How did three Verkhovna Rada deputies escape from Ukraine?

In a recent study of the lists of men who left Ukraine after the start of the full-scale invasion and did not return, NGL.media found that three former deputies of the Verkhovna Rada were among them.

What they all have in common is that they were able to cross the border through the Shlyakh system under the guise of volunteers going for humanitarian aid. But everyone’s methods of obtaining the documents necessary for departure were different - some simply bought fake ones, and some deceived real volunteers.

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On Wednesday, July 6, 2022, a brand new Mercedes-Benz GLE 350D with license plates KI0001РІ crossed the Ugrinov checkpoint on the Ukrainian-Polish border. This remarkable combination of numbers 0001 can be called the “family numbers” of the Katsub family - for at least the last ten years it has been displayed on all the family’s cars.

This surname was quite famous during the time of Yanukovych - brothers Sergei and Alexander Katsuba alternately occupied leadership positions in Naftogaz of Ukraine, and Sergei Katsuba was also elected as a people's deputy from the now banned Party of Regions. After the Revolution of Dignity, both brothers became involved in numerous criminal cases of theft at Naftogaz, including due to the notorious “Boiko towers” ​​scheme.

That Wednesday, older brother Sergei Katsuba left Ukraine in a Mercedes-Benz GLE 350D. According to NGL.media, he never returned to his homeland. The 44-year-old ex-people's deputy was able to leave thanks to the fact that two weeks earlier the Ministry of Development of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure entered his personal data into the Shlyakh system as a driver-carrier of humanitarian cargo.

It is interesting that, according to the response of the Ministry of Infrastructure to a request from NGL.media, Sergei Katsuba’s permission to travel was not applied for by a charitable foundation or public organization, as is usually the case, but by a private commercial company, the Kiev-based LLC Mix Travel Group LTD.

According to YouControl, the main activity of this company is the provision of information services, but the essence of its work was different. In July 2023, the director of Mix Travel, Sergei Boyko, was sentenced to 5 years of probation for participation in a scheme for illegal travel of draft dodgers abroad. According to the register of court decisions, the attackers sought clients both in person and via the Internet - by publishing advertisements for “providing consultations and legal support for obtaining official permission to leave.”

These “official permissions” were the entry of everyone into the “Shlyakh” system as volunteers. After receiving the money, Sergei Boyko prepared and signed letters from Mix Travel Group LTD LLC to the Ministry of Infrastructure with requests to grant the men the right to travel as carriers of humanitarian cargo. And after their approval, he sent documents to clients via instant messengers. Such “services” cost from 1,500 to more than 4,000 dollars.

Now, for unknown reasons, the sentence against Sergei Boyko has been removed from the public part of the state register of court decisions, but has been preserved in the YouControl analytical platform. Sentenced to a suspended sentence, Sergei Boyko refused to talk to NGL.media about his participation in the escape from the country of Sergei Katsuba.

But, as a person related to this scheme told NGL.media on condition of anonymity, in fact Boyko was not its main organizer, but only a small cog. He only knew the names of a small number of the fugitives he had personally found. Most of the appeals to the Ministry of Infrastructure were prepared and signed in his place, but our interlocutor does not know who exactly.

“Sergei didn’t really know what was on those lists. He only knew the people who were traveling through him, and that was all. And the lists, as I can guess, were much larger, and completely different people were doing this,” says the interlocutor of NGL.media. – Sergei had nothing to do with this. Well, that is, he had, but 5 people left through him, conditionally, and in total 155 of them left, and he doesn’t know about the remaining 150.”

This is confirmed by the case materials - investigators were able to prove Boyko’s involvement in organizing the departure of only seven men, but he coordinated his actions through an intermediary with other “unidentified persons.” He also transferred the lion's share of the money to them, leaving himself and his accomplice only 200-500 dollars each. The investigation into this criminal proceeding is still ongoing - the SBU is still looking for both the main organizers and is also checking several public organizations and charitable foundations.

The current place of residence of Sergei Katsuba could not be established. Previously, he liked to show off on Instagram photos of his foreign vacation with his family, but over the past two years there has been information silence there. Sergei Katsuba did not respond to NGL.media’s request sent via messenger to comment on the circumstances of his departure from the country.

“There is no point in talking”

But another former member of parliament, 53-year-old Alexander Tretyakov, is still active on Facebook. Previously, Tretyakov was elected to the Verkhovna Rada four times from Our Ukraine and the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, but in the last parliamentary elections in 2019 he lost to the “servant of the people” Nikolai Tishchenko.

Back in March-April last year, Tretyakov reported that he was importing cars from abroad for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and providing the defenders with bulletproof vests, helmets and walkie-talkies. But after a few weeks, his publications changed to news reposts, holiday greetings and the mantra “thanks to the Armed Forces of Ukraine!” From these messages it was difficult to understand what he was doing and where he was, until in the fall, Ukrayinska Pravda journalist Mikhail Tkach published a photo of Tretyakov from Paris.

According to an NGL.media source in the State Border Service, Alexander Tretyakov left Ukraine on April 19, 2022. In response to a request, Ukrtransbezopasnost reported that the Lviv Regional Military Administration entered it into the Shlyakh system. However, during this year, LOVA itself denied this fact to us twice and found the necessary documents only on the third attempt.

To be extremely precise, during the first two months of the war, the Lviv OVA received requests from public organizations, and then sent requests for drivers to cross the border to the State Border Service. Only in May did the administration begin to issue exit permits in separate orders and directly enter people into the Shlyakh system.

As it turned out, the People’s Self-Defense of the Lviv Region, a fairly well-known public organization that has been helping the military since 2014, asked LOVA to help Tretyakov cross the border. According to the chairman of the “People’s Self-Defense of the Lviv Region” Artem Khmyz, Alexander Tretyakov himself turned to them and asked them to help him bring cargo for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

“He said that he has contacts and will bring protective equipment that will be transferred to our military personnel. He asked that we need to help him with that departure, he had to go […], can we help. Well, of course, we look at people’s situations,” says Artem Khmyz in a conversation with NGL.media.

But Alexander Tretyakov, according to Khmyz, in the end simply deceived the Lviv volunteers and did not return. “I talked to him. I explained to him that with this departure he created problems for our organization, which had not had such problems before, and that his status would not allow him to do such a thing. To which he told me that he continues to do good things, just because of certain family circumstances and certain health problems, he needs to be there [abroad] right now. But he will definitely return and is ready to explain his position to journalists, authorities, and everyone,” said Artem Khmyz.

However, for more than a year and a half, Alexander Tretyakov, it seems, did not have time to solve his problems. He did not explain his position to NGL.media. We managed to contact him via WhatsApp, but upon hearing the question, he referred to being busy and asked to call back in the evening. But then he didn’t pick up the phone again and just wrote back that “there’s no point in talking.”

Later, Tretyakov nevertheless clarified in writing that in fact he did not live in Ukraine long before the start of the war, but returned in March and left again in April - and that “I helped, am helping and will continue to help Ukraine, regardless of where I live.” . But in response to a clarifying question, the former long-term people’s deputy did not provide a single example of his assistance after April 19, 2022.

Table tennis comes first

After the Russian invasion, another former regional people’s deputy, Alexander Zats, allegedly volunteered. In June 2022, the Kherson Regional State Administration twice entered him into the “Shlyakh” system as a volunteer, although he did not need a second permit - on June 27, Alexander Zats left the country through the Luzhanka checkpoint on the border with Hungary and never returned.

The former people's deputy, and now the head of the Table Tennis Federation of Ukraine (FNTU), had more important things to do than delivering humanitarian aid. Already on August 20, he participated in the Congress of the European Table Tennis Union, which that year was held in Munich, Germany.

Although Alexander Zats himself is inactive on social networks, his movements around Europe can be tracked according to messages from the federation he still heads and his deputies. In March 2023, he supported Ukrainian tennis players at competitions in Berlin, and in June in Krakow. In the comments, subscribers are even indignant about whether the head of FNTU remembers the last time he was in his homeland.

The public organization “Ukrainian National Patriotic Youth” helped 47-year-old Alexander Zats leave Lviv. It was this organization that twice sent an appeal to the Kherson Regional State Administration with a request to provide him with permission to cross the border. In telephone conversations with NGL.media, its chairman Petr Rapita recalled cooperation with Zatz only on the second attempt. According to him, he really left them, but allegedly returned and brought some tactical things for the military.