[1] Due to inadequate investigation of events of July 1995 (related to burial of Volodymyr (Romaniuk)), in August 1995 Onopenko resigned.

During the 2002 Ukrainian parliamentary election Onopenko returned to the Verkhovna Rada as the fourth candidate on the party list of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc.

For the 2006 Ukrainian parliamentary election he was again 4th on the party list of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc.

At the end of 2006 his son-in-law replaced him as a leader of the Ukrainian Social Democratic Party.

[failed verification] Onopenko quit the Ukrainian Social Democratic Party after Natalia Korolevska changed it to Ukraine – Forward!