Ruslan Oleksiyovych Stefanchuk (; born 29 October 1975) is a Ukrainian politician and lawyer serving as the
chairman of the Verkhovna Rada
The chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine () is the presiding officer of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russi ...
since October 2021.
Stefanchuk was touted as the ideologue of
Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy (born 25 January 1978) is a Ukrainian politician and former entertainer who has served as the sixth and current president of Ukraine since 2019. He took office five years after the start of the Russo-Ukraini ...
's election campaign in the
2019 Ukrainian presidential election
Presidential elections were held in Ukraine on 31 March 2019. As none of the 39 candidates on the ballot received an absolute majority of the initial vote, a runoff was held on 21 April between the top two vote-getters: Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a t ...
. He was elected to the Ukrainian parliament as a member of the
Servant of the People
Servant of the People (; ''SN'') is a Liberalism, liberal, Centrism, centrist, Pro-Europeanism, pro-European List of political parties in Ukraine, political party in Ukraine. Since both the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election and the 2019 Ukra ...
party (placed 2nd on the party list) in the
2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election
Parliamentary elections were held in Ukraine on 21 July 2019. Originally scheduled to be held at the end of October, the elections were brought forward after newly inaugurated President of Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dissolved parli ...
.
Stefanchuk is one of the authors of
Ukrainian President
The president of Ukraine (, ) is the head of state of Ukraine. The president represents the nation in international relations, administers the foreign political activity of the state, conducts negotiations and concludes international treaties. ...
Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy (born 25 January 1978) is a Ukrainian politician and former entertainer who has served as the sixth and current president of Ukraine since 2019. He took office five years after the start of the Russo-Ukraini ...
Verkhovna Rada
The Verkhovna Rada ( ; VR), officially the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, is the unicameralism, unicameral parliament of Ukraine. It consists of 450 Deputy (legislator), deputies presided over by a speaker. The Verkhovna Rada meets in the Verkhovn ...
(Ukraine's national parliament) from 21 May 2019 until 7 October 2021, and is a chairman of the Verkhovna Rada since then.
Early life and education
Ruslan Stefanchuk was born on 29 October 1975 in Ternopil in a family of medics.
He graduated with honors from the Khmelnytskiy School № 18 in 1992. Then he received a
law degree
A law degree is an academic degree conferred for studies in law.
Some law degrees are professional degrees that are prerequisites or serve as preparation for legal careers. These generally include the Bachelor of Civil Law, Bachelor of Laws, an ...
from the in 1997 and then studied Production management at the
Khmelnytskyi National University
The Khmelnytskyi National University is a Ukrainian state-sponsored university in Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine.
History
Established in June 1962 with the development of a general-technical department of the Ukrainian Printing Institute, 250 stude ...
, graduating in 1999.
Until 2019 Stefanchuk was engaged in educational, scientific and legal activities. He worked at the Khmelnytskyi University of Management and Law, the Institute of Legislation of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the National Academy of the Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine, and the Higher School of Advocacy. He was the Deputy Chief Editor of the Law Magazine "Law of Ukraine" and worked as an Assistant of Member of Verkhovna Rada
Anatoliy Matviyenko
Anatoliy Serhiyovych Matviyenko (, March 22, 1953 – May 22, 2020) was a Ukrainian politician, founder of several political parties in the country. Matviyenko was 6 times elected to the Ukrainian parliament.
Biography
Matviyenko was born on Ma ...
from 2007 to 2012.
Political career
Stefanchuk is a corresponding member of the . Honored Worker of Science and Technology of Ukraine (2017).
Zelenskyy won the election, in the second round of the election he defeated incumbent president
Petro Poroshenko
Petro Oleksiiovych Poroshenko (born 26 September 1965) is a Ukraine, Ukrainian politician and Oligarchy, oligarch who served as the fifth president of Ukraine from 2014 to 2019. He served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs (Ukraine), Minister ...
with nearly 73% of the vote to Poroshenko's 25%.
In the
2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election
Parliamentary elections were held in Ukraine on 21 July 2019. Originally scheduled to be held at the end of October, the elections were brought forward after newly inaugurated President of Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dissolved parli ...
, Stefanchuk was elected into parliament (placed 2nd on the party list)
Servant of the People
Servant of the People (; ''SN'') is a Liberalism, liberal, Centrism, centrist, Pro-Europeanism, pro-European List of political parties in Ukraine, political party in Ukraine. Since both the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election and the 2019 Ukra ...
party. His brother
Mykola Stefanchuk
Ruslan Oleksiyovych Stefanchuk (; born 29 October 1975) is a Ukrainian politician and lawyer serving as the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada since October 2021.
Stefanchuk was touted as the ideologue of Volodymyr Zelenskyy's election campaign in ...
was (in the same election) elected for the same party in the single-mandate constituency 187 (located in
Khmelnytskyi Oblast
Khmelnytskyi Oblast (), also known as Khmelnychchyna (), is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) in western Ukraine covering portions of the historical regions of western Podolia and southern Volhynia. The Capital (political) ...
). In total Servant of the People won 124 seats on the nationwide party list and 130 constituency seats.CEC counts 100 percent of vote in Ukraine's parliamentary elections
Ukrayinska Pravda
''Ukrainska Pravda'' is a Ukrainian socio-political online media outlet founded by Heorhii Gongadze in April 2000. After Gongadze’s death in September 2000, the editorial team was led by co-founder Olena Prytula, who remained the editor-in ...
(21 July 2019)
On 29 August 2019, Stefanchuk was elected First Deputy Chair of the Verkhovna Rada.Stefanchuk elected First Deputy Rada chairman of IX convocation
Interfax-Ukraine
Interfax-Ukraine () is a Ukrainian news agency. Founded in 1992, the company publishes in Ukrainian, Russian, English and German.
The company owns a 50-seat press centre.
The staff of the agency is 105 people (as of the end of February 2022)
...
(29 August 2019)
As a chairman of the Verkhovna Rada
On 7 October 2021, the Verkhovna Rada voted to dismiss
Dmytro Razumkov
Dmytro Oleksandrovych Razumkov (; born 8 October 1983) is a Ukrainian politician and former chairman of the Verkhovna Rada (from August 2019 to 7 October 2021). Previously he was leader of the Servant of the People party. In the 2019 Ukrainian p ...
from his post as Chairman of the parliament. The following day Stefanchuk was elected Chairman of the parliament with 261 members backing the appointment. On 15 October of the same year, Stefanchuk was appointed as member of the
National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine
The National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, ( NSDCU; , ''RNBOU'') or RNBO, is the coordinating state body of the executive power under the President of Ukraine on issues of national security and defense.
It is a state agency tasked wi ...
Ukrayinska Pravda
''Ukrainska Pravda'' is a Ukrainian socio-political online media outlet founded by Heorhii Gongadze in April 2000. After Gongadze’s death in September 2000, the editorial team was led by co-founder Olena Prytula, who remained the editor-in ...
(15 October 2021)
On the morning of the
Russian invasion of Ukraine
On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...
on 24 February 2022, Stefanchuk was rushed to the
Mariinskyi Palace
The Mariinskyi Palace () is the official residence of the president of Ukraine. The Elizabethan baroque palace is sited on the right bank of the Dnipro River in Kyiv, Ukraine, adjoining the Neoclassical architecture, neo-classical Verkhovna Rada ...
, amid reports of
assassination attempts on Volodymyr Zelenskyy
According to Ukrainian government officials and news sources, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has survived a number of assassination and kidnapping attempts by Russian or pro-Russian agents during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Back ...
, as his role meant he would have to take command of the country had the president been killed.
Talking about the minority rights in the context of the accession of Ukraine into the EU, Stefanchuk said in November 2023 that there cannot be a "Russian ethnic minority" in Ukraine and that "if these people show aggression rather than respect towards Ukraine, then their rights should be correspondingly suppressed."
Following what was supposed to be the expiration of President Zelenskyy's mandate under peacetime conditions on 20 May 2024, Stefanchuk has been touted by Russian president
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...
as Ukraine's head of state, citing the presidential succession. However, Stefanchuk has rejected Putin's claims, citing the legal inability to hold elections under
martial law
Martial law is the replacement of civilian government by military rule and the suspension of civilian legal processes for military powers. Martial law can continue for a specified amount of time, or indefinitely, and standard civil liberties ...
and the
Ukrainian Constitution
The Constitution of Ukraine (, ) is the fundamental law of Ukraine. The constitution was adopted and ratified at the 5th session of the ''Verkhovna Rada'', the parliament of Ukraine, on 28 June 1996. The constitution was passed with 315 ayes o ...
setting the presidential mandate to last until the election of a successor at the end of martial law.
Personal life
Stefanchuk has two children who are both studying law. Stefanchuk's son is in Ukraine, while his daughter is in
Vienna
Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...