Which of the wealthy people's deputies rent housing at the expense of the state during the war?
For almost two and a half years of full-scale war, 64.5 million UAH were spent from the state budget on housing in the capital for people’s deputies. 160 people’s deputies took advantage of the right to receive compensation for rent during this time.
The largest percentage of people's deputies who received compensation for housing are in the Servant of the People faction. In addition, over these years they have received more compensation than people's deputies of all other factions and groups combined.
As it turned out, even those deputies who declared hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and jewelry from luxury brands, as well as fugitive people’s deputies and collaborators, received compensation from the budget.
The “Honestly” movement analyzed which of the people’s deputies of the current convocation exercised the right to compensation for housing during the war years of 2022, 2023 and at the beginning of 2024.
How much money do people's deputies take for housing?
According to the law “On the Status of People’s Deputy of Ukraine,” people’s deputies have the right to compensation for renting housing or paying for a hotel room, provided that they do not have housing in the capital and are registered at a place of residence more than 30 kilometers from the border of Kyiv.
In 2022, 153 people’s deputies received compensation, who received a total of almost 30.8 million UAH from the budget.
In 2023, slightly fewer deputies asked for reimbursement of housing costs - 133, and the total amount of payments amounted to about UAH 27.5 million.
In the first four months of 2024, 108 people’s representatives exercised the right to compensation, who in total received almost 6.2 million UAH from the budget.
On average, the state spends 16.8 thousand hryvnia monthly on housing for one people’s deputy, which is approximately two times the minimum wage. But since some deputies use the right to compensation regularly, and some only from time to time, payments per deputy vary from 10 thousand to almost 300 thousand UAH per year.
Most of the rights to compensation are enjoyed by majority shareholders, which is quite logical, since most of them are representatives of regions that usually (though not always) do not have housing in the capital. Thus, during 2022-2024, 70% of those who received compensation were elected from majority constituencies.
"Servants" ahead
The largest amount of compensation for housing was received by people's deputies of the Servant of the People faction. During 2022-2023, 20 million UAH from the budget were spent annually on renting housing for them, and in the first four months of 2024 this amount has already reached 4.7 million. This is more than the compensation for people’s deputies of all other factions and groups combined .
Of course, this can be explained by the fact that Servant of the People is the largest faction in the Verkhovna Rada and includes most of the majoritarians, who most likely do not have housing in the capital. But the percentage of deputies from other factions and groups who received compensation is much smaller.
Approximately the same amounts – up to 1.5 million UAH per year – went to rent housing for representatives of the “Voice” and “EU” factions, the “Trust” and “For the Future” groups.
And people’s deputies from the groups “PZZhM” and “Restoration of Ukraine” (who were previously part of the banned pro-Russian faction “OPZZh”) and from “Batkivshchyna” asked for the least amount of money for housing.
As we see, Servant of the People deputies use the right to compensation more actively than their colleagues from other factions and groups.
The graph shows the amount of payments actually made in a given month, which may include compensation for previous periods.
108 “servants” received corresponding payments in 2022, 97 in 2023. In the first four months of 2024, 81 representatives of Servant of the People applied for compensation.
Among representatives of other factions and groups, the number and percentage of people's deputies who receive payments for housing are significantly smaller. For comparison, in 2022-2023, more than 40% of “servants” received compensation, while about 30% of people’s deputies compensated for housing costs from “Golos”, about 20% from the EU, and no more than 12% of faction members from “Batkivshchyna” .
They compensate and do not complex
Many people's deputies who enjoyed the right to compensation during the 2022-2024 war years simultaneously declared hundreds of thousands in foreign currency in cash, as well as brand new cars, diamond jewelry, clothing and accessories from luxury brands.
According to the declarations, out of 160 people's deputies who received compensation over the past two years, at least 54 have savings of more than $100 thousand (including husband/wife savings). Among these there are representatives of all factions and groups, except for “Voice”.
Moreover, many wealthy deputies actually chose the maximum allowable amount of housing compensation.
Thus, the majority leader from the Donetsk region, Evgeniy Yakovenko, who is now part of the “Restoration of Ukraine” group, received more than 530 thousand UAH in housing compensation (about $13 thousand) during two and a half years of full-scale war. Formally, the people's deputy has the right to payments, because, according to the declaration, he does not have residential real estate in the capital. At the same time, in 2023, the politician declared $950 thousand and $830 thousand in cash. And this does not include his wife’s savings.
The majority voter from Batkivshchyna, Oleg Meydich, received 397 thousand UAH ($9.9 thousand) compensation for renting a hotel room in the capital for 2022-2024. At the same time, judging by the declaration, the people's deputy has a stable financial condition: he declared savings of 14.5 million UAH in cash and another about $86 thousand and 40 thousand euros. You can add here the money of Meidich’s wife – 26 million UAH, $1 million and 130 thousand euros in cash.
A self-nominated candidate from the Odessa region, Anatoly Urbansky from the “For the Future” group, does not hesitate to take funds from the budget even despite the fact that he is an official millionaire. His declaration for 2023 indicated 21.6 million UAH in cash, as well as eight watches, diamond jewelry and branded clothing, including his wife’s four fur coats. Over the past two and a half years, Urbansky has collected more than 350 thousand UAH ($8.8 thousand) housing compensation.
The majority voter, elected from the Servant of the People, and now a member of the Restoration of Ukraine group, Oleg Voronko, in his last declaration indicated almost $1.5 million and more than 1 million euros in cash, as well as tens of thousands in other currencies. This did not stop the people’s deputy from also taking compensation from the budget of 237 thousand UAH during 2022.
Another non-factional majoritarian, millionaire people’s deputy Sergei Magera, elected from the pro-Russian “Opposition Bloc,” in the first months of the full-scale invasion received 58.5 thousand UAH ($1.5 thousand) of budget funds for living in a 16-square-meter room. m in the parliamentary hotel "Kyiv". This is despite the fact that, according to the declaration, there are 21 million UAH in his bank account alone.
A deputy from the banned OPZZH, and now a member of the PZZhM group, Vladimir Kaltsev also covered rental costs from budget funds: in 2022-2023 he received 412 thousand UAH of compensation. The politician also declared almost $100 thousand in cash, four watches and precious jewelry. In addition, in the declaration, Kaltsev noted that he lent someone $3.59 million.
Artem Kunaev, the majority voter from Servant of the People, also does not refuse compensation. He, like the other aforementioned people’s deputies, does not have his own housing in Kyiv. Over the past two and a half years, Kunaev received UAH 530 thousand to rent an apartment in the capital. Moreover, his declaration indicated $280 thousand and 34 thousand euros in cash.
More than 130 thousand UAH in compensation was received by the scandalous people's deputy from the Servant of the People Bohdan Torokhtiy, who was expelled from the faction after an investigation into his vacation abroad during the war and the purchase of three brand new cars in his wife’s name.
Torokhtiy took compensation until the fall of 2022, when his wife Alina Levchenko also became the owner of an apartment in Kyiv. In the people's deputy's declaration, in addition, you can find his wife's diamond jewelry, three fur coats worth half a million hryvnia, as well as bags, clothes and shoes of luxury brands.
In general, quite a few “servants” choose almost maximum compensation, even despite significant savings in foreign currency. These are, in particular, Stepan Chernyavsky, Igor Negulevsky, Igor Fris, Orest Salamakha, Alexander Gorobets and others.
At the same time, about half of the 160 people's deputies of the 9th convocation who received compensation over the past two and a half years did not declare significant savings, so it is quite logical that they apply for this benefit.
Money for homeless people's deputies
The law does not set any limits on the status of compensation recipients, but there is a clear limitation: only those people’s deputies who do not own housing in Kyiv can request compensation.
The “Honestly” movement has recorded many cases where this rule was violated by deputies of the previous convocation, but over the past two and a half years, people’s deputies who own real estate in the capital have not applied for compensation.
Among the violators is perhaps the “servant” Alexander Kabanov, whose wife, according to the declaration, owns an apartment in Kyiv with an area of 164.7 square meters. m. Despite the fact that Kabanov has the right to free accommodation there, in the first four months of 2024 he took 56 thousand UAH from the budget for rental housing.
His other colleagues in similar cases refused compensation, as the already mentioned Bogdan Torokhtiy did when his wife became the owner of a Kyiv apartment, as well as the “servant” Maxim Tkachenko, who stopped receiving compensation when in December 2022 his wife became the owner of a house in Kyiv with an area of 172 sq. m.
And People's Deputy Vladimir Kaltsev refused compensation in 2023, because, judging by the declaration, his new wife is the owner of an apartment in Kyiv with an area of 41 square meters. m.
Compensation to traitors
As it turned out, people’s deputies with official suspicions of treason and collaboration also paid for housing with budget funds. Thus, in the first months of 2022, 38 thousand UAH of compensation was received by the “servant” Alexey Kovalev, who at the beginning of the full-scale invasion actively helped the Russians in the occupied Kherson region.
The same amount of compensation was received in 2022 by the chosen one from the now banned OPZZh Alexander Ponomarev, to whom the SBU and the State Bureau of Investigation announced suspicion of high treason in 2023. By the way, Ponomarev is not a poor citizen at all: his declaration shows $540 thousand and 100 thousand euros in cash, and the locals called him “the shadow owner of Berdyansk.”
Also receiving compensation were persons on the Register of Traitors of the “Honestly” Movement: Andrei Aksenov, Maxim Buzhansky (“Servant of the People”), Valery Gnatenko (OPZZH) and majority leader Evgeniy Shevchenko, who was expelled from the “Servant of the People”.
The “Chestno” movement has previously written that the mechanism for compensating people’s deputies for housing is imperfect, and the authorities can use it as a way to support their deputies. As we can see, during 2022-2024, the distribution of compensation shows disproportion between factions and groups.
In addition, compensation is received by persons who, according to declarations, have a stable financial condition, but do not hesitate to take an additional 16-20 thousand from the budget every month.
Obviously, the mechanism for paying housing to people’s deputies requires review and improvement. Especially against the backdrop of a major war, when it is extremely important to rationally distribute budget funds.
