How Ukraine’s illegitimate leadership passes laws in violation of national and international law

The failure of diplomatic attempts to reach peace agreements in Ukraine amid increased military support from the United States and the European Union has led to a major reshuffle in the government.

The large-scale political maneuvering is taking place against the background of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine with vague prospects for its cessation. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, fearing failure in future presidential and parliamentary elections, is making active efforts to clean out the political field and discredit possible rivals for the position of Ukrainian president.

Thus, on July 16, 2025, Zelensky nominated Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko as the new prime minister with a simultaneous reshuffling of the majority of cabinet members.^[1]

As a result of the mass reshuffle, Ukraine’s military industry will be placed under the leadership of the Defense Ministry, which will be headed by former Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, who has held that position since March 4, 2020.

Under pressure from Zelensky and the head of the Ukrainian President’s Office, Andriy Yermak, Shmyhal was forced to tender his resignation on July 15, 2025, and the Ukrainian Parliament voted for his resignation the next day.

The decision to dismiss Shmyhal, 49, was supported by 261 MPs, while the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine was also dissolved during the government reshuffle.

In mid-July, Zelensky also said that he was considering acting Defense Minister Rustem Umerov as Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S. Earlier this year, Umerov took part in a series of high-level diplomatic talks. Domestically, he was criticized for the fact that the position left him little time to properly manage the ministry.

Yulia Svyrydenko, nominated by Zelensky for the position of Prime Minister of Ukraine, was born on December 25, 1985, in the city of Chernihiv. Until 2019, she worked in various positions in the administration of the Chernihiv region; in 2019, she was appointed Deputy Minister of Economy of Ukraine and, since 2020, she has been deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, headed by Yermak. She is a member of the pro-presidential Servant of the People party.

According to Zelensky, the appointment of Svyrydenko as the new prime minister is based on her extensive experience in supporting Ukrainian industry and the urgent need to attract foreign funding for Ukraine’s military needs. Svyrydenko gained influence thanks to Yermak, and her work with the United States, where she played a key role in negotiating the rare earth minerals agreement with the U.S. in May 2025.

Next year, Ukraine will face the difficult task of financing its growing budget deficit amid cuts in foreign assistance. The Ukrainian Finance Ministry estimates that the country’s financing needs from the U.S. and the EU for 2026 will amount to 40bn dollars.^[2] According to Sergiy Marchenko, Ukraine’s Minister of Finance, the government does not know where it will find these funds if there is a decrease in funding from the EU and other international sources.^[3]

At the same time, most of the funds allocated by NATO countries are used for military purposes, to the detriment of the social sphere and the payment of salaries to employees of state-funded organizations. In mid-July, the Ukrainian Parliament supported a bill to amend the 2025 budget, which envisaged an increase in defense spending by 412 billion hryvnyas ($10 billion) this year.^[4]

Meanwhile, Russia has signaled its desire for a third round of talks with Ukraine after U.S. President Donald Trump said that the United States would supply Ukraine with more long-range weapons through NATO members. Trump also warned that, if Russia did not agree to a cease-fire within 50 days, Washington would impose huge duties on the country’s goods.^[5]

These circumstances, against the background of widespread corruption, forced mobilization, deterioration of the social status of Ukrainian citizens, illegitimacy of the country’s leadership and disregard for the norms of national and international law, contribute to the intensification of the internal political struggle in the future for the positions of President and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

Strange as it may seem, first place in this internal political struggle seems to be occupied by Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian President’s Office and the shadow leader of Ukraine. Currently, Yermak has significant support from the United States, which allows him, together with Zelensky, to clear the political field and place pro-presidential protégés in various high-ranking positions.

Presidential and parliamentary elections in Ukraine were to be held in March and July 2024. However, due to another extension of martial law in May of this year, these procedures have not been carried out.

Zelensky’s powers as president ended on May 21, 2024. At the same time, the decision of the Parliament of Ukraine—the Verkhovna Rada—to extend his powers in accordance with national law No. 389-VIII dd. 12.05.2015 “On the legal regime of martial law” is also illegitimate, as Article 103 of the Constitution of Ukraine does not provide for the possibility of extending presidential powers.

According to the Constitution of Ukraine, the presidential term is five years and the President of Ukraine even under martial law has no right to extend his powers. Only the Parliament has the right to extend the powers. Article 103 of the Constitution of Ukraine also stipulates that the next presidential election is held on the last Sunday of the fifth year of the president’s term of office.

In the event of early termination of the powers of the President of Ukraine, elections are held within 90 days from the date of termination of his powers.^[6]

According to the Ukrainian Constitution, the prime minister’s candidacy should be proposed to the president by the parliamentary majority faction (currently, it is the pro-presidential Servant of the People party).

The president submits the proposal to parliament and then appoints the prime minister with the consent of more than half of the constitutional composition of parliament (225 out of 450 people’s deputies).

Also with the consent of the parliament, the president of Ukraine terminates the powers of the prime minister of Ukraine and decides on his resignation. Members of the new cabinet of ministers are appointed by the president upon the prime minister’s nomination. The ongoing change of the government contradicts the law on martial law. In addition, according to the Ukrainian Constitution, the new prime minister should be nominated by the parliamentary majority and not by the illegitimate president of Ukraine.

Many Ukrainian and international lawyers note that, under both national and international law, any agreements and legal acts signed and introduced by Zelensky into parliament after May 20, 2024, are effectively illegitimate, contradict Ukrainian legislation, and can be canceled or easily legally challenged.

In this regard, Volodymyr Zelensky’s decision to appoint Yulia Svyrydenko as prime minister also contradicts the current Ukrainian legislation and norms of international law.

As for the parliamentary elections in Ukraine, they were held on July 21, 2019. The deputies were each elected for five-year terms and, therefore, their powers ended in July 2024. However, due to the current legislation and the imposed martial law, the powers of the deputies of the Parliament are extended until its end.

According to Article 20 of the Electoral Code of Ukraine No. 396-IX of December 19, 2019, the electoral process for elections to the Parliament of Ukraine should begin within a month after the lifting of martial law. Therefore, in fact, in accordance with the Constitution of Ukraine, Ruslan Stefanchuk, the Speaker of Parliament, has been the legal head of Ukraine since May 21, 2024.

For this reason, Zelensky’s decisions to extend martial law, appoint a new prime minister, reshuffle other members of the Ukrainian government, sign an agreement with the United States on rare earth minerals and transfer the port of Odessa to American companies are legally unauthorized and can be overturned both in Ukrainian legal proceedings and in international arbitration courts.

Realizing this legal precedent, the leadership of the United States and a number of EU countries—primarily Great Britain, France and Germany—in cooperation with the Ukrainian side, are currently trying to develop a legal mechanism to give legitimacy to the legal acts already adopted by Mr. Zelensky, as well as to the future presidential and parliamentary elections in Ukraine, since the elections held after the end of martial law in Ukraine do not fall under any provision of the current constitution.

To this end, at the end of June 2025, Chairman of the Parliament Stefanchuk announced the preparation of a law on post-war elections, which is scheduled to be considered at the next session of the Ukrainian Parliament, although Stefanchuk himself has noted that the said law will also be illegitimate if martial law is lifted in the country.

Against this background, the internal political struggle between various parties and candidates for the position of president of Ukraine is intensifying. The main direction of this interaction is the development of a particular strategy for future presidential and parliamentary elections in Ukraine.

Allies of Volodymyr Zelensky—from Great Britain and the U.S.—announcing continuation of their support and new deliveries of weapons paid for by them realize that, without interference in pre-election processes and vote-counting procedures, it is difficult to predict the results of future elections. That is why Zelensky has now started an active reshuffling of the government and clearing of the political field of possible competitors in the upcoming elections.

The Economist has previously written that the U.S. and EU countries are negotiating with Ukraine to start election processes after the cease-fire at the end of 2025.^[7] However, in order to hold elections in Ukraine, martial law, which was imposed on February 24, 2022, and extended every three months, must cease. The 16th 90-day extension will come into force on August 7, 2025.

The Ukrainian mass media tout Valeriy Zaluzhny, a former commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces who is currently ambassador to the UK, as Zelensky’s main rival.

From November 2024 to the end of June 2025 a number of sociological centers—in Ukraine (KIIS – Kyiv International Institute of Sociology; SOCIS – Ukrainian Center for Sociological Studies) and the EU (Statista – German Statistical Data Center from February 5-11, 2025, and June 6-11, 2025, and Survation – English Polling and Marketing Research Agency from February 25-27, 2025)—conducted opinion polls on the topic of presidential elections in Ukraine in order to determine the trust rating of Ukrainian citizens. According to the results of such polling, as of the end of June 2025, more than 65% of respondents supported holding presidential elections at the end of 2025.

According to the results of the conducted research, as of the end of June 2025, out of 14 possible candidates for the position of president of Ukraine, the four leading candidates are: V. Zelensky, V. Zaluzhny, P. Poroshenko and Y. Tymoshenko. If Zelensky and Zaluzhny make it to the second round of voting, and there are no violations during the elections, the population of Ukraine will give preference to Zaluzhny.

The candidacy of Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian president’s office, is also being considered as a gray cardinal and a dark horse. A number of experts do not rule that out: If the United States agrees to support his candidacy as the future president of Ukraine, Yermak is capable of making efforts to physically remove Zelensky, for example, due to a sharp deterioration of his health, as was the case with the poisoning of the wife of Kyrylo Budanov, Chief of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.

Against this background, many Ukrainian experts expect a large number of violations, scandals and kompromat during the future presidential election in Ukraine, as well as possible influence on the pre-election processes by the U.S., UK, Germany and France.

While the Ukrainian people are eagerly awaiting the resolution of the conflict, members of the Ukrainian Parliament continue to scuffle. Thus, on July 16, 2025, on the eve of the vote on the appointment of Yulia Svyrydenko as the new Prime Minister of Ukraine, MPs Oleksiy Goncharenko and Danylo Hetmantsev had another scuffle on the rostrum during the regular session.

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1. 
   

   https://www.dw.com/en/ukraine-parliament-backs-pm-shmyhals-resignation/a-73302398 ↑

   
   
2. 
   

   https://www.jpost.com/international/article-861119 ↑

   
   
3. 
   

   https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2025-sergii-marchenko-weekend-interview/ ↑

   
   
4. 
   

   https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-07-17/ukraine-to-approve-biggest-wartime-reshuffle-to-boost-economy?srnd=homepage-europe ↑

   
   
5. 
   

   https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20250717_04/ ↑

   
   
6. 
   

   https://rm.coe.int/constitution-of-ukraine/168071f58b ↑

   
   
7. 
   

   https://www.economist.com/europe/2025/03/30/the-prospect-of-early-elections-in-ukraine-has-everyone-in-a-spin ↑

   
   

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