Candidates who legally held leadership positions in parties banned by a court are being proposed to be marked directly on the ballot paper at the first post-war elections.
Roman Lozynskyi, First Deputy Chair of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on the Organisation of State Power and a serviceman in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said this in an interview with LB.ua.
The MP explained that lustration is a mechanism to prevent outright collaborators and supporters of the “Russian world” from getting into power under disguised brands, while at the same time ensuring that a rule-of-law state does not bar political opponents and critics from standing. He said a balance is needed here.
He described an option of strict lustration, under which everyone who legally had links to banned parties would be barred from standing, but stressed that international law requires an individual approach—by court decisions.
At the same time, Lozynskyi gave an example of what the absence of court verdicts can lead to.
“If you went out to the central square of your city in 2026 with a Russian flag and said: ‘Forward, Russia. Crimea is Russia,’ but there is no court verdict against you—you go to the elections, get elected, and then you push the ‘Russian world’ in your city council, regional council, in the Verkhovna Rada,” the MP warned, stressing that this must not happen.
Since, in legal terms, it is impossible to refuse registration to those who work for Russia but have no verdict, the simplest solution, he said, is to inform voters.
“The simplest thing we can do is to put a certain mark on the ballot paper so that people understand, are informed: this candidate has such a trail, has such a past, has such a connection,” Lozynskyi said.
The MP clarified that this concerns individuals who legally held leadership positions in parties banned by a court specifically for working for the aggressor state and posing threats to national security, and that these facts can be verified through the Ministry of Justice and the registers.