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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
27 dollars instead of thousands of hryvnias: how Hasidim in Uman pay the tourist fee through an Israeli website
If the Tax Code of Ukraine requires daily payment of the tourist fee according to a precise mathematical formula, in Uman during Rosh Hashanah their own laws of physics and finance traditionally apply. While city officials on camera quote the legal rules about a percentage of the minimum wage, tens of thousands of pilgrims calmly enter the city with promotional tickets costing 27 dollars, paid on a foreign website bearing the city council’s coat of arms, which suddenly disappears from the web after the holiday. Instead of filling the city treasury with millions of hryvnias for cleaning and infrastructure, the authorities philosophically shrug: allegedly, better a bird in the hand on an unknown account than trying to force guests to live by Ukrainian law.
What’s wrong with the tourist fee in Uman? Hasidim are being offered to pay for the right to stay in a Ukrainian city through… an Israeli website, notes the publication “Glavkom.”
At the beginning of September, about 50 thousand pilgrims came to Uman to celebrate Rosh Hashanah. The Chief Rabbi of Ukraine, Moshe Reuven Asman, said that during the holiday period pilgrims paid 25 million hryvnias of tourist fee into the city budget.
According to city authorities, this year the official rate for foreigners in Uman is:
216,18 UAH/day – in hotels, hostels, and other hotel-type establishments;
432,35 UAH/day – in apartments, buildings and rooms.
The tourist fee is a local tax paid for each day of stay in the city. The local council sets the fee rate. For foreigners it can be up to 5% of the minimum wage per day of stay. In 2026 the maximum rate was 432,35 UAH.
To ensure the tourist fee goes to the local budget, it is collected through a tax agent, one of which in Uman is the municipal enterprise “Komunalnyk.” The fee can be paid by bank transfer, via the Privat24 app, self-service terminals, POS terminals, or by SWIFT transfer. When paying the tax, the pilgrim indicates the number of days of stay. After that they receive a receipt with a QR code, which allows them to enter the city through checkpoints.
In response to journalists’ inquiries, Uman authorities described payment methods for the tourist fee. But somehow they “forgot” about one more…
There is, however, another path. In August of this year, Bratslav Hasidic organizations began distributing announcements urging people to pay the tourist fee at a fixed price – $27 for the entire period of stay. That is, regardless of how many days you spend in Uman, you can pay only this amount. Although, according to the law, the fee should be calculated per day of stay. For example, for six nights in the private sector a pilgrim should have paid 2594 UAH, whereas through the online service offered by Bratslav Hasidim – about 1161 UAH.
Hasidim are being offered to pay the tourist fee online for a fixed amount below the official rate
photo: glavcom.ua
“Glavkom” investigated who organized this unprecedentedly generous offer for pilgrims, how the scheme works, and how much the local budget might miss out on.
Why the tourist fee for Hasidim amounts to $27
The Union of Bratslav Hasidim offers pilgrims to pay fixed $27 for the entire Rosh Hashanah period through the site aumantax.com. The organization claims that this payment method for the tourist fee is agreed with the Uman City Council. After entering personal data and paying, a person receives an electronic code that must be presented during checks when entering the city. If a pilgrim did not prepay the fee via the site, on-site they are offered to pay $45.
The site aumantax.com was created by the organization “Ichud Breslov” back in August 2023. Already then, representatives of the Breslov community published instructions on paying the tourist fee specifically through this site.
“Ichud Breslov” is responsible for organizing Hasidic pilgrims’ stays in Uman and takes care of the complex near Rabbi Nachman’s grave.
“Glavkom” sent a request to the municipal enterprise “Komunalnyk,” which is the tax agent for the tourist fee in Uman. Journalists asked whether the enterprise has official arrangements with the Union of Bratslav Hasidim or the site aumantax.com, where funds for tourist-fee payments are sent and how they are credited to the city budget. The editorial also asked to explain how the fee amount was calculated for pilgrims who now pay fixed $27 for the entire stay, and whether the enterprise considers the electronic confirmation with a code after payment on the foreign site aumantax.com an official document confirming payment of the tourist fee.
We note immediately that the municipal enterprise did not provide any concrete answers to the questions posed.
Because of this, journalists called the director of “Komunalnyk,” Stanislav Nazarov, directly. He also refused to comment by phone and advised to re-submit a written request to the enterprise, despite the previous request having been effectively ignored.
The Union of Bratslav Hasidim on its resources claims there is an agreement with Uman authorities regarding payment of the tourist fee
screenshot: aumantax.com
During online registration the site asks for pilgrims’ personal data
screenshot: aumantax.com
At the same time, aumantax.com states that the proposed payment mechanism will avoid queues and speed up pilgrims’ entry into the city. It also appears that the online collection resource only operates during the pilgrimage. As of mid-September it was already inactive, and users with questions were redirected to the Bratslav Hasidim’s email.
As of 15 September the site aumantax.com is inactive
screenshot: aumantax.com
“Glavkom” sought explanations from Uman city authorities. However, officials’ explanations were also very contradictory.
Uman Mayor Iryna Pletnyova, who is now fighting to keep her position in the courts, when asked by “Glavkom” where the offer of a fixed sum $27 came from and whether the city changed the tourist-fee rate, replied by quoting the law: “The rate of the tourist fee is established as a percentage relative to the size of the minimum wage, as clearly provided by law. The minimum wage changes and the amount of the tourist fee is automatically recalculated. This is a mathematical formula provided by legislation, and we cannot arbitrarily influence this process.”
First Deputy Mayor of Uman Oleg Hanich in a comment to “Glavkom” also began from afar. He first explained that the official tourist fee depends on the type of accommodation and the length of stay. But he eventually admitted that $27 did not appear out of nowhere: “Since the minimum pilgrimage period is three days, we asked the system developers to set a minimum payment for three to four days.” But regarding statements about an agreement between the Uman city council and Bratslav Hasidim, the deputy mayor said literally: “A lot can be written on a fence.”
However, on the Bratslav Hasidim’s YouTube channel you can still find a video from 2024 year in which the same Oleg Hanich effectively promotes the Hasidim’s online resource and explains that pilgrims can pay the tourist fee two weeks before arriving in the city. In the two-year-old video, the deputy mayor claimed that in that case the fee would be reduced to $27.
On the Bratslav Hasidim’s YouTube channel you can still find a video from 2024 year in which Oleg Hanich effectively promotes the Hasidim’s online resource
The deputy mayor could no longer comment on that video with the line “a lot can be written on a fence.” He explained to “Glavkom” that the city did establish a minimum period and essentially set that same amount of $27 as the minimum payment so pilgrims would not cheat on length of stay: “When a pilgrim pays the fee, they enter and fill in the length of stay. And they can fill it in as if they will be in Uman for one day. But we understand that this is not so. Therefore we asked the programmers who made the site to make the payment for a minimum of three days of pilgrimage. I don’t know what other site exists, we have the official Uman city site. Since there are almost no official hotels within the pilgrimage area, we began to collect at least something. When I took office, I took this issue under control, and we raised the tourist fee already to 25 million UAH.”
Commenting on a video where he urges Hasidim to pay a fee of $27, Oleg Hanich explained that pilgrims had to be forced to pay at least something: “All the rabbis resisted, so as not to pay. So we made it clear: you won’t enter the city until you pay. Well, thank God, they began to pay. All official payments go through the municipal enterprise ‘Komunalnyk’ as the tax agent. The money only goes there and is transferred to the city budget within a month. This practice has been in place for more than one year.”
According to Hanich, the mayor’s office even appealed to rabbis and representatives of Hasidic organizations asking them to remind pilgrims of the Torah’s requirement to obey the laws of the country they visit.
“As for warnings that some Hasidic organizations collect the tourist fee through their own unofficial channels, I understand who pours oil on the fire and I always say this: if you can collect more, then come and do it,” the deputy mayor said.
At the same time, Hanich still did not directly answer whether the city council has any agreements with the site aumantax.com and whether funds paid through it are received by Uman’s community budget.
Is a Hasidic organization collecting the tourist fee in Uman?
People’s Deputy Anton Yatsenko, elected to parliament from the district centered on Uman, told “Glavkom” that in 2025 funds were not going to the account of “Komunalnyk,” but rather to the account of Echod Breslev – a structure linked to Bratslav Hasidim in Uman. According to him, it was through this structure that payments from pilgrims paying the tourist fee via the mentioned site aumantax.com were accepted. The MP, who now actively exposes Uman’s leadership, said that last year about 12 thousand pilgrims paid the fixed-rate tourist fee of $27 through that site.
Yatsenko also recalled that in 2025 there were on-site points near the checkpoints where pilgrims could pay the tourist fee in cash. He said that personnel at the blockposts were instructed to let people through based on receipts from aumantax.com. At the same time, money, the deputy claims, was not paid to the city’s official tax agent. This, he says, explains the city council representatives’ reluctance to comment on the situation.
The online platform offers to pay the tourist fee at a price of $27
photo: glavcom.ua
Yatsenko notes that this practice of paying the tourist fee in Uman has already attracted the attention of NABU detectives: on 17 October 2025 they launched a pretrial investigation in a criminal proceeding under part 2 of article 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine regarding possible abuses by officials of the Uman City Council and the municipal enterprise “Komunalnyk.” However, there is currently no information about any charges being brought as part of this investigation.
The Hasidim site states there is an agreement between the Uman city council and the Hasidic organization on payment of the tourist fee
screenshot: aumantax.com
For his part, Uman Deputy Mayor Oleg Hanich admitted the city has a problem controlling pilgrims’ lengths of stay: “To control whether a pilgrim stayed longer than the period for which they paid the tourist fee is extremely difficult. Of course, none of the foreigners want to overpay, but it is almost impossible to keep each person under control.” He said it’s better that they at least pay something, even if less.
In Kyiv, Odesa and Lviv the tourist-fee rate for foreigners in 2026 was 1% of the minimum wage – 86,47 UAH per day of stay.
According to the State Tax Service, in January–May of 2026 local budgets received 161,8 million UAH in tourist fees. Kyiv received 34,7 million UAH in that period, Lviv region – 32,2 million UAH, Ivano-Frankivsk region – 27,8 million UAH, Zakarpattia – 14,7 million UAH.
Where the tourist-fee money might go
To give the resource aumantax.com an official appearance, it even displayed the Uman city council’s coat of arms. However, a source “Glavkom” spoke to, familiar with Hasidic pilgrimages to Uman and the legal support for such tourists, explained on condition of anonymity: that’s only a façade. Funds received through the site likely go abroad, and the city budget receives not a single kopiyka from them.
“Last year it was exactly the same story: the same resource, the same information and even the same amount – $27. It looks like there is a certain Hasidic site through which the tourist fee is paid, the money goes to an Israeli company outside Ukraine, and the Uman city budget receives nothing from the transfers to that site. The pilgrim receives payment confirmation with a QR code and comes to Uman and passes control. At checkpoints foreigners use scanners and their own program to scan QR codes, confirming that the person supposedly paid the tourist fee. But this person paid the fee not according to the law, but transferred $27 to who knows where. At the same time they are calmly allowed into the area,” the source told the publication.
During Rosh Hashanah in Uman Israeli police together with Ukrainian law enforcement patrol the area where Bratslav Hasidim stay
photo: Cherkasy Police
The source recalled that according to Ukrainian law part of the tourist fee must be paid through hotels. At the same time, in Uman, he said, only a few hotels officially operate, so that collection model effectively does not work.
For legal payment last year the State Agency for Tourism Development created a special payment system for pilgrims that allows payment of the tourist fee in advance, before arriving in the city. On the agency’s website it is specifically emphasized: payments through third-party sites do not replace the tourist fee calculated according to the established rate.
That warning is not accidental: shadow schemes for collecting funds from pilgrims in Uman have flourished for years. By the end of 2024 the Cherkasy police were investigating a criminal case on possible embezzlement of funds that should have gone to the local budget from tourist fees paid by foreign tourists who arrived in Uman to celebrate Rosh Hashanah in September 2023. There is currently no information on how that investigation concluded.
At the same time, the court register contains other mentions of abuses by Uman officials during Rosh Hashanah. In particular, in September 2025 the court closed a criminal case against the former director of the municipal enterprise “Komunalnyk,” who was accused of receiving an illicit benefit. According to the case materials, back in September 2017 the official received an illicit benefit from an entrepreneur for granting permission and a place for trading in the area of mass presence of Hasidic pilgrims. Then the amount in question was… $200.
The court closed the criminal case against the former head of “Komunalnyk.” Screenshot: Unified State Register of Court Decisions
Despite this, the case dragged on for eight years and ultimately the court released the accused from criminal liability due to the expiration of the five-year statute of limitations, and the proceeding was closed. The former official himself never admitted guilt in committing the crime.
Author: Mark Lyubarov
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "27 доларів замість тисяч гривень: як в Умані хасиди сплачують туристичний збір через ізраїльський сайт". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: ANTIKOR.
