On 15 September, the Verkhovna Rada gained a new MP: Olena Slobodian took the oath. This became known from the live broadcast of the sitting. Slobodian joined the Servant of the People parliamentary faction.
Olena Slobodian ran for the Verkhovna Rada as number 166 on the Servant of the People party list as an independent. At the time of the election, she worked as a head of department at the State Organisation “National Office of Intellectual Property”, writes the Chesno Movement.
Before that, Olena Slobodian worked at the Higher School of Advocacy under the National Association of Advocates of Ukraine.
She studied at Khmelnytskyi University of Management and Law. She completed postgraduate studies at the same university and defended a dissertation entitled “The Current State and Prospects of Patent-Law Protection of Inventions in the Field of Biotechnology”. Her academic supervisor was the future Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, Ruslan Stefanchuk.
In 2021, Olena Slobodian became head of the Secretariat of the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada.
In 2026, Slobodian was accused of plagiarism in her PhD dissertation, which she wrote under the academic supervision of her current boss, Ruslan Stefanchuk, reported Ukrainska Pravda.
In the Verkhovna Rada, after Servant of the People MPs Zhupanyn and Shypailo resigned their mandates on 3 September, there were two vacant seats. One of them has now been taken by Slobodian.
MPs were “released” on the second attempt: on 19 August, the decision did not secure enough votes. Zhupanyn and Shypailo submitted their resignation statements last month, citing better career offers.
At the time, according to LB, requests to relinquish parliamentary powers were submitted by around 20 MPs in total. One source said that the faction has a principled position of not letting go of constituency-elected MPs.