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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Kharkiv National University named after V. N. Karazin is approaching the finish of another election campaign for the position of rector. As reported by the local outlet Kharkiv 1654 in Instagram, in the second round the key struggle will unfold between the current rector Tetyana Kahantsovska and the dean of the physics faculty Ruslan Vovk.
According to the outlet, (we quote): “Among the candidates are two people with fundamentally different experience, origins, and visions for the university’s development.” In the post, Ruslan Vovk is presented as a scientist, an academic, and Tetyana Kahantsovska as the acting rector who has interesting family ties.
The editorial team and StopKor analysts looked more closely into the background of each candidate. And here is what we found.
Tetyana Kahantsovska: the legacy of Kushnarov and accusations of plagiarism.
The acting rector Kahantsovska defeated in the previous elections in 2021 year. According to data cited by the media “Gordon,” her victory was greeted by then Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova.
Kahantsovska is the daughter of the late Yevhen Kushnarov — former Kharkiv mayor, head of the Kharkiv regional state administration and head of the Presidential Administration during the times of Leonid Kuchma. As the outlet “Fakty” writes, Yevhen Kushnarov was an influential ally of Viktor Yanukovych in the Party of Regions, and his sudden death while hunting in 2007 year still raises many questions.
Her declaration can be viewed in the open YouControl registry.
The most notable detail in the property section of the declaration is two apartments acquired in ownership 31 January 2025 year, worth 3 687 700 UAH (61,2 m²) and 6 130 850 UAH (86,8 m²) respectively. Notably, in the income section the same sums appear as “compensation for damaged/destroyed property,” received from the Ministry for Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine — meaning this is not a purchase with own funds, but a government compensation, presumably linked to the loss of real estate due to hostilities.
In addition to these two apartments, Kahantsovska declares another apartment in Kharkiv (112,5 m², in joint partial ownership with Kushnarov family members), several land plots, and an unfinished residential building of area 850 m².
Among valuable movable property for the declarant are a Mercedes-Benz CLS 450 2018 year of manufacture worth over 3,1 million UAH, two wristwatches by Breguet, a Rolex watch, and two diamond jewelry sets (earrings, pendant, ring).
Cash savings declared in several currencies: 180 000 UAH, 19 000 euros and over 10 000 US dollars in cash, as well as funds on bank accounts in hryvnias, euros and dollars.
The family’s main source of wealth is the husband’s business. He owns corporate rights in at least seven companies: in particular 99,51% in “AS Capital Management” (valued at 5,66 million UAH), 99% in “Stedi Plus” (21,8 million UAH — the largest asset in the list), 21,68% in “Balakliyskyi Shifer Zavod” (5,72 million UAH), as well as stakes in companies “Spot Technologies,” “Resto-Master” and others. For the reported year, the husband’s income from entrepreneurial activity was 6,4 million UAH — significantly higher than the official rector’s salary at Karazin University (1,3 million UAH).
Among financial obligations is a repayable financial assistance from the husband in the amount of 3 million UAH, received from citizen Kahantsovska Polina Oleksandrivna, presumably a relative of the couple.
On the eve of the elections 2021 year, media reported on a possible plagiarism in Kahantsovska’s dissertation. As the outlet Liga.net reported, the relevant materials supposedly were provided to journalists by a group of Ukrainian scientists who demanded anonymity.
It is worth noting that this concerns a source’s information under anonymity, not an official conclusion of the authorized body on academic integrity, so these statements have the status of assumptions, not established facts.
Husband of the rector, Oleksandr Kahantsovskyi, according to the Dumka.media outlet, is the owner of the company “AS Capital Management” and has interests in the construction business, wholesale trade (the “Budmen” chain), the cinema network “Kinoland,” as well as in real estate and holding structures. Up to 2018 year, media interests could have included media — television channel “R1” and the newspaper “Vechirniy Kharkiv.”
Additionally, Oleksandr Kahantsovskyi is a member of the Supervisory Board of KhNU named after Karazin. Could this create a potential conflict of interest given his wife’s leadership position at the same university? The question remains open.
Ruslan Vovk: the image of the “scientist from the people.”
Dean of the physics faculty Ruslan Vovk is not new to rector elections either: according to the outlet Kharkiv.2day, he already ran in previous elections but did not advance to the second round.
His official biography on Wikipedia and the physics faculty page describe the career path of a professional scientist — from student and engineer to dean of the faculty.
Publicly available media sources currently do not record confirmed corruption scandals or official materials from law enforcement against Mr. Vovk.
Information about a private business or individual entrepreneur registered to him in open access is also absent.
At the same time, during this and the previous election campaigns, media discourse actively circulated the thesis that Vovk allegedly grew up in a family of ordinary workers — this narrative emphasized the image of a self-made person who reached the position of dean through hard work.
However, according to the official biography on Wikipedia, the scientist was born in the city of Zmiiv in a family of an artist, which does not fully align with the circulating version about a “workers’ origin.”
The use by Vovk’s supporters of information that is not entirely reliable and perhaps somewhat manipulative in the campaign (in contrast to the narratives about Kahantsovska as the “daughter of Kushnarov,” the “wife of a businessman”) leads to the impression that the candidate’s sterile media image may have been carefully constructed and differ from his real biography.
What next?
StopKor calls Kharkiv residents — and primarily students and the university’s teaching, scientific staff — to inform the editors about known facts of activity or potential violations by both candidates on social networks or through our chat-bot. source confidentiality of information sources is guaranteed.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Каразінський університет обирає ректора: спадщина Кушнарьова vs легенда про ”просте походження”?". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: NARDEP 24.
