Fact Check — Vivek Ramaswamy: Ukraine Banned 11 Political Parties

CLAIM: Anti-woke businessman Vivek Ramaswamy said at Wednesday night’s Republican presidential primary debate that the government of Ukraine banned 11 opposition political parties in recent memory.

VERDICT: True.

Ramaswamy was the lone dissenting voice in the debate cautioning against full-throated support for Ukraine, lamenting that the robust spending under leftist President Joe Biden on weapons and other assistance for the country against the ongoing Russian invasion was extending the war and hurting America’s national security interests.

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“We have to level with the American people on this issue. The reality is that just because [Vladimir] Putin is an evil dictator does not mean that Ukraine is good,” Ramaswamy asserted. “This is a country that has banned 11 opposition parties.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s administration indeed announced the banning of the operations of 11 political parties via presidential decree in March 2022. Kyiv identified the outlawed parties as sympathetic to the invading Putin regime. The vast majority of the parties were overtly Marxist vehicles. The 11 parties include:

1. Opposition Platform — For Life
2. Left Opposition
3. Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine
4. Socialist Party of Ukraine
5. Socialists
6. Union of Left Forces
7. Party of Shariy
8. Opposition Bloc
9. Ours
10. State
11. Volodymyr Saldo Bloc

The Opposition Platform – For Life was the largest opposition party challenging Zelensky’s Servant of the People party, the latter named after the sitcom Zelensky starred in before being elected president in 2019.

“The National Security and Defence Council decided, given the full-scale war unleashed by Russia and the political ties that a number of political structures have with this state, to suspend any activity of a number of political parties for the period of martial law,” Zelensky said in an address outlawing the parties in March 2022. The parties would presumably be allowed to continue operations after martial law is lifted.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, a Putin loyalist and often one of the most belligerent political voices in the Russian public sphere, mocked Zelensky following the announcement.

“The most democratic president of modern Ukraine has taken another step towards the Western ideals of democracy,” Medvedev wrote in a social media message. “By decision of the Council for National Defence and Security, he completely banned any activity of opposition parties in Ukraine. They are not needed! Well done! Keep it up.”

In the debate on Wednesday, Ramaswamy’s assertion regarding the banning of the parties prompted several other candidates to shout over him. Ramaswamy responded to his rivals — most prominently former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and former Vice President Mike Pence — by arguing, “China is the real enemy, and we’re driving Russia further into China’s arms.”

Ramaswamy also entered into evidence against supporting Zelensky’s standing ovation to a nonagenarian former Nazi soldier in Canada’s parliament last week: “This is a country whose president just last week was hailing a Nazi.”

The second Republican presidential primary debate aired jointly on Fox Business and Univisión and took place at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute.

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