The opportunity for women to participate in democratic and electoral processes is narrowing, believes Deputy Head of the Holos faction Yulia Klymenko.

"I think that the democratic window is really narrowing, and the opportunity for women to participate in democratic processes, elections, in government and in any other format is narrowing," Klymenko said at the 8th Ukrainian Women's Congress on Tuesday.

She stressed that she is pessimistic about women’s participation in future parliamentary, presidential, and local elections.

According to the MP, Ukraine will face a problem if it does not resolve the issue of increasing the number of polling stations abroad.

"We understand that of those 6 million people who went abroad, the majority are women with children. They will have virtually no opportunity to vote if they do not return to Ukraine. Why? Because there are very few polling stations abroad ... A woman will not leave her two children from some small town in Germany to Berlin ... to vote," Klymenko noted.

According to Klymenko, if this issue is not resolved, Russia will take advantage of the situation for its own manipulations.

"This is a great danger and an opportunity for manipulation by the Russians. And they will do it, as we saw in the example of Moldova [presidential elections in Moldova]. For them, this will simply be an unplowed field, which they will use to destabilize the situation in the next political cycle," Klymenko noted.

The deputy admitted that it is possible that in order to solve this problem it is necessary to turn to Ukraine's international partners.

"I understand that this ... costs money, but it gives women who have gone abroad the opportunity to at least vote," Klymenko noted.