Socialist Party of Ukraine

A social democratic and democratic socialist political party in Ukraine. It was one of the oldest parties in Ukraine and was created by former members of the Soviet-era Communist Party of Ukraine in late 1991, when the Communist Party was banned.

Involved in a number of popular protest movements in the early 2000s, it was third and fourth largest party in parliament during its time in parliament. The party entered government for the first time as part of a coalition with Our Ukraine and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc in 2005, but its decision to form a government with the opposing Party of Regions and the re-founded Communist Party of Ukraine in 2006 caused significant damage to the party's credibility. Despite historically strong support in the central regions of Ukraine, it failed to pass the 3% threshold to enter parliament in the 2007 parliamentary elections. From then onwards, the party's electoral results became increasingly marginal and it failed to win any seats in subsequent elections.

The party's founder, Oleksandr Moroz, was elected Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, in 1994 and played a key role in the adoption of the Constitution of Ukraine. He led the party for more than 20 years until his resignation in 2012, after which the party became embroiled in a long-lasting leadership struggle. In 2017, the party was taken over by a former member of the far-right Right Sector, Illia Kyva. It participated in the 2019 presidential and parliamentary elections without any success.

The party was suspended in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and banned by a court decision on 15 June 2022.

Chairperson: Oleksandr Moroz (26 October 1991 – 24 July 2010), Vasyl Tsushko (24 July 2010 – 14 August 2011), Oleksandr Moroz (14 August 2011 – 28 April 2012), Petro Ustenko (28 April 2012 – 12 October 2013), Mykola Rudkovskyi (12 October 2013 – 1 August 2015), Mykola Sadovyi (1 August 2015 – 8 July 2017), Illia Kiva (8 July 2017 – 5 June 2019), Serhii Cherednichenko (5 June 2019 – 15 March 2020), Viktor Zaika (15 March 2020 – 18 October 2022)