Dmitry Ratnikov
Scandals involving drums and vegetable cutters, and the ongoing, hoarse-sounding dispute over the Ministry of Defense's "17-egg deal," have overshadowed yet another tender "betrayal" costing millions of hryvnias in budget revenue. The Desnyansky District State Administration, headed by Dmytro Ratnikov, purchased the most expensive electricity for the city's educational institutions, delo reports.
The scam also drew attention to the boss himself, whose past was unfamiliar to many. Just 10 years ago, he was an ardent supporter of cooperation within the CIS and effectively helped the Party of Regions push Ukraine away from EU integration.
The most expensive light in the city
In late May 2023, Nashi Dengi caught the Desnyanka District State Administration purchasing electricity for educational institutions at the highest rate in the capital. Subordinates of Dmytro Ratnikov's district state administration chairpersons were purchasing electricity at 6,03 UAH per kW, while the Holosiivka District State Administration, for example, was paying almost half that—3,85 UAH/kW. The average price at which districts purchase electricity for teachers is 4,99 UAH/kW. The Desnyanka District State Administration's education department refused to lower the price, despite prices having fallen by 20% since the beginning of the year.
Dmytro Ratnikov has headed the Desnyansky District State Administration since May 11, 2021. President Zelenskyy's decree to that effect was, to put it mildly, unexpected, given Ratnikov's biography. He was born on April 3, 1977, in Brovary. He has spent a third of his life in politics, where he earned a reputation as one of the greatest representatives of the so-called "tushki" sect. Older readers will recall that "tushki" was the nickname for deputies who switched parties depending on the current situation.
A former Party of Regions member and advocate of Ukraine's integration with the CIS countries. The unexpected past of Desnyansky District State Administration Chairman Ratnikov
Dmitry Ratnikov. Political "Prostitution" Level 80
During his 15 years in politics, Dmytro Gennadiyovych Ratnikov switched political parties four times before ending up with the ruling Servant of the People party. From 2008 to 2020, he headed the Kyiv regional organization of the European Party of Ukraine, headed by the now-forgotten Mykola Katerynchuk. From 2002 to 2010, he was elected twice in a row to the Brovary City Council.
In 2006, he ran for mayor of Brovary but lost, despite the support of the then-powerful Batkivshchyna All-Ukrainian Union. Like any political opportunist, Ratnikov was simply obliged to emerge from the shadow of Yanukovych's Party of Regions, which he did.
During two convocations of the Verkhovna Rada (2007-2012), he served as an assistant and consultant to Volodymyr Rybak, co-founder and one of the leaders of the Party of Regions and the last "white-blue" speaker of parliament. Ratnikov combined his work for the Party of Regions with that of their main rivals, Yulia Tymoshenko's Batkivshchyna Party: since October 2020, Rybak's assistant has also served as an assistant to MP Ihor Savchenko, elected on the BYuT list.
In 2010, he was elected to the Kyiv Regional Council as a member of Katerynchuk's European Party and almost immediately defected to the Party of Regions faction. According to the CHESTNO Movement, he was one of the most prolific absentees, missing over 50% of sessions for several years and not attending committee meetings at all in 2013 and 2014. Therefore, he was a candidate for the recall of his mandate.
However, Ratnikov, a deputy, was remembered for more than just his absenteeism. In the spring of 2012, while still a current member of the Party of Regions faction, he actively attempted to pose as an opposition figure and join the Committee for Resistance to Dictatorship, an organization aimed at opposing the Yanukovych regime. Such was his multifaceted political nature.
Dmitry Ratnikov. Yanukovych's last diplomat in… Russia
Ratnikov's career took an unexpected turn in 2012. Yanukovych and his protégé at the Foreign Ministry, Kozhara, appointed him Ambassador-at-Large, Minister-Counselor of the Ukrainian Embassy in the Russian Federation, and Ukraine's Plenipotentiary Representative to the Commission of the CIS Economic Council. This appointment occurred despite his lack of education and any diplomatic experience.
This assignment was entirely consistent with the personnel policy of the regional authorities, for whom the main criterion was not professionalism, but loyalty.
It's also possible that his Russian comrades also approved the candidacy. Ratnikov enthusiastically took up the job, and as early as February 12, 2014 , eight days before the mass shooting of participants in the Revolution of Dignity in Kyiv, he advocated for "further close cooperation and mutual coordination within the CIS ," advocating for the signing of a Free Trade Agreement in Services, an Agreement on Pipeline Transit by Transport of CIS Member States, and the abolition of export duties.
Thanks to the absence of a reputation institution in Ukraine, Ratnikov, a former Party of Regions member and advocate for strengthening ties within the so-called CIS, escaped lustration and even public condemnation. He jumped on the Servant of the People bandwagon and continued his political career as if nothing had happened. In 2021, he ran unsuccessfully for Brovary mayor, but won a seat on the local council as a deputy. The fairness of these elections can be gauged by the statement of Brovary single-mandate deputy Mykola Galushka, who claimed that in those local elections, "all the seats on the Servant of the People party lists were sold, and the call to go to the polls to fight corrupt officials and the old elites was, unfortunately, just empty words."
These days, Ratnikov is taking a demonstratively patriotic stance, quietly bidding for tenders, and generally feeling very comfortable. He worked so hard, jumping from one political camp to another, to get where he is now. So now he's living the best life, hoping his past is far behind him and no one will remember what kind of person he was or how he rose to the top.
Dmitry Filipenko
On the topic : Both funny and sad: TOP 10 bizarre purchases for capital shelters
Weapons against Klitschko. Bankova wants to transfer Kim to Kyiv.
Zelensky vs. Klitschko: How Kyiv's mayor became a hostage to his own shortsightedness
Subscribe to our channels on Telegram, Facebook , Twitter , VK - Only new faces from the SKLEP section!