"Vesti" We studied the declarations of top politicians and officials for last year.
While ordinary Ukrainians struggled to make ends meet while trying to survive the 2020 crisis, elected officials and officials unceremoniously spent millions of hryvnias on vehicle fleet upgrades and expensive real estate. Vesti examined these declarations to understand how the quarantine year went for Ukraine's top executives.
The President and his entourage
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his wife, Olena, earned over 22,7 million hryvnias in 2020. Of this amount, Zelenskyy received 13,5 million hryvnias from the sale of a house in the village of Ivankovychi near Kyiv. Another 4,6 million hryvnias came from royalties. His salary as president, however, was only 336,000 hryvnias (approximately 28,000 hryvnias per month), with another 238,500 hryvnias coming from interest on bank deposits and 230,000 hryvnias from property rentals. First Lady Olena Zelenska earned 3,6 million hryvnias over the year—most of it from property rentals—and 952,900 hryvnias as a screenwriter for Kvartal 95. This is three times more than her husband earned as president. Incidentally, the presidential family's finances were faring better back in 2019. At that time, the couple earned 28,5 million hryvnias.
Zelenskyy currently holds $16, €393, and UAH 5,8 million in his bank accounts, while the First Lady holds $15, €7,3, and UAH 42. The couple holds more cash: UAH 100, $615, and UAH 7.
The president and his family members didn't make any major purchases last year. The same can't be said for his inner circle. For example, in 2020, the head of the Presidential Administration, Andriy Yermak, bought a brand new 2019 Mercedes-Benz S 350 d 4MATIC long for UAH 3 million. According to his income declaration, his official salary last year was higher than the president's, amounting to UAH 444,5 (approximately UAH 37 per month).
The family of one of Yermak's deputies, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, also increased its property holdings last year. Tymoshenko himself earned 419 hryvnias from his primary job last year. But the main breadwinner in the family today is his wife, Olena. According to her income declaration, she earned 6,3 million hryvnias from entrepreneurial activities in 2020, being the beneficiary of three companies: Dream Film, Ukrainian Film School, and Goodmedia. Last year, Olena Tymoshenko purchased an 84,3 square meter apartment in Kyiv for 2 million hryvnias and a plot of land in Pidhirtsi.
Income of security forces
2020 also brought changes to the life of Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova. Since the end of 2020, the family has been renting a 147-square-meter house in Lesniki, near Kyiv. Her husband, Denys Kolesnik, acquired a used 2016 Honda CR-V. Venediktova earned 884,2 hryvnias in the prosecutor's office. Her husband, who works in the cyberpolice department, contributed another 608,6 hryvnias to the household budget. The Prosecutor General holds 7 hryvnias in PrivatBank, €5 in Raiffeisen Bank Aval, and $20 and 620 hryvnias in cash.
And here is the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov Last year, Avakov earned almost 700 hryvnias, a third less than in 2019 (then 1,1 million hryvnias). He also earned over 123 hryvnias in interest from Oschadbank. His wife earned 3,2 million hryvnias at PJSC Investor and another 1,1 million hryvnias at the Italian Avitalia srl. Her interest at Oschadbank amounted to 218,4 hryvnias, and at Accordbank, almost 11,5 hryvnias. The minister did not make any major purchases. As in the previous year, Avakov declared two apartments in Kharkiv, an apartment in Chuguev, and a 10-hectare plot of land in Korobochkino.
They don't trust Ukrainian banks
Last year, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal earned 664,2 hryvnias. Of this, his salary amounted to 574 hryvnias (47,8 hryvnias per month). The rest came from the sale of real estate. It's worth noting that the year before, he earned 3,4 million hryvnias. This year, Shmyhal declared 57,7 hryvnias in bank accounts and $155 in cash, while his wife and daughter declared 12 hryvnias in bank accounts and $80 in cash. Apparently, they don't have much confidence in Ukrainian banks.
The Prime Minister's family didn't make any major purchases last year. However, his ministers saw the lockdown as a good opportunity. For example, Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko purchased an ATV for 270 hryvnias. The family of Justice Minister Denys Maliuska acquired a brand new 249,3 square meter apartment in the village of Yurkivka near Kyiv, along with a plot of land. The purchase was registered to the minister's mother, Zlata Vilhelmovna. Maliuska himself, as stated in his declaration, has the right to live there with his family free of charge, although the minister also owns two other apartments in Kyiv.
The wife of the Minister of Economy also purchased a new 2020 Toyota Land Cruiser 200 for UAH 2,3 million last year. Igor Petrashko Svetlana. The Minister of Economy apparently doesn't trust Ukrainian banks much either. In Ukraine, he and his wife prefer to keep most of their savings "under the table." He has $510 and 2,35 million hryvnias in cash, with another 2,1 million hryvnias in bank accounts. His wife has $395 and 1,4 million hryvnias in cash, and only 17,2 hryvnias in the bank.
The year was also a success for the family of the Minister of Health Maxim Stepanov. In 2020, as minister, he earned 500 hryvnias (approximately 42 hryvnias per month). He and his family refrained from making expensive purchases last year. However, on March 30, the day Stepanov was appointed minister, his wife, Natalia, single-handedly established the company "Bestzdrav" in the urban-type settlement of Avangard (Odesa Oblast) with a charter capital of 1,5 million hryvnias. Its primary business activity is "operations of medical institutions."
Last year, the minister's wife earned UAH 989 through her business and another UAH 300 through state-run clinics. Meanwhile, Stepanov has $667,3, €11,6, and UAH 597,8 in his bank accounts, while his wife has $269,4, €4,1, and UAH 1,85 million.
Curiously, Stepanov's deputy, Chief Sanitary Doctor Viktor Lyashko, has a higher salary—according to his income declaration, he earned 617 hryvnias (51 hryvnias per month). The official's wife, Irina, did not declare her income, so it's impossible to determine whether she made any major purchases. Lyashko himself hasn't acquired anything new—he drives a 2018 Skoda Octavia A7 and owns three small plots of land near Kyiv.
Acting Energy Minister Yuriy Vitrenko held the highest income record among all ministers last year. During his tenure as Naftogaz's executive director in 2020, he earned UAH 284,6 million. He held this position until mid-July, or six and a half months. This means his average monthly salary from the state-owned company was approximately UAH 43,8 million. That's UAH 6,5 million per day!
Furthermore, in December 2020, Vitrenko received UAH 148,4 million in domestic government loan bonds (DGLBs) from Naftogaz for defeating Gazprom in the Stockholm Arbitration Tribunal. This means that Vitrenko received a total of UAH 433 million from the state-owned company for the year! It's worth noting that, given the realities of Ukraine, his salaries were already exorbitant. A year earlier, while working at Naftogaz, he earned UAH 53,3 million. Vitrenko also declared UAH 1 million in "other additional benefits" from Naftogaz, UAH 1,4 million in fees from Ukrnafta, and UAH 1,2 million in interest on deposits. He has 899 thousand hryvnias, $2,95 million and €13 thousand in his bank accounts. His wife has $3,7 million, €222 thousand and 42 thousand pounds sterling.
What do the people's deputies have?
Last year, MPs also enjoyed good living standards. For example, Iryna Gerashchenko, co-chair of the European Solidarity faction, acquired 10 acres of land and a 320,7 square meter house in the village of Letky, Brovary district, near Kyiv, on New Year's Eve 2021. The price of the house and land at the time of purchase was listed at approximately UAH 2 million. Meanwhile, on real estate websites, houses half that size in this village are listed for prices starting at UAH 3,8 million. Gerashchenko's mother, 73-year-old Olga Grigorievna, had previously purchased a house of almost 300 square meters in the same village of Letky, and in 2018, Gerashchenko's mother-in-law also purchased a 200 square meter house there.
Her colleague from the faction is a people's deputy Alexey Goncharenko During the crisis-ridden quarantine year, he managed to acquire an apartment in Kyiv for 2 million hryvnias. In June, Mykhailo Volynets, a member of parliament from the All-Ukrainian Union "Batkivshchyna," became the owner of a 122-square-meter apartment worth 7,64 million hryvnias. However, the source of the funds for such an expensive purchase is unclear from his asset declaration.
Parliamentarians also didn't forget about updating their vehicle fleet. Servant of the People MP Nikita Poturaev purchased a 2017 Jeep Cherokee during the height of the spring lockdown. Depending on the trim level and mileage, such vehicles sell for 500–700 UAH. However, according to his declaration, the deputy managed to purchase his for a paltry 149 UAH. Incidentally, an interesting detail: according to law, all monetary transactions over 150 UAH are subject to financial monitoring.
MP Anton Polyakov, who was expelled from the Servant of the People party last November, acquired a brand new 2020 Land Cruiser Prado in July of this year, worth 1,3 million hryvnias. Another Servant of the People exile, MP Geo Leros, became the owner of two cars this year. First, in March of this year, he purchased a 2011 Mercedes-Benz GLK 220 SUV for 332 hryvnias, and then in September, a 2017 Skoda Octavia A7 for 406 hryvnias. But the most expensive car among MPs was purchased by independent Musa Magomedov, who became the owner of a new BMW X7 worth 3,4 million hryvnias.
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