Andriy Vitrenko Figures in Votes on the "Toilet Schemes"

Andriy Vitrenko, first deputy minister of education and science, a deputy of the Kyiv City Council and head of the Servant of the People faction, acknowledged that he met with former Kyiv council deputy Denys Komarnytskyi in an office where NABU conducted covert wiretapping. Vitrenko explained the contacts as political negotiations but denied discussing land and budget matters or any corrupt arrangements.

According to Andriy Vitrenko, as faction leader he needed votes during the Kyiv Council’s work. He claimed that Komarnytskyi had influence over certain UDAR representatives, so contacts with him were political in nature. Among the deputies Vitrenko said he communicated with in this context, he named Volodymyr Prokopiv, Valentyn Mondriievskyi and Dmytro Bilotserkovets, media report. Separately from Vitrenko’s statements, there are records of Kyiv Council votes on land issues. Civic activists analyzed 15 decisions from 2023–2024 that they classified as so-called “toilet schemes.” This refers to a mechanism whereby rights to significant land plots were obtained via small real estate objects, in particular premises used as a formal basis for receiving land without a full auction. According to published counts, Andriy Vitrenko supported 11 of 15 such decisions. Dmytro Bilotserkovets voted “for” in 13 cases, Volodymyr Prokopiv and Valentyn Mondriievskyi — in 11 each. Nine other Kyiv council deputies supported all 15 decisions. These figures describe specific votes but by themselves do not establish Vitrenko’s involvement in organizing or benefiting from the corresponding land transactions. Later Andriy Vitrenko publicly opposed the practice called “toilet schemes” and stated the need to hold land auctions. Thus, his public statements differed from the results of some of the votes that civic activists included in their list. Andriy Vitrenko’s political career began as an aide to Member of Parliament Pavlo Sushko in 2019. In July 2020 he became deputy minister of education and science, and that autumn he was elected a deputy of the Kyiv Council. In December 2020 he joined the Kyiv Council’s budget committee, and in August 2021 he received the post of first deputy minister. On 31 January 2024 he was appointed head of the Kyiv city organization of the Servant of the People party. Separately, claims have appeared publicly about possible connections between Andriy Vitrenko and representatives of the “95 quarter.” Andriy Bohdan called Vitrenko a neighbor and close acquaintance of Yevhen Koshovyi and suggested his involvement in promoting the official. Subsequent publications featured a version of a chain of contacts Koshovyi — Mykola Tyshchenko — Denys Komarnytskyi — Andriy Yermak and possible assistance to Vitrenko’s political career. The cited materials contain no documentary confirmation of this version, and Vitrenko denies it. Vitrenko’s property data are contained in his declaration. In particular, since 2 January 2024 his family has been using free of charge a garden house of 135,4 sq. m that belongs to the official’s father. The value of the object at the date of acquisition of ownership amounted to 2,745 million UAH. The plot under the house has an area of about 721 sq. m.

Vitrenko’s declaration also lists cash holdings. This concerns approximately 20,5 thousand dollars and 3 thousand euros. Andriy Vitrenko’s total income for the relevant reporting period amounted to about 1,3 million UAH. The document also contains information about the family’s real estate and other assets. Another episode that drew attention to Vitrenko’s biography was his PhD thesis “The Market of Advertising Services in a Transformational Economy.” Researchers said that roughly two dozen pages of the work practically verbatim repeat fragments of two Russian-language PhD theses defended in Saint Petersburg in 1999 and in Novosibirsk in 2001. The study materials also note preservation of certain formulations from the original sources. Later Vitrenko earned a doctoral degree. The allegations of possible academic borrowing concern precisely the PhD work of 2005. They do not automatically establish a violation without the appropriate verification procedure and a decision by authorized bodies. A separate area of Vitrenko’s work is connected to the National Military Memorial Cemetery. He is a member of the project’s coordination council. In 2026 it became known about significant budget payments to contractors of the construction. As of July, the consortium Building UA received about 779 million UAH under a contract worth 1,76 billion UAH. Separately, Paritetbudinvest received 19 December 2025 750 million UAH in one payment. The total amount paid to that company at that time amounted to about 778 million UAH under a contract of 1,21 billion UAH. At the same time, the provided materials contain no public evidence of Vitrenko’s involvement in selecting contractors or allocating these funds. In June 2025 the Antimonopoly Committee obliged the state institution “National Military Memorial Cemetery” to cancel its decision naming Paritetbudinvest the winner of the tender for construction of the second phase of the complex. The complaint was filed by Avtostrada, which participated in the procurement procedure. Vitrenko was also involved in other political and legal conflicts in Kyiv. In 2022 he sued the Kyiv Council over district administration, and in 2023 a conflict arose around the powers of Kyiv Council secretary Volodymyr Bondarenko. In the summer of 2025 Vitrenko was named among possible candidates for the post of minister of education. On 13 November 2025 Vitrenko reported that a device for reading information was found in his official car, after which he appealed to law enforcement. This episode became another reason for attention to the activities of an official who simultaneously works in the central executive branch and participates in Kyiv Council decision-making. Meetings between Vitrenko and Denys Komarnytskyi, his voting on some land decisions, participation in the budget committee and work in public administration form a set of facts that have drawn attention to his political activity. At the same time, the available materials do not establish that Andriy Vitrenko received personal benefit from specific land decisions or was involved in allocating funds for the construction of the memorial cemetery.