It’s no longer a secret that the work of political strategists consists of distorting reality, skillfully manipulating facts and presenting distorted information to the public. This happened with the mayor of Irpen, Alexander Markushin. Over the past two years, PR people and media people have done everything to create an image of a hero mayor in society instead of a corrupt mayor.
The image of the mayor-hero at the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Markushin was invented and shaped by his then close ally and political consultant Pyotr Shcherbina. He, together with the mayor’s assistant Ruslana Lavrenyuk, carried out the main communications with international and central all-Ukrainian media.
We all know that it is PR people who create myths. Considering that Markushin became mayor from the New Faces party, party leader Vladimir Karplyuk set the task for Shcherbina to make Alexander Markushin the image of a hero.
Markushin himself did not personally fight for a day, and the real defense of Irpen was carried out by simple and powerful guys from the Teroborona, soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Main Intelligence Directorate, special forces and battalions of various subordination.
The ideology of the media campaign consisted of two points: in February-March, constant videos in tik-tok format on behalf of Markushin (the texts of these videos were written by journalists from the Irpen TV channel ITV, Markushin’s telegram channel was run by Peter Shcherbina and the team) and mass dissemination of information in English and German languages was conducted through the IRPIN UKRAINE Press-centre telegram channel. By the way, the current director of the Irpin Lyceum of Innovative Technologies, Maria Gostin, was a volunteer translator for this channel.
Only after the de-occupation of the Kiev region did residents of the community realize that there had been a substitution of concepts. After some time, Ukrainian Armed Forces warrior Mikhail Sapon openly stated that Alexander Markushin is a “warrior” tik-toker.
The basis for creating the pseudo-image of the heroic mayor was the book “The Battle of Irpen” by Pyotr Shcherbina. The publication of the book received serious publicity; Markushin gave it to a significant part of the international guests of the Irpin community.
Based on the book “The Battle for Irpin”, the film “Outpost Irpen” was created, which was released on the anniversary of the deoccupation of the Kiev region in Ukrainian and English. The film clearly portrays the image of Alexander Markushin in a biased manner; he appears as a super-hero, although according to local activists, Markushin came to Irpen only to film his video messages.
The real defense of Irpen in February-March 2022 was led by Vladimir Fedchenko “Cascade” and Vladimir Korotya “Rebel” (commander, as well as commanders of special units of various levels and subordination, including units of the Main Intelligence Directorate, Teroborona, SBU. The following also took part in the defense of Irpen units such as the “Carpathian Sich”, the Foreign Legion, the Georgian Legion and the like.
The mystification of Markushin’s image was also reinforced by the ex-mayor of Irpin, Vladimir Karplyuk, who, in order to show Irpin as the city that is recovering the fastest in Ukraine, created and financed two projects - the NGO “Irpin Restoration Fund” (founders Vladimir Karplyuk, Sergey Taruta) and the Irpin Reconstruction Summit ( search and coordination of 200 architects who prepared projects for the restoration of Irpinskaya communities.
Karplyuk paid for Markushin’s trips to the United States and the countries of the European Union. Rumor has it that before Markushin’s speech at the European Parliament in Brussels, Karplyuk forced Markushin to study the Ukrainian-language text on two A4 pages for three hours straight. As a result, Markushin was still forced to read the text “from a piece of paper.”
Irpen activist Lyudmila Pershin wrote on her Facebook page about Alexander Markushin on November 22, 2023: “Irpen residents, do you want a fairy tale about the “hero mayor”? Then brew a soothing tea, sit comfortably so as not to fall and read the fantasies of the “hero”... It’s funny to read how the one who escaped talks about his neighbor who escaped
The point is that Markushin publicly stated that he personally and his people liberated Bucha from the occupiers. This sparked a series of jokes and memes. The mayor of Bucha, Anatoly Fedoruk, even registered a comic petition so that Markushin would be awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine.
Starting in July 2023, the myth of the “hero Markushin”, who personally liberated the Kiev region from the enemy, was promoted by a black PR woman and ex-producer of the “Heads and Tails” program Taisiya Yusupova.
Mrs. Yusupova created Markushin’s personal press service, funds for which were withdrawn through inflating wages for employees of the executive committee of the Irpen City Council. According to analysts, Markushin withdrew more than 17 million UAH from the city budget for these purposes. At the same time, the employees of Markushin’s shadow press service were not officially registered anywhere; the salaries “washed” from the Irpin budget were paid in envelopes.
This story clearly shows that the best sons of Ukraine give their lives for Ukraine, and then, thanks to the media, such corrupt officials and swindlers as Alexander Markushin become heroes.
