Kyiv City Council deputy from "Servant of the People" Vitrenko also plunged into a corruption scandal, life dramas, and a dead end

Kyiv City Council deputy from "Servant of the People" Vitrenko also plunged into a corruption scandal, life dramas, and a dead end

The "Servant" elected official received orders to sabotage the city council's work and cover up the raiding of pro-government scheme operators in the districts.

After the recent high-profile scandal around the "Servant of the People" in the Kyiv City Council involving deputy "Servant" Trubitsyn (who is accused of a bribe of 1,4 million UAH), another elected member of the pro-presidential party in the city council was also exposed.

We are talking about SN deputy Andriy Vitrenko, who heads the city council's budget committee. Vitrenko’s recent “work” suggests that he was likely tasked by the Office of the President and the Cabinet to sabotage the budget committee’s work by any means and to block all decisions that do not fit the "Servant of the People" and Bankova’s policy regarding Kyiv.

Political multi-move from SN: beat outsiders, give money to your own?

Thus, through Vitrenko’s "activities," the "Servants of the People" are trying to freeze the Kyiv City Council’s finances as the representative body of Kyiv residents and the capital’s community, since as a member of the ruling party he does not act independently.

This is happening against the backdrop of a long-running conflict between the Office of the President and the city authorities. Apparently, after the central government’s failure in the shelter scandal and the dismissal of the head of the Kyiv City State Administration, the bet is now placed on internal subversive political struggle at the city council level. By blocking Kyiv’s budget, Bankova is trying to force some kind of "peace" or political concessions from Klychko and the Kyiv City Council. The pressure continues, and recently three deputies of the Kyiv City Council who were disloyal to the Center were suddenly notified of suspicions of evasion.

At the same time, Vitrenko may have been ordered from "above" to lobby for the allocation of multi-million funds allegedly for district needs — i.e., to district state administrations under the cover of "shelter construction" and various repairs. Strange "repairs" in the capital have continued despite loud scandals and public and anti-corruption outrage. Even after the "series" about bomb shelters. In reality, it is no secret that after funds are transferred to the district state administrations, financial flows go to pro-government schemers through shocking tenders.

For example, it was previously reported that the Dnipro District State Administration wanted to purchase 306 drums for bomb shelters for a million hryvnias, about 30 radios for 1 million UAH, and air purifiers at a price of 30 thousand UAH each. Also in that district, officials with the involvement of "Servants" from the Kyiv City Council tried to buy "golden vegetable slicers" and construction kits, which caused a huge outcry (and later led to the creation of a city council oversight commission investigating tender crimes).

Earlier, similar multi-million abuses surfaced in other districts of the capital, including Desnianskyi, Obolonskyi, Shevchenkivskyi, and others. According to some media, there is talk behind the scenes of a possible conflict between SN faction head Davyd Arakhamia and Office of the President head Andriy Yermak. It is possible that Arakhamia may be dismissed soon. Earlier, the SN leader in Parliament publicly threatened local officials to "stop stealing."

And to their local deputies, including Andriy Vitrenko, those "above" secretly ordered to engage in sabotage in the Kyiv City Council and to derail deputy proposals (from all factions, not only Klychko’s UDAR) related to funding the capital’s priority programs — social services, the army, healthcare, utilities, "tired" bridges, etc.

What else is known about "Servant" Vitrenko

According to the analytical system YouControl, this elected official recently ceased his entrepreneurial activity. The deputy owns two Toyota RAV jeeps 4 (2019 and 2013 years of manufacture). Note that the price of a new such car starts from 1 million UAH. So, two cars are roughly two million.

As a sole proprietor, Vitrenko engaged in retail trade of clothing, sports equipment, footwear, and leather goods.

The same YouControl records indicate that Andriy Vitrenko is involved in three court cases. In two civil cases he is a defendant. In another he is the plaintiff. According to court materials, Vitrenko has been litigating with the Kyiv City Council for years, waging a real legal war against it, effectively putting sticks in the wheels of the deputy corps. The essence of the case concerns the same powers of the district state administrations that Bankova granted to its appointees in the districts.

As for Vitrenko’s financial motives, light is shed if you look at the civil claim where the deputy is a defendant. The case concerns the recovery of a debt from Vitrenko for a bank loan from a financial institution with foreign capital — the well-known JSC "Credit Agricole Bank." This explains why the "Servant" formally stopped doing business — simply so that bankers would not seize his property and card accounts.

The other civil case concerns divorce. According to the materials of that litigation, the initiator of the divorce was the "Servant"'s wife, Kateryna Vitrenko. Notably, this process began back in 2019, i.e., before the local elections. Perhaps for the sake of politics Andriy Vitrenko decided either to hide his family dramas or, again, formally avoid prosecution over a loan debt, avoiding scandals and revelations. Also, more mundanely — so that the bank would not place a lien on the couple’s joint property.

It is known that Kateryna Vitrenko was previously among the shareholders of the private company JSC "Chernihivrestavratsiya" (she held a stake of 14%).

The company’s authorized capital is 1,4 million UAH. The main type of activity is listed as: "Renting and operating of own or leased real estate."

If you count the state valuation of Kateryna Vitrenko’s shares, her stake in the company amounted to 200 thousand UAH. The market value could have been much higher. Could have, because officially the JSC has gone bankrupt.

It is worth noting that among the company’s activities were construction, construction works, and even stone cutting.

The firm owned one real estate object (a small building on the outskirts of Chernihiv) and two trucks (a ZIL 1971 year of manufacture and a GAZ 2000 year of manufacture).

Over 15 years of operation, the JSC also accumulated significant debt obligations that were ultimately not covered by its profits. In addition, the company had tax debt to the state.

By the way, neither Deputy Vitrenko nor his ex-wife, according to open-source data, apparently own real estate. Which is very strange, since the "Servant" has worked in Kyiv for decades. Obviously, the elected official is hiding something (possibly other multi-million assets, as in the case of his expensive cars). It is hard to believe the story that he and his former "half" became bankrupt homeless people.

What else is known about Vitrenko and his academic dead end

Before entering "big" politics, Vitrenko was engaged in academic work. For 8 years (until 2012) he worked as an assistant in the Department of Economic Theory at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. In 2012–2014 he was an associate professor, and in 2014–2017 he was a doctoral student of that department.

Until 2020 he served as deputy dean for research and international cooperation of the Economics Faculty at KNU named after Shevchenko. He even could have headed this most prestigious university in the country.

According to students, after the contract of the previous rector of KNU named after Shevchenko, Leonid Huberskyi, expired, Vitrenko could have been appointed acting rector. However, because of the student parliament’s stance, the future city council deputy was rejected. Unofficially — due to the scholar’s personal characteristics and administrative resource. It emerged that ahead of the elections-2020 Vitrenko had aggressively pressured students, campaigning for them to support the "Servants of the People."

Despite conflicts with students, Vitrenko managed, thanks to Bankova through a "social elevator," to get a position as deputy to the scandal-plagued Minister of Education Serhiy Shkarlet, who is also called a plagiarist, a corrupt official, and the "father of pseudo-scientists."

That deputy minister’s seat turned out to be so comfortable that Andriy Vitrenko continues to sit on two chairs — in the ministry (now under a new minister) and in the Kyiv City Council.

Thus, the political conflict of interest is obvious: heading one of KCC’s key commissions, Vitrenko receives two official salaries, direct instructions from Shmyhal–Yermak, and allowed (and de facto allows) tens or even hundreds of millions of city funds to be spent on all sorts of vegetable slicers, radios, and drums in the district state administrations.

Therefore, his resignation as head of the budget committee and the stripping of Vitrenko’s mandate is probably only a matter of time. The confrontation between the Kyiv City Council and the "Servant"-corruptionists is only gaining momentum.

It is worth recalling that after the results of the elections-2020 the "Servants" ended up in the minority in Kyiv. Zelensky’s party won only 7,5% of the vote in the capital (just above the passing threshold), sending only 12 deputies to the city council (5 place among the political forces of the new KCC). The SN mayoral candidate — Iryna Vereshchuk — also suffered a dramatic fiasco, receiving 5,44% support and placing 5 among mayoral contenders. Therefore, Vitrenko’s removal from the head of the budget committee by SN would be a logical end to his "big" political career.

As reported, last week after a high-profile scandal over a corrupt tender for a series about Povoroznyuk, the Verkhovna Rada dismissed Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko.

Before that, the Kyiv Regional Council in May-2023 dismissed its chair — SN deputy Nataliya Hunko.

Author: Antonina Zinchenko