Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada cancels September 18 plenary session; opposition MPs complain of lack of notice
The Verkhovna Rada abruptly cancelled its September 18 plenary session and Hour of Questions to the Government, with MPs and ministers learning of the cancellation upon arriving at parliament. Opposition lawmakers from European Solidarity and Holos publicly criticized the last-minute, poorly communicated decision. The Hour of Questions has been rescheduled to October 12.
Key points
- The Verkhovna Rada plenary session and Hour of Questions to the Government on September 18 were cancelled.
- MPs who came to parliament learned of the cancellation from a security guard.
- MPs Yaroslav Zheleznyak (Holos), Volodymyr Viatrovych, Iryna Herashchenko, and Viktoriia Siumar (European Solidarity) publicly criticized the lack of prior notice.
- The Rada press service said the postponement was decided at a morning conciliatory council chaired by First Deputy Speaker Oleksandr Korniienko; Herashchenko and Viatrovych said no factions or faction leaders were notified.
- Some ministers also arrived at parliament unaware of the cancellation.
- The Hour of Questions to the Government was rescheduled to October 12.
- Education Minister Andrii Butenko, scheduled to report that day, instead briefed the conciliatory council on organizing school work during air-raid alerts.
Why it matters
The cancellation disrupted routine parliamentary oversight of the executive on a day the new Education Minister was due to report, leaving a gap until October 12 during which the government is not formally questioned in parliament. Opposition MPs framed the last-minute, poorly communicated decision as an unprecedented abuse of authority by the Rada leadership, highlighting friction between the ruling faction and the opposition over how session decisions are made and communicated.
What happened
On September 18, the Verkhovna Rada cancelled its scheduled plenary session and Hour of Questions to the Government. MPs and ministers who came to parliament learned of the cancellation upon arrival, reportedly from a security guard. Opposition MPs Yaroslav Zheleznyak (Holos), Volodymyr Viatrovych, Iryna Herashchenko, and Viktoriia Siumar (European Solidarity) publicly criticized the lack of prior notice. Herashchenko said it was the first cancellation of this kind in her memory and described it as 'arbitrariness' and an 'exceeding of official authority by the Rada leadership.' The Verkhovna Rada press service said the decision to postpone the Hour of Questions to October 12 was made at a morning conciliatory council chaired by First Deputy Speaker Oleksandr Korniienko. Education Minister Andrii Butenko, who had been scheduled to report that day, instead briefed the conciliatory council on organizing school work during air-raid alerts.
How Ukrainian sources describe it
Ukrainian coverage centers on the parliamentary-internal dispute: the cancellation itself, the absence of notice to opposition MPs, and the criticism from European Solidarity and Holos lawmakers. The Carpathian summit in Bukovel is treated mainly as the contextual reason the ruling faction was absent, rather than as the main story. Some reports link the rescheduling to substantive policy questions that were shelved, including Education Minister Butenko's planned report and Siumar's question on the suspension of capital expenditures.
Where reporting differs
Sources disagree on whether the cancellation of the Hour of Questions to the Government was decided properly at a morning conciliatory council chaired by First Deputy Speaker Oleksandr Korniienko, or was imposed without notifying factions or faction leaders and without a properly constituted conciliatory council. They also differ on whether all faction leaders were present or properly informed about that morning meeting.
Background
The previous Hour of Questions to the Government, on September 4, was also not held, in that case because of a Russian drone attack on Kyiv. Education Minister Andrii Butenko was scheduled to report on September 18, replacing Oksen Lisovyi who left the post in July. The same day, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the creation of a "Carpathian Eight" (C8) format at a Carpathian summit in Bukovel, bringing together Romania, Serbia, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Austria, and Hungary, with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk attending.