Do Popular Front donors pay themselves?
In the first days and months of the full-scale invasion, there were people who decided to share their funds with the foundation of the Popular Front party of Arseniy Yatsenyuk. Since February 24, 2022, almost a quarter of a million hryvnia have been donated to the party that was the leader of the last parliamentary race.
Contributions were made by former people's deputies of the Verkhovna Rada of the previous convocation from the Popular Front and employees of the party itself. It is noteworthy that all contributions were the same and were made by the same people at different times. And most of the donations to the party came from Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s native Chernivtsi region.
Who financed the Popular Front from 2022 until now and how did the party spend these funds?
Donors to Narfront
The first thing that catches your eye when analyzing the report is that each donor gave 4,999 UAH to the party. There were 144 such contributions in total, and in 2022 the party received almost 720 thousand UAH from donors, of which 480 thousand before the full-scale invasion and 240 thousand after.
As can be seen in the graph, the “People's Front” received the greatest financial support in Chernivtsi, Kyiv, Khmelnitsky, Zaporozhye, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Rivne, Sumy, Cherkassy and Chernihiv regions. People from Kyiv also donated to the party fund.
According to the schedule, almost a third of the total amount was contributed by residents of the native Chernivtsi region for party leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk. However, only three people made 46 contributions of almost 5 thousand hryvnia. This is the wife and children of ex-people's deputy and leader of the Popular Front faction in the Verkhovna Rada Maxim Burbak. In total, the Burbak family contributed almost 230 thousand UAH. However, it was not possible to contact Bourbak’s relatives by phone to ask about contributions.
Residents of Kyiv gave almost 190 thousand UAH to the party. 20 Kiev residents showed such generosity. All these people are associated with the Popular Front party, and most of them received salaries from the party. Two residents of Kiev with whom we managed to talk - Elena Shkira and ex-People's Deputy from the Popular Front and former Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine Ostap Semerak - confirmed that they contributed money, but noted that no one communicated with them about any specific contribution amount.
We also managed to get through to businesswoman Olga Koba. After all, a person with a similar name from Kyiv also donated to the Popular Front fund. But it was not possible to find out whether she was the one who donated: when asked about the contribution to the party, she replied that she “donated a lot.” And she denied that she received a salary from the party: “I have not worked with parties and do not work. I have not received and do not receive funds from parties. There was an error with my full name. On what basis did they use my data? Check your party."
Of course, such donations could be membership fees, but the same amounts raise doubts that this money was paid from one’s own pocket. After all, according to similar schemes, money was transferred to party accounts by Batkivshchyna, Petro Poroshenko Bloc and Servant of the People.
The third place among rich regions with donors is occupied by the Khmelnitsky region. From there, almost 105 thousand UAH were transferred to the party’s account. However, this amount was also made by the people’s deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of the previous convocation from the “People’s Front”, Alexander Ksenzhuk, in 21 contributions. By the way, he made one donation as a resident of Kiev.
The location of donor Vadim Merikov was not indicated in the PolitData registry. However, the donor’s full name completely coincides with the surname of the ex-head of the Mykolaiv regional state administration and ex-people’s deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of the 7th convocation from “Batkivshchyna”. He made four payments to the party account, and his first contribution, apparently, was made by a resident of front-line Nikolaev on the day of the full-scale Russian invasion - February 24. In total, I contributed almost 20 thousand UAH.
But the party received almost 65 thousand UAH from the Lviv region. Here, all 13 contributions were made by another people's deputy of the previous convocation from the Popular Front, Mikhail Khmil.
Ex-people's deputy from the party Vladimir Shkvarilyuk also contributed almost 45 thousand UAH from the Ivano-Frankivsk region. And from the Kyiv region, almost 20 thousand UAH were donated by former people's deputy Mikhail Pobochikh and Alexey Solovyov.
Soloviev received a salary from the party. In addition, a person with a similar name appears among the founders of a defunct company, which is part of the family group of the head of the central headquarters and member of the political council of the party, Alexander Turchinov.
In the Zaporozhye region, Sergey Ponomarenko contributed 10 thousand UAH. He also received a salary from the party. In the comment “Honestly,” he noted that financially supporting the party was his own decision. Regarding the same contributions, he replied that he did not know “who donated how much.”
“This is purely my opinion and my gratitude,” Ponomarenko replied.
Another almost 10 thousand UAH from the Rivne region was contributed by former Verkhovna Rada deputy from the Popular Front Vadim Sidorchuk. In the Sumy region, the same amount was apparently given by the assistant to ex-People's Deputy from the Popular Front Andrei Pomazanov, Dmitry Chigrin. And in the Chernihiv region, this amount was donated by Vladimir Polyushko, who also received a salary from the party.
But there was only one donation from the Cherkasy region, it was made by Maxim Polyakov. He was also a people's deputy from the Popular Front in the previous convocation. The High Anti-Corruption Court found him guilty of illegally receiving compensation for housing.
In 2023, only 1,900 UAH were received into the party’s account. Their three contributions at different times were provided by the already mentioned Alexey Solovyov. He gave 500 hryvnia in the first quarter of 2024.
It was not possible to talk to the named donors “Honestly” - subscribers either hung up when they heard who was calling them, or simply did not answer.
Party expenses
In 2022, the Popular Front party spent 730 thousand UAH, of which the most was spent on paying salaries to employees - 320 thousand UAH. This looks strange, because the party was financed by its own workers.
The party spent 127 thousand UAH on rent, 196 thousand on paying taxes, 46 thousand on utilities, 21 thousand on paying for the Internet.
The party donated the remaining 22 thousand UAH for military training, the use of computer equipment and software, telephony, payment for remote services and maintenance of bank accounts.
But in 2023, the party spent only 2 thousand UAH. The money went to banking services. And in the first quarter of 2024, 360 UAH were given for servicing the current account.
Facebook Advertising
The party officially spent no money on Facebook advertising in 2022. However, its head Arseniy Yatsenyuk did this for two months – in January and February. In total, I spent more than 6 thousand UAH on this. At this time, he wrote about the need for “an immediate reaction from the West and the introduction of sanctions” because of “Putin’s decision to recognize the “LPR” and “DPR” and to bring Putin to justice, asked to like the last message.
Yatsenyuk also complained about the “lack of clarity in Zelensky’s position on NATO” and the fact that neither Vladimir Zelensky nor representatives of his Servant of the People party appeared at the National Round Table “under the auspices of the Kyiv Security Forum.” He also thanked the defenders.
About the party
The Popular Front was founded after the victory of the Revolution of Dignity and before the early parliamentary elections in 2014.
In the parliamentary elections before last, the Popular Front party received 22.14% of the votes - this was the best result.
The voters of the Popular Front were predominantly rural residents of the western and central regions of Ukraine. It was in these regions that the party received the largest percentage of votes. However, only 81 deputies, or 19% of people's representatives, entered the Verkhovna Rada. In majoritarian districts the party received only 18 seats.
The “Honestly” movement recorded that representatives of the Popular Front faction in parliament attended 89% of the meetings. 40 deputies were involved in anti-corruption investigations, 44 deputies were found to have pressed buttons, and another 19 were found to be Greek citizens.
The party leader is still Arseniy Yatsenyuk. According to media reports, Yatsenyuk in 2021 was the main favorite of oligarch Rinat Akhmetov; he was often mentioned on the website of the Segodnya publication, which belonged to Akhmetov.
The "Honestly" movement in the party's financial report for 2022 saw that the "People's Front" among its intangible assets indicates the copyright for the "audiovisual work" Front 14/19 ". This is a video report of the Popular Front party for the period of its activity in 2014-2019. It was announced in December 2019 in the “Today” program on the “Ukraine” TV channel. It was announced without a note that this was a political advertisement, so the video showed signs of “jeans.”
This channel belonged to Rinat Akhmetov until 2022. Akhmetov’s holding company handed over its broadcasting licenses to the National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting. All due to the entry into force of the anti-oligarchic law, which determines one of the criteria by which businessmen can enter the register of oligarchs is influence on the media.
Let us remind you that the Verkhovna Rada resumed the financial reporting of parties in August 2023. It was stopped in 2020 due to Covid restrictions, and then continued due to martial law. Therefore, until April 26, 2024, parties had to submit reports for all missed years. As of May 1, parties submitted more than 20 thousand financial reports to the NAPC.
