[8] The party's appeal is emboided by its radical populist leader Oleh Liashko, who campaigned in the traditional vyshyvanka embroidered shirt with a pitchfork, portraying himself as an ordinary countryman.

[30][31] On 3 June 2015, the parliament stripped the party's MP Serhii Melnychuk of his parliamentary prosecutorial immunity rights as he was accused of forming a criminal gang, abductings and threatening people.

[32] The Radical Party left the second Yatsenyuk government coalition on 1 September 2015 in protest over a vote in parliament involving a change to the Ukrainian Constitution that would lead to decentralization and greater powers for areas held by pro-Russian separatists.

[37] In 2022, in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the leader of the party Oleg Liashko joined the Ukrainian army to fight in the war, for which he earned the nickname "Beast".

[42] However, political scientists such as Heiko Pleines,[43] Andrew Kramer,[44] Joshua Kjerulf,[45] and Rob Van der Laarse have described the party as right-wing.

[51] Regarding the concerns of the Radical Party's hardline nationalist rhetoric, political analyst Georgy Chizhov argues: "Lyashko can hardly be considered a true nationalist; he does not go deep into the jungle of ideology and completely emasculates the essence of his appeals as glorious traditions of the past.

The party advocates a number of traditional left-wing positions on economics[53][54][55] such as lower salary taxes, a ban on agricultural land sale and eliminating the illegal land market, a tenfold increase in budget spending on health and setting up primary health centres in every village[56] and mixes them with strong nationalist sentiments.

[57] Anton Shekhovtsov of University College London considers Liashko's party to be similar to populist and nationalist.

One of the iconic proposals of the party is for the state to pay at least 5.000 hryvnias to every farmer for every cow owned, and to compensate 50% of farming equipment cost.

[67] Ukrainian political analyst Denys Rybachok described the party as "a supporter of social democracy with high social obligations of the state", including the party's populist proposals to hike taxes on the oligarchs, implement protectionist measures to protect national produces, reverse the privatization of once state-owned enterprises, and re-nationalize sold land.

In regards to legislative matters, the party supports quotas for the Ukrainian language, advocates the strengthening of the presidential power and demands the release of all current judges and prosecutors from their functions.

[71] Samoobrona is a far-left[72] Polish political party that was described as radical,[73] left-wing populist,[74] and agrarian socialist.

[75] Two parties share many similarities, such as their staunchly nationalist, agrarian and left-wing populist positions, as well as controversial forms of protest.