39,535,800 people
Source: Tyranny Tracker
Note: Parts of the eastern regions of Ukraine have been occupied by Russia and its proxies since 2014, and parts of the southern regions by Russian forces since 2022. HRF analyzes those territories in its forthcoming Ukraine Full Report.
HRF classifies Ukraine as democratic.
Ukraine is a semi-presidential republic. The president is the head of state and has considerable executive powers. The legislature (the Verkhovna Rada) is unicameral, composed of 450 members elected for a five-year term. Ukraine gained independence from the collapsing Soviet Union in 1991. The consolidation of democratic institutions proved challenging in the first decades post-independence, given episodic executive overreach and the growing influence of oligarchic networks. In 2014, the mass Euromaidan protests culminated in the ouster of then-president Viktor Yanukovych and ushered in the most consequential transformation of the Ukrainian political system in the post-Soviet period. Taking advantage of the brief power vacuum after Yanukovych’s ouster, Russia moved to invade and subsequently annex the previously autonomous republic of Crimea in February, and stoke violent pro-Russian separatist movements in the country’s Eastern region. As a result, in the same year, illegal armed groups proclaimed the independent People’s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk (an area collectively known as Donbas), triggering a protracted armed conflict with the central government of Ukraine. Despite the destabilizing effects of the conflict, Ukraine made important steps towards consolidating its democratic institutions between 2015 and 2022. It implemented anti-corruption measures, attempted to reform the judiciary, which had frequently failed to check Yanukovych’s regime, and carried out other critical domestic reforms. The Servant of the People party, led by current president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, campaigned on an extensive anti-corruption reformist platform and achieved an outright majority following the 2019 parliamentary election. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, launched on February 24, 2022, has placed these democratic gains under strain. While warranted by the existential threat Ukraine is facing and constitutionally permissible, the imposition of martial law at the onset of the war has constrained democratic mechanisms, such as regular national elections and certain aspects of media independence, most notably by centralizing television broadcasting to counter disinformation.
Recent national elections, in 2014 and 2019, were largely free and fair. The introduction of martial law following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 entailed the indefinite suspension of national elections. Restoring the electoral process would require significant amendments to the Constitution (which explicitly prohibits elections during war) and would entail addressing multiple security, logistical, and financial challenges. President Zelensky’s ban on pro-Russian parties in 2022, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, also somewhat constrained electoral competition. However, given the unprecedented scale of Russia’s attack, these measures received substantial public backing at the time.
Independent media, political leaders, civil society leaders, organizations, and members of the general public in Ukraine are largely free to openly criticize or challenge the government, although freedom of dissent has come under increasing pressure before and after the invasion. Ukraine’s once pluralistic media sector has experienced significant centralisation under martial law. Independent civil society organizations have continued to operate freely, despite isolated reports of government pressure against corruption watchdogs. The government also largely upholds the freedom of assembly and has demonstrated responsiveness to demonstrations, which have become a critical accountability mechanism in the absence of national elections.
In Ukraine, institutions are somewhat independent but are frequently constrained by the current government and the legacies of previous non-democratic governance. The judiciary remains plagued by large-scale corruption, resistance to impartial oversight, and severe backlogs, as reforms introduced by Presidents Poroshenko and Zelensky have shown mixed results. Frequent leadership reshuffles and personnel shortages have also hampered the capacity of executive institutions as the war dragged on. On the other hand, independent oversight institutions (particularly Ukraine’s specialized anti-corruption bodies) have carried out their duties effectively and impartially, serving as a crucial bulwark of horizontal accountability. The Verkhovna Rada has also remained at least partially effective in its legislative oversight of the executive branch.
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