Parliamentarians in an era of war: luxury cars instead of money for the army

Some Ukrainian parliamentarians, during the period of a full-scale invasion, are purchasing new high-quality cars. Among those who stand out for their luxurious purchases are Mykola Tishchenko from the Servant of the People party, Vadim Ivchenko from Batkivshchyna and the representative of the Dovira party, Gennady Vatsak, a successful confectionery magnate.

In particular, $700 thousand Rolls-Royce and powerful electric Mercedes appeared in the fleets of people's representatives. This is evidenced by the investigation of the UP.

Thus, according to journalists, during the war, Tishchenko’s “servant” acquired two premium cars with a total cost of almost $150 thousand. Since even after the opening of the register of electronic declarations, the people’s deputy is in no hurry to submit data, it was possible to establish the fact of the presence of luxury cars thanks to observations of the capital’s parking lots restaurants.

Among the people’s deputy’s new luxury cars is the 2021 electric Mercedes V-Class. License plates indicate that the car was purchased in August 2023. The average cost of such a car ranges from $80-90 thousand. This car is not registered to Tishchenko himself. The formal owner is Petr Orlov , who, according to sources in the President’s Office, works as a driver for a people’s deputy.

Tishchenko also uses another Mercedes V-class from 2016, costing from $50 thousand. This car was also purchased during the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, in 2022, and is also not registered to the people’s deputy. According to documents, the car is owned by the former director of the Velor restaurant, Sergei Vakalchuk .

Previously, other journalists had already found out that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Vakalchuk’s property was registered for more than $1 million . In addition to the car, he became the owner of an estate with a swimming pool in the village of Kozin near Kiev and the land underneath it and an apartment in the building where Velor had previously worked.

Tishchenko, by the way, strongly opposed the opening of electronic declarations of officials. He explained his position by “security issues.” Although Tishchenko did not explain how national security and the wealth of deputies are connected.

Another person involved in the investigation is MP from Batkivshchyna Vadim Ivchenko , who is a member of the parliamentary committee on security, defense and intelligence. He also drives an electric Mercedes car. This is a Mercedes-AMG EQE 43, released in 2022. The cost of the car is about $150 thousand.

The car was purchased in October 2023. Mercedes is owned by Taskombank . Interestingly, just a week after registration, the car violated the speed limit on the highway in the Belaya Tserkov area. The fine was imposed specifically on deputy Ivchenko.

Ivchenko stated that he did not buy this car, but leased it for 5 years. According to him, an electric car is cheaper to operate than a diesel car, because you don’t need to spend money on changing oil and filters. At the same time , the people's deputy assures that the car costs not $150 thousand, but $107 thousand . Like Tishchenko, Ivchenko from Batkivshchyna is in no hurry to submit an electronic declaration.

Also in the government quarter of Kyiv you can see the luxurious Rolls-Royce Cullinan crossover. The exclusive car was bought in the spring of 2023, at a price of approximately $700 thousand. Member of the Dovira deputy group Gennady Vatsak drives it to work .

This car was also spotted in Khmelnitsky in the summer of 2023. Many of the cars that Vatsak uses have license plates with the combination of numbers “0001”. And this car is no exception. The car, by the way, is registered to the Vatsak confectionery house , journalists note. The Vatsak declaration for 2022 is also not yet in the electronic register of declarations.