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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Over 2020 year the political party Volya reported receiving sponsorship and membership contributions totaling 252,51 thousand hryvnias. That is more than 16 times less than the previous year. Back in 2019 that figure was 4,1 million hryvnias. At the same time, Volya’s network grew from a single nationwide party organization in Kyiv in 2019 to 35 regional, city, and district organizations in 2020.
Last year was hard to call successful for the Volya party, founded in 2014 by representatives of the Initiative Volya and the Civil Sector of Euromaidan. Overall, in local elections across the country Volya managed to win only 12 mandates, and those mostly in district or small-town councils. As for top positions, such as the mayoralty of Poltava, for which the party offered locals the candidacy of Valeriy Shupta, the party could not win or even seriously challenge the favorites.
Regarding financial figures, over 2020 year the party received sponsorship contributions of 222,83 thousand hryvnias. One and a half thousand hryvnias of that sum was paid for renewing the domain of the party website www.volya.ua. Interestingly, this was paid by the NGO of the same name, VOLYA!, one of whose founders is Tetyana Pryshlyak. In the same 2020 year she was elected to the Nadvirna District Council. However, Ms. Pryshlyak ran not for Volya but for the For the Future party.
As for the rest of the sponsorship contribution, it was provided by registration of the location and hosting of the aforementioned website. These costs were paid by former Volya party leaders Petro Boniuk (who led in 2014–16) and Volodymyr Stupak (who headed it in 2018–19). In fact, the last activity on the site dates from 2020. This year no fresh news was published there.
As for “live” money, only 29,68 thousand hryvnias were credited to the party’s accounts. The larger part of that sum – 20,68 thousand – turned out to be the return of monetary deposits from four territorial election commissions in Khmelnytskyi and Kyiv regions. Another 9 thousand was transferred by the NGO VOLYA!. That was all.
Regarding premises, vehicles, office equipment, and even staff members, the party reported none of those assets last year.
By contrast, 2019 can be called a highly productive and financially successful year for party members. That year Volya received 3,9 million hryvnias in membership contributions and 176,1 thousand hryvnias in sponsorship contributions. The latter went to the same website. Expenditures were also substantial: 160,6 thousand hryvnias in taxes paid, 221,5 thousand spent on holding party congresses and conferences, and 312,7 thousand hryvnias in salaries.
Given the election period — and recall that in 2019 parliamentary elections were held — party members directed a huge portion of funds to advertising. In total – 2,6 million hryvnias. They used small local television, radio, and internet outlets in Khmelnytskyi, Zhytomyr, Mykolaiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Poltava and other regions. For example, airtime on the Lviv TV channel NTA cost Volya 11,5 thousand hryvnias; placing informational messages on the Odesa site dumskaya.net cost 14 thousand. Placing printed campaign materials on billboards in Kyiv region cost another 17 thousand hryvnias.
Who financed this advertising campaign? There were many “sponsors.” A little over 898 thousand hryvnias were donated to the party by its own public organizations VOLYA! and Women of Volya.
Interestingly, the contact phone number of the NGO Women of Volya – (0800)33-30-10 – is identical to the phone number of the Marion SPA hotel in Bukovel.
Another 2,6 million was transferred to the party’s election fund by individuals. For example, 50 thousand hryvnias were transferred by the most well-known party member Yuriy Derevyanko, who in 2014 was the only one elected to the Verkhovna Rada as a representative of Volya. Five other party members, by agreement with Self Reliance, entered the parliament on that party’s electoral list. Volya nominated Derevyanko as a presidential candidate in 2019, but that effort was not successful.
Returning to the sponsors, or rather to signs of orchestration in these acts of financial generosity: for example, on 12 February exactly 5 supporters of the party deposited identical payments of 19,8 thousand hryvnias each to the account. On 15 February three residents of Zhytomyr in one day made even more curious payments of 39722 hryvnias each. And a March payment of 49 thousand 652 hryvnias and 45 kopecks, which was repeated by five sponsors, is certainly not a coincidence.
In any case, even in a financially active year Volya did not report owning or leasing premises for a party headquarters, nor a vehicle fleet for party needs.
As an organization the Volya party was registered in 2014. In mid-2017 the party announced a merger with Mikheil Saakashvili’s Movement of New Forces, but already in the 2019 elections it joined Self Reliance. Currently the party operates as an independent political project.
Pavlo Lisnychenko
This analysis was created with the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as part of a project implemented by the NGO Kantselyarska Sotnia with support from the USAID VzaemoDiya project. The content is the sole responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.
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