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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
At least 30 members of parliament in Ukraine receive 19,5 thousand UAH each month from the state budget as compensation for renting housing in the capital. Under current law, these funds are provided to non-resident parliamentarians so they can rent accommodation while working in Kyiv.
This is reported by OBOZ.UA.
A significant number of lawmakers prefer to stay in state-run hotels, in particular the well-known Hotel Kyiv complex. Meanwhile, other deputies take money from taxpayers’ pockets and rent huge apartments in the most expensive residential complexes in the capital. All this is happening against the background that since 2026 the amount of so-called “deputy” payments for performing duties has tripled — now each member of parliament receives approximately 200 thousand UAH per month in addition to their base salary.
But this substantial increase in funding in no way stops some parliamentarians from continuing to regularly submit applications and demand additional budget money to cover rental costs.
Who spends the state compensation and on what
Parliamentarians exercise their right to housing compensation entirely legally: the law provides that if a deputy does not own residential property in the capital or within its suburbs, they are entitled to a monthly cash allowance from the budget.
For example, Maksym Berezin from the Servant of the People faction receives 19,5 thousand UAH per month from the state treasury for rent. According to his declaration, he lives in a spacious apartment with an area of 86,8 sq. m. The owner of that property is 71-year-old Svitlana Haidutska — the wife of the well-known academician of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences Pavlo Haidutskyi.
As was found, that apartment is located in a prestigious government quarter, although in a building from an older departmental housing stock. Similar housing in this area is rented on average for about 30 thousand UAH per month — primarily due to its exclusive location. The deputy does not own property in Kyiv; he only holds several plots of land in Poltava region.
His faction colleague Kyrylo Nesterenko is officially registered in a dormitory of the Ministry of Education and Science in Dnipro. Since September 2019 this 32-year-old parliamentarian has been renting a large apartment of 106,9 sq. m that belongs to Oleksii Kolesnichenko. Nesterenko also regularly receives state budget funds for that housing. It has not yet been possible to establish the exact location of this property.
Another member of Servant of the People, Oleksandr Kunaiev, takes compensation from the budget in order to live in one of the most expensive and luxurious residential complexes in the capital. Since January 2024 he has been renting an apartment of 113,6 sq. m from Serhii Korzhov. This is the prestigious residential complex “Boulevard of Fountains,” located in the heart of the Pecherskyi district.
It is quite obvious that the 19,5 thousand UAH the state provides to Kunaiev is not enough: according to current listings on real estate platforms, renting a similarly sized apartment in this complex costs at least 76 thousand UAH per month. Before being elected to the Verkhovna Rada, Kunaiev held executive positions at Motor Sich JSC. The deputy is currently 34 years old.
Deputy Anton Shvachko (also from Servant of the People) rents a 60,2 sq. m apartment from Maryna Yevtushenko. The editorial team established that this apartment is located in the very center of the capital — on Instytutska Street (Alley of the Heroes of the Heavenly Hundred), just a few minutes’ walk from the parliament building.
Pavlo Yakymenko of Servant of the People has been renting a huge apartment of 156,7 sq. m since January 2025. The owner is 67-year-old agribusinessman Hennadii Lapitskyi. The latter privately owns at least 53 real estate properties, among them luxury apartments in the most elite residential complexes of the capital: Busov Hill, Novopecherski Lypky and PecherSKY. The total value of Lapitskyi’s real estate can be estimated in the tens of millions of US dollars.
The mentioned 156,7 sq. m apartment is located in the Busov Hill complex, where the monthly rental price for similar spaces currently starts from 1,5 thousand US dollars.
Not only luxury apartments: where else MPs live
At the same time, a number of lawmakers indicate much more modest options in their official declarations — renting ordinary hotel rooms or small rooms. Some deputies also choose fairly restrained properties with no pretensions to luxury.
For example, Servant of the People member Oleh Bondarenko rents a relatively compact apartment of 57,7 sq. m. At the same time, the politician has owned his own apartment in Kharkiv since 1999. His colleague Ihor Fris has long stayed in an ordinary hotel room (likely in the state-run Hotel Kyiv, located near the Verkhovna Rada). Deputy Anatolii Kostiukh rented an apartment of 63,4 sq. m.
At the same time, some members of parliament who previously actively used the compensation later voluntarily gave up this practice and stopped applying for budget funds. For example, Yevhen Petruniak (Servant of the People) received housing payments until the end of 2022, but did not submit a new application for 2023.
According to declarations, the deputy and his wife own 36 real estate properties, including 12 residential houses. Moreover, in September 2022 the politician’s wife Iryna became the official owner of an overseas apartment of 130,84 sq. m in Spain.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Депутатські компенсації на розкіш: хто з нардепів бере гроші з бюджету на оренду елітного житла в Києві". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: HAB Media.
