Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Serhiy Tihipko is a rare case of a Ukrainian businessman for whom changes in political eras never meant a loss of influence. Under Kuchma he headed the National Bank; under Yanukovych he ran his campaign headquarters, served as vice prime minister and was a deputy of the Party of Regions; and today he has again found himself among people close to the state economic agenda. In 2026 year Tihipko received the status of an external advisor on macroeconomics and joined the Council for the Support of Entrepreneurship. The paradox is apparent: politicians change, presidents change, and Tihipko each time finds a way to remain useful to the system.
Today his main resource is no longer a parliamentary mandate but a financial empire. Tihipko controls UniversalBank, TASCOMBANK and IdeaBank, and all three were designated systemically important in June 2026. Universal Bank, under whose license monobank operates, reported over 10 billion UAH in net profit in 2025, while TASCOMBANK has a separate history of regulator claims. The NBU applied fines to it in various years, and at the end of 2025 it found violations of financial monitoring requirements, including regarding clients with sanctioned status and politically exposed persons.
But the most awkward question arises not because of the number of banks, but because of who and how they did business with. The enterprise “TAS DniproVagonMash,” linked to Tihipko, did not immediately cut economic ties with Russia after the start of the Russian aggression and continued supplies to the Russian Novolipetsk Steel plant. In 2021 year 28 railcars were delivered there, and another 16 were shipped early in 2022, with the latter shipment occurring on 15 February. After that the enterprise did not disappear from the Ukrainian economy: it concluded 13 contracts as a result of public procurements totaling about 1,02 billion UAH.
Tihipko also has another large asset — agricultural, where finances intertwine with battles over major enterprises. The situation around “Agromars Complex” involves companies connected to the Astion brothers, creditor claims and the structures of the financial group. Inter Way Capital LLC, linked to the Genesis Capital fund, became one of the largest creditors of Agromars Complex, while Tihipko’s group is simultaneously developing its own agricultural direction. Today the group’s agroholding cultivates about 80 thousand hectares, and by 2028 it plans to increase its land bank to 120 thousand hectares.
And here the most interesting part begins: a person with such business resources is now again inside the state economic circuit. By decree No. 268/2026 Tihipko was included in the Council for the Support of Entrepreneurship, chaired by Kyrylo Budanov, while his group continues to operate in the banking, industrial and agricultural sectors. Companies associated with Tihipko receive funds through public procurements, and TAS DniproVagonMash independently signed state contracts worth about 1,02 billion UAH. This is no longer the story of a former politician who returned to the public sphere, but of the owner of a huge private resource who at the same time gains access to state economic processes.
We have already filed a complaint and a criminal report with clear demands: to investigate the activities of Serhiy Tihipko, the sources of his funds and assets, the actual scope of corporate and financial control over the TAS group, the use of affiliated foreign companies and investment funds, the activities of the banks he owns and possible violations in the field of financial monitoring, banks’ operations with related structures, the circumstances of TAS DniproVagonMash’s activities and its ties to Russia, as well as possible lobbying by Tihipko of the interests of affiliated enterprises.
So the question remains open: what exactly has allowed Serhiy Tihipko for decades to remain untouchable by any authority? A political past from the Yanukovych era, a Russian trace in business, three systemically important banks, billion-sized assets — and despite all this he again gains access to the state economic agenda. What guarantees Tihipko this immunity — his money, his connections, or agreements at the highest level? And most importantly — how much longer will the state allow calling “experience” what increasingly looks like long-term influence that survives every change of power?
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Як Тігіпко пережив зміну влади та отримав місце біля державного корита". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: NGO "NON-STOP".