Back
Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Ukrainians associate parliament members from Servant of the People with the president, and they are increasingly becoming symbols of corruption during the war
Members of Parliament from Servant of the People are becoming symbols of corruption during the war, it is difficult to hush up the facts of their abuses. Focus asked politologists who believe the West is sending signals to the Bankovaya about the need to cleanse the parliament. The military and financial assistance to Ukraine could be at stake.
There has never been corruption, and here it is again
Ukrainian politicians have frequently found themselves in public corruption scandals. Some take bribes, and someone uses privileges and goes abroad. Recently, members of the Servant of the People faction stood out especially. Anatoliy Hunko, according to the Specialized Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office, was detained while receiving 85 thousand dollars in bribes for promising to resolve the issue with renting a land plot of 1700 hectares of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences of Ukraine (NAAS).
Hunko was detained while handing over only part of the bribe, because the total amount he allegedly expected was 221 thousand dollars. It is notable that this deputy heads the temporary investigative commission on uncovering corruption in NAAS.
The Verkhovna Rada 9 of August deprived the Servant of the People deputy Andriy Kholodov of his powers prematurely. According to journalists, in January 2023 he left Ukraine and did not return. The deputy acquired a mansion in Cyprus, and his wife bought a stake in the LA SALUTE Sport&Beauty beauty salon in Vienna at the end of December 2022.
Another scandalous deputy Bohdan Torokhtiy faced possible expulsion from the political force Servant of the People. Journalists found out that during the war with Russia the deputy's family bought cars three times ranging from 158 to 197 thousand dollars. The cars were registered in the name of Alina Levchenko, Torokhtiy's wife.
The head of the faction, Davyd Arakhamia, said that Bohdan Torokhtiy received money from the budget to compensate for housing rent.
After these stories, Minister of Finance Serhiy Marchenko’s interview seemed somewhat inappropriate, in which he stated the lowest level of corruption in Ukraine in the last 20 years.
“In 20 years, as I understand processes in this country, the level of corruption is the lowest. Perhaps in some sectors it remained high… This is my impression,” the official said, without providing evidence of any figures.
The corrupt from Servant of the People spoil Zelenskyy's rating
There are so many facts of corruption and abuses among deputies of the president's party that they can no longer be hushed up, Ukrainian political scientist Ihor Reyterovych told Focus.
The “deputy collapse” in the president's faction is not happening by chance, he believes.
“The Office of the President (OP) has always carefully tracked the moods and demands of society. When they reach a certain limit, at Bankova they react promptly. We saw the story with the Minister of Culture [Oleksandr Tkachenko]. With the deputies as well. The topic was pushed for a long time and all this led to political responsibility and the work of law enforcement,” the expert commented.
In the expert's view, indulgence by the OP would lead to sharp negative reactions and the president Volodymyr Zelensky's rating. Associations of Servant of the People with the president are still present.
Reiterovich believes that first of all majoritarian deputies fall into corruption scandals. Replacing them is more difficult: if they resign, elections would have to be held locally, which is impossible in wartime.
It is worth noting that besides the Servants, law enforcement also took on MP Oleksandr Dubinsky, who positions himself as a critic of the authorities. He also got into a scandal with a trip abroad. Ukrainska Pravda, citing sources, wrote that the attorney general informed the politician of suspicion of service forgery.
Investigation established that Dubinsky provided false information in official documents under which he left abroad under the pretext of accompanying his father for treatment. The deputy managed to visit Italy, Croatia, and Spain twice, prosecutors claim.
SBU and the State Bureau of Investigation 9 in August also conducted searches in the former regional deputy in the case of washing over 500 million hryvnias. The media, citing sources in law enforcement, wrote that, probably, it concerns the former owner of the TV channel Direct Vladimir Makeenko.
Scandals with deputies. Will the West halt military aid?
The state of emergency requires the Ukrainian authorities to fight corruption not demonstratively but effectively. If this is not done, not only the opposition but also hostile IPSO centers will intensify, says Oleh Posternak, head of the Center for Political Intelligence.
“First of all there must be moral responsibility before the servicemen who defend the state. The second reason for cleansing the parliament is the clear hints from the West. By providing humanitarian, military, and financial support, the issue of a cliff could be raised: if there is no fight against corruption with court verdicts, the question of further support will hang in the balance. And this is a threat to national security, because without Western help the war of attrition with Russia cannot be won,” Posternak tells Focus.
The third moment, according to the political technologist, lies in re-electing Volodymyr Zelensky for a second presidential term. If Russia maintains control over temporarily occupied territories and borders are not restored by 1991 year, it will be necessary to show Ukrainians a “light at the end of the tunnel.”
“That ‘light’ could be the resumption of the dialogue on Ukraine joining the EU and NATO, and also the sentencing of bribe-takers to prison. And here one should talk not only about petty officials but about top ones as well,” he summed up.
Author: Timyr Savin
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Українці асоціюють нардепів від «Слуги народу» із президентом, а вони все частіше стають символами корупції під час війни". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: ANTIKOR.
