This document is intended to draw the attention of our partners and stakeholders to the primary tasks and priority steps for the preparation of postwar elections. Civil Network OPORA has prepared its own expert vision of electoral process, which takes into account the results of previous professional discussions with official parties (Verkhovna Rada, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Central Election Commission). OPORA calls on the Parliament to hold substantive discussions in order to find systemic solutions, given the need to lay a critical amount of groundwork for the organization of postwar elections before the repeal of martial law. The success of preparation of legislative framework, prevention of Russian interference in the postwar elections, and integration into the European Union directly depend on a depoliticized high-quality discussion.

An open appeal by Ukrainian public figures to the world leaders and the international community. The document is signed by more than 160 persons, including human rights activists, MPs, diplomats, academics, famous artists, leaders of the largest business associations and various religious communities (Christian, Muslim and Jewish). The appeal, entitled "Do not appease evil" highlights the Ukrainian vision of Russia’s far-reaching subversive objectives, and depicts the positive and the negative scenarios of the war’s end that depend on the position of the world leaders and the international community.

Russia is interfering with elections in democracies all over the world, resorting to any means, from cyberattacks to direct voter bribery, from sharing disinformation and disrupting society to discrediting candidates who are “unacceptable” for the Russian government. Contrariwise, they support politicians or parties ready to cooperate with the Putin's regime.

We embraced a huge number of challenges that have become the norm, and we have been living in this threatening environment for a long time. Nevertheless, our attitude towards the State is evolving, and so does the State’s attitude towards the society, the people, and an individual.

“At one point even I bought into the idea that we are way too polarized and this is the wrong way to go”, said Olha Aivazovska during presentation of key findings of OPORA’s study “(Dis)connected: Polarization in Ukrainian Society” at the 13th annual Civil Society Development Forum.

Civil Network OPORA strongly condemns the use of violence and human rights abuses during the detention of peaceful protesters in Tbilisi.

Ukraine is updating the electoral law in line with European standards and to account for new challenges. According to Olha Kotsiuruba, a senior legal advisor at the Civil Network OPORA, Ukrainian law needs improvement to align with the EU standards, specifically on campaigning out of the country and on the Internet, and also considering the spread of artificial intelligence and new EU regulations. She shared this during the round table “Campaigning Online and Out-of-Country” on November 26 in Kyiv.

Russian military aggression against Ukraine, which has been ongoing since 2014, has led to an increase in the number of people with disabilities among both civilians and the military. According to the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine, the number of persons with disabilities increased by 300,000 over the two years of full-scale war and amounted to more than 3 million in June 2024. It should be understood that this number will only grow over time. As a result, Ukraine faces new challenges that have emerged in the area of political participation of the disabled. To identify these problems and find ways of solving them, Civil Network OPORA conducted more than 20 in-depth interviews with leading experts in the field of elections and inclusiveness, and commissioned a sociological survey which was carried out by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology.