Let Others Fight. How Members of Parliament Disappear to Warm Places During the War

Let Others Fight. How Members of Parliament Disappear to Warm Places During the War

Cyprus, the Maldives, Barcelona… Four sitting MPs haven’t voted even once (!) since the start of the year.

During a difficult counteroffensive, society is especially sensitive to scandals involving public officials. In recent months members of parliament have been in the spotlight, notes the publication Glavcom. And it’s not just about lobbying self-interested bills or outright corruption. It’s about freely leaving the country for personal reasons. Just in July several "Servants of the People" were caught on hot vacation. And that’s while government officials complain that ordinary people have somehow gotten too relaxed and are enjoying themselves instead of working harder for victory.

Credit where it’s due: the authorities did not try to "cover up" for their disgraced representatives. Each person implicated in these scandals was publicly punished. Through numerous "beheadings" the composition of the Verkhovna Rada has already shrunk to 403 deputies, from a "healthy norm" of 450. And the leadership of the single-party majority threatens to thin parliamentary ranks even further. Who’s next in line to go?

"Servants" on a bender

At the beginning of the year the Cabinet tightened control over MPs and officials leaving the country — it’s allowed only for official business trips and special cases: medical treatment, to visit children, or for a relative’s funeral.

The leadership of the Verkhovna Rada imposed an additional sieve for freedom-loving representatives. After the investigation "Battalion Monaco" and the bizarre trips of Mykola Tyshchenko to MPs’ receptions in Thailand (the politician was expelled from the president’s faction), they began to study MPs’ reasons for traveling abroad more carefully. But everyone already admits: these rules were interpreted so broadly and creatively that they hardly restricted anyone’s movements.

Thus, last month it became known that the former head of the budget committee, now deputy head of the Committee on National Security and Defense Yurii Aristov calmly vacationed with his family at an upscale hotel in the Maldives. He went to the paradise islands after completing his perfectly legitimate business trip to the NATO summit. Such tricks greatly outraged Aristov’s faction colleagues and, most importantly, the country’s top leadership.

On this matter, without naming names, even President Volodymyr Zelensky commented: "Those who think about spending more time abroad and look for ‘convenient’ business trips to combine with business, friends, or beaches — there won’t be any of you." The signal from the president was more than clear; Aristov has already submitted his resignation from his deputy powers.

Former head of the budget committee Yurii Aristov used a business trip to the NATO summit as an opportunity to relax in the Maldives

Another offender who also "voluntarily" no longer wants to be an MP is "Servant" Andrii Kholodov, who is the godson of Viktor Medvedchuk’s fugitive godfather and attended the wedding of Medvedchuk’s stepson. Journalists discovered that Kholodov left Ukraine back in January and has since been living in Cyprus.

The MP did not appear in the Verkhovna Rada for half a year, although he attended Financial Committee meetings online. Overall, since the start of the full-scale invasion the deputy left the country 12 times. After this information was published, Kholodov also submitted a resignation claim allegedly because he cannot both care for his wife’s and child’s medical needs and serve as an MP.

Medvedchuk’s godson, "Servant" Andrii Kholodov, who was accused of lobbying for his own tobacco business, has been riding out the war on sunny Cyprus since the start of the year

Interestingly, in both Kholodov’s and Aristov’s cases tough measures were taken only after the media learned about their trips. The head of the single-party faction, Davyd Arakhamia, assures that, at least in Aristov’s case, he was unaware of such nuances of the "business trip."

However, Arakhamia also noted that he will treat his deputies’ vacations differently: for example, "Servant" Bohdan Torokhtii will not be punished for his vacation in Bulgaria and his family’s enjoyment of luxury cars during the war, because he traveled abroad to pick up a child, and his wife herself is very wealthy.

MP Bohdan Torokhtii was spotted on vacation in Bulgaria "thanks to" his wife’s Instagram

But later Arakhamia dramatically changed his mind — he initiated Torokhtii’s expulsion from the faction and urged him to resign his mandate. In the faction leader’s view, his subordinate had time to explain his behavior during the war and try to rehabilitate himself: for example, sell one of his expensive cars and donate the proceeds to defense needs. The last straw, after which Arakhamia’s patience allegedly snapped, was information about Torokhtii receiving a state housing rental reimbursement.

Trouble, moreover much greater than simply losing a mandate, may also arise for former "problem child" of "Servant of the People," now independent MP Oleksandr Dubinsky. The SBU and the State Bureau of Investigations conducted searches at the deputy’s property on suspicion that he left the country not to accompany his father for treatment, as he claimed, but for his own romantic vacation in Barcelona. Dubinsky, like Aristov, faces a case regarding falsifying documents.

A very recent border-crossing case involves the son of MP Olena Kopanchuk, Dmytro Kopanchuk — a deputy of the Rudky city council in the Lviv region (also from the "Servants"). He several times left the country as a volunteer driver using the system "Shlyakh," which is known for numerous abuses. The last time Kopanchuk crossed the border to accompany his father, who has a second disability group, was as early as 1 January, but unlike his father, he never returned to Ukraine.

Rudky city council deputy from "Servant of the People" Dmytro Kopanchuk "forgot" to return to Ukraine after accompanying his disabled father abroad

And these are only the stories that became public. Besides them, there are ones the media have not yet reported on, while certain Telegram channels are already savoring the details. One concerns the travels of one of the main business lobbyists within the single-party majority, MP Maryan Zablotsky. He twice received the anti-award "Golden Scythe" for actions in corporate interests of the tobacco industry. Zablotsky was also credited with lobbying the interests of agrimagnate Andrii Verevskyi and the company Kernel, and now he heads the inter-factional group "For Anti-Corruption Tax Reform" — an idea promoted by Deputy Head of the President’s Office Rostyslav Shurma.

Ill-wishers claim that the MP allegedly left on 20 April for a five-day trip abroad together with his assistant, without having a business trip or vacation signed by parliament leadership. The Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy, which Zablotsky should have informed about his trip, noted that from 20 to 26 April the deputy indeed had no business trips or vacations registered.

He continued to receive a salary during that time and informed the committee in a separate letter that he was present in Ukraine after information about his trip appeared in the media. But here one must take the deputy at his word, since the committee has no access to border guards’ data. This mysterious story has still not developed further despite the president’s uncompromising stance on unauthorized trips.

Lost the way

Besides MPs who organized unauthorized outings, there are those who disappeared for a long time. As is known, even before the full-scale invasion about a dozen MPs left the country "for good." Those were the figures given by Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk after two months of the big war — at the end of April 2022 year. By the anniversary of the invasion the Rada had already stripped 17 deputies of their mandates, most of whom must be sought outside the country. Most of them predictably represented the now-disbanded pro-Russian Opposition Platform — For Life.

Since the beginning of 2023 year 14 MPs have not voted in the Rada even once, 10 of whom have already lost their mandates.

So who are the four who disappeared but still retain their deputy status?

One is a leader of the parliamentary group For the Future, Ihor Palytsia.

Longtime ally of Yulia Tymoshenko, Anzhelika Labunska from Batkivshchyna.

Representative of the parliamentary group Trust, Serhii Shakhov.

Former OPZZh member Fedir Khrystenko.

Member of the For the Future group Stepan Ivakhiv, who is also among the biggest parliamentary absentees, voted only once during this period.

Each of these figures is interesting in its own way.

Former head of the Volyn Regional Council Ihor Palytsia is a long-time ally and business partner of the disgraced Ihor Kolomoisky; the deputy has a spare cozy "hideout" on the Riviera in Cannes.

Anzhelika Labunska is considered close to billionaire Kostyantyn Zhevago, who is under an investigation in France under a non-departure order and faces many questions from law enforcement agencies.

Once very public, Serhii Shakhov is wanted in a case of inaccurate asset declaration. His Facebook page is regularly updated, but its content has nothing to do with parliamentary work. Where the deputy is located is unclear. Shakhov expressed interest in commenting to Glavcom, but he has not revealed the secret of his whereabouts.

Co-owner of the Western Ukrainian group Kontinium, Stepan Ivakhiv, is one of the richest businessmen in Ukraine, and this cohort generally has a specific attitude to parliamentary discipline.

And the leader among absentees, Khrystenko, seems to have been simply forgotten even in peacetime. This majoritarian from the district in Bakhmut and Lyman left Ukraine with his wife on the eve of the Russian invasion and his whereabouts have been unknown since. Yet, unlike many of his former OPZZh colleagues, he still remains an MP.

The "ghost" MP Fedir Khrystenko left the country at the start of the full-scale invasion but, unlike former OPZZh colleagues, still retains his mandate

The leadership of the Verkhovna Rada unofficially explain that they can strip mandates only from those who themselves submitted the appropriate statements or from those who lost Ukrainian citizenship by presidential decree. It was after loss of citizenship that mandates were "confiscated" from a number of OPZZh deputies and from "Servant" Ihor Vasylkovskyi, who was suspected of having a Bulgarian passport. But applying the provision of article 81 of the Constitution (regarding early termination of a deputy’s powers on the grounds of permanent residence abroad) seems unrealistic, because the State Border Service does not provide access to the personal data database.

If you narrow the statistics to a shorter period — from the beginning of summer to August this year — six more colleagues are added to the listed MPs who haven’t voted since the start of the year. Of them Tetyana Plachkova (ex-OPZZh) and Cyprus refugee Kholodov have already resigned their mandates, although the Rada has not yet approved the latter’s resignation. The others are Heorhii Leros, who was scandalously expelled from the "Servants of the People"; majoritarian from Poltava region "Servant" Anastasiia Liashenko; owner of an impressive bitcoin collection Anatolii Urbansky, whose family runs business in the Danube ports (For the Future); and unaffiliated deputy from a Donetsk district Yevhen Yakovenko, who was detained in Moldova last year at Belarus’s request. And the aforementioned Dubinsky participated in votes as many as six times.

The "Servant of the People" insist that their only representative on this unflattering list — Anastasiia Liashenko — is currently on maternity leave. Leros has his own reason for not attending the session hall: parliament itself banned him from the chamber until the end of the session for the same "middle finger to Zelensky." Although later the disgraced "ex-Servant" won a court case against the Verkhovna Rada on this matter and promised to force his way back to the workplace, he did not implement his plans.

Set up others

Of course, not all MPs who cross the border during wartime intend to sunbathe on beaches. Some parliamentarians are periodically absent because they participate in PACE, OSCE meetings, and visits to various international bodies.

After loud scandals involving colleagues, some MPs complain that Bankova decided to react to violations too literally — a directive has been sent to border posts prohibiting officials and MPs from leaving the country. And in order to obtain such permission at the border one now needs phone blessing from the President’s Office and almost the personal sign-off of its head, Andrii Yermak, in each specific case.

Opposition MP from European Solidarity Oleksii Honcharenko, who is sometimes accused of excessive PR during foreign trips, spoke about the new unofficial rules. However, Honcharenko later admitted to Glavcom that he had not yet heard of cases where officials or deputies were "turned back" right at the border.

Nevertheless, head of the parliamentary delegation to PACE, which includes Honcharenko, Mariia Mezentseva of "Servant of the People," assures Glavcom: there are no complications for MPs in obtaining permits to cross the border. But she adds a caveat.

"Every trip of an individual deputy or a delegation always ends with a report submitted to the speaker: who was where, whom they met, what was achieved," Mezentseva says. "Besides delegation work, I have other diplomatic duties, and each time I submit separate reports. On the contrary, I believe the procedure for getting permits is currently simplified: approval from the foreign affairs committee is not required, only from the committee that the deputy represents, the vice-speaker, and the speaker. There are no problems, and every business trip submitted on time is stamped. But cases where a person goes to one place and then hops somewhere else cannot happen. Such ‘vacation tours’ simply discredit other deputies during the war."

Journalists from Glavcom asked the Verkhovna Rada to provide full lists of parliamentarians who as of 24 February 2022 year, 1 January 2023 year and 31 July 2023 year were not in Ukraine and to learn the reasons for their trips abroad. However, despite statutorily established deadlines, the publication did not receive a response.