Ukraine's Eighth Circuit Administrative Court on Feb. 21 upheld a lawsuit to ban ex-President Viktor Yanukovych's pro-Kremlin Party of Regions, the NGO CHESNO reported.
The lawsuit had been filed by the Ministry of Justice and the Security Service of Ukraine.
The Party of Regions, which was Ukraine's dominant party under Yanukovych in 2010-2014, became effectively defunct after Yanukovych fled to Russia in the wake of the 2014 EuroMaidan Revolution.
While the party's symbols were prohibited in some regions of Ukraine, the party itself was not explicitly banned. Numerous politicians affiliated with the party chose to join other political factions.
However, as CHESNO points out, a number of lawmakers from the Party of Regions still have mandates in Russian-occupied parts of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, as well as Crimea.
CHESNO added that only 3% of Ukrainians believe members of pro-Russian parties should keep their mandates.
In 2022, the courts banned 16 Russian-aligned political parties, including the Opposition Platform-For Life, co-founded by Viktor Medvedchuk, who was charged with high treason in 2021. Ukraine's Security Service caught him in April 2022 after he attempted to flee from house arrest. He was handed over to Russia during a prisoner exchange in September 2022.
