power, as Putin claimed". Ukrainska Pravda. 29 May 2024.
External links
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