NGL.media continues to analyze the misuse of Shliakh system, this time focusing on local council members who left Ukraine as volunteers and never returned. Some of them stayed in neighboring Poland, others ended up in the United States, and some of the deputies have been collecting “humanitarian aid” around the world for many months – only it has never reached Ukraine.
Of course, these are not all local MPs who left the country after the invasion, as there are many other ways to leave the country, besides “Shliakh”. In the course of our investigation, we found those who left in other ways: be it chaperoning of family members with disability (let’s recall Dmytro Kopanchuk, son of MP Olena Kopanchuk) or letters from border guards.
Some deputies from our investigation have already asked their councils to recall them and stopped being deputies. Still, there are also those who continue to retain this status, despite never participating in meetings with their colleagues or joining them via audio or video connection. There are, however, some local councils that have never convened since the full-scale invasion.
If a deputy misses more than a half of local council meetings during a year without an admissible excuse, it is a reason to initiate his recall and unseating. The local council may also submit such a proposal to the local branch of the party from which the deputy was elected, or the party branch may initiate the recall itself. There is also a possibility to recall a deputy at the initiative of voters.
* all information regarding male deputies in this articles is relevant as of mid-September 2023
Deputes on remote
On the morning of January 31 this year, Vitalii Abramov, a 31-year-old deputy of the Kharkiv Regional Council, left the country. He managed to cross the border without any problems, as the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration registered him as a volunteer in the Shliakh information system. The car that Abramov used to leave the country returned to Ukraine the same day, but without him.
Vitaliy Abramov was elected to the regional council as a member of the now-banned pro-Russian party Opposition Platform For Life (OPFL), but in the spring of 2022, according to Suspilne, he left the party faction. At the time of the election, he worked at the department of the State Architectural and Construction Inspectorate in Kharkiv region, and before that, as a private entrepreneur, he received small budget orders. This year, the meetings of the Kharkiv Regional Council have been held via videoconferencing and, according to the documents, Vitalii Abramov participated in them.
We did not manage to talk to Vitalii Abramov despite the fact that his fellow deputies provided his phone number. The regional council responded to NGL.media’s official request with an excuse that our electronic request did not have a signature.
We found out that Abramov was registered in the Shliakh system by Kharkiv RMA. The first time was on August 10, 2022, at the request of the Sargis Davtyan Charitable Foundation, and the second time happened on November 9, 2022, at the request of the “Aid to Ukrainians 2022” Charitable Foundation. The latter permit was valid until January 31, 2023, which was the day Abramov left. To prove the deputy’s volunteer activities, Vladyslav Rostokian, head of the “Aid to Ukrainians 2022” foundation, sent NGL.media a copy of the declaration for 50 tourniquets imported by Abramov. Judging from the stamp on this document, Abramov imported these tourniquets on January 23, i.e. before his final departure from the country. We asked Rostokian to clarify the date when the tourniquets were brought into the country, but we did not receive any explanation for several weeks.
Another Abramov’s colleague in OPFL, Maksym Kryvda, a 35-year-old deputy of the Novomoskovsk District Council in the Dnipropetrovsk region, according to our source in the State Border Guard Service, left the country in December 2012. He left by train as a volunteer with a permit from the Dnipro Regional Military Administration, according to which, he was supposed to return by January 15.
The following day Kruvda took part in the session. he and 11 more deputies connected through audio communication.
Kryvda’s mobile phone number is currently out of service, and he isn’t responding to emails. And the head of the Novomoskovsk district council, Serhii Khrapov, told NGL.media that he had not seen him since December last year. Some of the deputies with whom NGL.media spoke also confirmed that he did not appear in person at the council this year.
In 2021, Maksym Kryvda worked as the director of the Marianivske utility company of the Hubynivka village council, Dnipro region for three months. According to YouControl, as of 2022, he also headed the local branch of the OPFL in Dnipro.
Another active deputy of the Kharkiv District Council, Stanislav Lebedev, 39, also used a train to cross the border, our source at State Border Guard Service of Ukraine reported. He left Ukraine in November 2022 and disappeared. Lebedev, who became an MP from the OPFL, indicated in his declaration that he was unemployed and had no income, the Kharkiv Anti-Corruption Center reported . In 2021, Lebedev did manage to find a job, and it was a managerial position. He was appointed director of the “Pidzemne Misto” utility company, where he worked for a little more than a year.
Stanislav Lebedev
Stanislav Lebedev was added to the Shliakh system by the Ministry of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure of Ukraine. All of his phone numbers we found are no longer active, and the district council reported that Lebedev did not attend any of the sessions held in 2022-2023, and did not submit an application for resignation either.
Ihor Semenikhin, a 43-year-old priest and deputy of the Kherson District Council from the European Solidarity party, left the country even before that, in September 2022. He left on the very first day of the permit issued by the Kherson Regional Military Authority. Semenikhin was supposed to return by September 27, but something went wrong and he disappeared. Presently the deputy’s phone is out of range, and he does not respond to messages in messengers, although he seems to be quite active on his Facebook page.
Ihor Semenikhin
The deputy chair of the Kherson district council, Yurii Mariiev, told NGL.media that since the full-scale Russian invasion, the council has not met (which is understandable), and that Ihor Semenikhin was absent from the last meeting on February 23, 2022. In general, Mariev describes his colleague positively: “He is a very decent person, he has always been in favor of supporting our army.
For many years, Ihor Semenikhin worked as a military chaplain у at the State Border Guard Service, although he did not officially serve. Shortly before leaving Ukraine, Semenikhin visited the military bringing fruit, which he mentioned on Facebook. And in November 2022, he published a photo with his 21-year-old son Mykola, who appears to live in Chicago. “A long-awaited encounter,” Semenikhin captioned the photo, so he probably went to visit his son in the US.
According to our sources among the border guards, 46-year-old deputy of the Soledar City Council Serhiy Petrov also went abroad in March this year. In early 2023, he became the subject of a report by Suspilne. According to the story, Petrov worked for 25 years at the state-owned enterprise Artemsil, and after the invasion started, he moved with his family to Dnipro, and from there to Pavlohrad, where he began working at a mine.
Serhii Petrov
A month after the publication of this report, Serhii Petrov left Ukraine – he was entered into the Shlyakh system by the Volyn Regional Military Administration. And in September 2023 Petrov posted a picture wis his daughter on social media.
Serhii Petrov did not respond to NGL.media’s message. The Soledar City Council reported that they didn’t hold meetings because of the hostilities, but refused to share Petrov’s contacts. The Volyn Regional Military Administration claims that the charitable foundation “We Believe in Ukraine” asked to include Petrov in the “Shliakh”, so they gave such permission, but allowed him to leave for a maximum of two weeks.. Anatoliy Shvab, the head of the “We Believe in Ukraine” foundation, said that he remembered a request from a military unit for which Petrov was supposed to bring a car. But he did not remember how it ended, nor does he remember the name of the military unit.
Artem Sunduchnikov, a 36-year-old deputy of the Dobropillya City Council in Donetsk Oblast from “Poriadok”, the party with a mixed reputation, left for abroad in March 2023 on the basis of a decision by the Zhytomyr Regional Military Administration. They say they issued the permit at the request of St. Michael’s Cathedral in Zhytomyr. OCU priest Bohdan Boyko confirmed that this happened. According to him, Artem Sunduchnikov himself asked to be included in the “Shliakh”. The church distributes food for IDPs, so Sunduchnikov was supposed to bring food, but after receiving permission, he simply disappeared.
We didn’t manage to find out where Artem Sunduchnikov is now. The deputy’s phones are out of reach.
During the war, the deputies of the Dobropillya City Council do not meet and do not make decisions, the reception of the city council told NGL.media. All decisions are made personally by Andrii Bondarenko, the head of the Dobropillya city military administration.
“Artem Sunduchnikov worked as the head of the Dobro heat supply utility company in parallel with his deputy position. He resigned on the day I was appointed [September 7, 2022], so we never worked together. After the new director of the utility was appointed, he had questions for Sunduchnikov, but no one could find him. And as a deputy, I did not work with him either,” Andrii Bondarenko said in his comment to NGL.media.
Seven former deputies
Another seven local council members not only went abroad, but also resigned their deputy powers. That is, they decided not to even pretend to be interested in the future of the communities that elected them.
For example, in the Ternopil region, Nazarii Pyptyk, a 36-year-old deputy of the Chortkiv City Council from the “Syla Liudei” party and former head of the Chortkiv municipal guard, wrote a letter of resignation on January 26, 2023, and three days later he crossed the border as a volunteer, our sources say. Already on February 6, Pyptyk’s colleagues voted for his resignation and expelled him from the Standing Committee on Deputy Ethics and Rule of Law. We didn’t manage to get his comment.
Nazarii Pyptyk
Nazarii Pyptyk was entered into the Shlyakh system by the Kyiv Military District Administration, which claims that he was supposed to return by February 26.
“A military unit applied with a letter to grant Nazarii Pyptyk permission to leave Ukraine under the Shlyakh system,” said Serhii Biletsky, deputy head of the Kyiv Military District Military Administration, in response to NGL.media’s request.
In February 2023, the mayor of Chortkiv, Volodymyr Shmatko, recorded a video address in which he reported that several city council officials, including Nazarii Pyptyk, had left the country. According to him, Nazarii Pyptyk resigned from his job shortly before going abroad.
“I thank Nazarii: He has been with us dozens of times in the east and dozens of times abroad. Now we also have information that he left via the humanitarian route provided by other volunteer organizations… He is collecting humanitarian aid and plans to return. I don’t know when it will be and where he is now. But he wrote to me that he will return to Chortkiv in the near future and will continue to help us and the Armed Forces,” Shmatko said at the time.
Almost ten months have passed since the mayor of Chortkiv said this, but Pyptyk has not returned to Ukraine with the promised humanitarian aid. Now, in a conversation with NGL.media, Volodymyr Shmatko assures that although Pyptyk remained abroad, he still sends some aid to the local charity foundation “Pokrova Chortkiv”.
The head of this foundation, priest Andriy Levkovych, told NGL.media that during the entire period of his stay abroad, Nazarii Pyptyk transferred UAH 12,000 to the foundation’s account, but did not send any humanitarian aid.
According to the results of the nominal votes, votes, Serhii Pashyn, a 37-year-old deputy of the OPFL in Boryspil City Council in Kyiv Oblast, also missed all the session meetings this year. At the time of the 2020 elections, he worked as the first deputy head of the Bila Tserkva local prosecutor’s office, but, according to YouControl, he submitted a declaration before his dismissal that year. According to NGL.media’s source in the State Border Guard Service, he went abroad in April 2022 using the Shlyakh system.
Serhii Pashyn
The local MP from the Kyiv region was included in the Shlyakh system by the Chernivtsi RMA at the request of the “World of the Future” charitable foundation.. According to the head of the foundation, Alla Zorii, Serhii Pashyn is still helping them. “He is abroad, fully organizing all the help, looking for finances and donors. I last saw him abroad about a month ago. And I was told that a few weeks ago he was in Ukraine, but I was not there,” said Alla Zorii. She promised to pass on a request for comment and NGL.media’s phone numbers to him, but we never received a call from Pashyn.
It seems that he could not decide for a long time whether he wanted to continue to be a deputy in Boryspil. The city council reported that in August, Pashyn first filed an application for early termination of his deputy powers, but then withdrew it. However, at a meeting on November 10, the deputies of the Boryspil City Council already stripped all deputies from the OPFL, including Pashyn, of their powers.
The last post on Serhii Pashyn’s Facebook page
dates back to March 30 last year. After a journalist from NGL.media contacted him in a personal message, he blocked her and closed his profile.
A 54-year-old deputy of the Pokrovsky District Council in Kryvyi Rih from the Vilkul’s Ukrainian Perspective Bloc, Yurii Krasnozhon, who was the deputy chair of the council, left the country in January 2023. Krasnozhon crossed the border at the Rava-Ruska-Hrebenne border crossing point in Lviv region and, according to our sources, has not returned to Ukraine as of mid-September.
Yurii Krasnozhon
It is likely that Krasnozhon is in Poland now. He was able to leave the country thanks to an order from the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration. They informed that he was permitted to travel abroad three times. He did leave the country several times and returned. The last permit was valid until January 26, 2023, the day he left and did not return.
In summer, local journalists wrote that Yurii Krasnozhon was on unpaid leave. According to the information the district council provided in response to a request from NGL.media, in January-August this year, Krasnozhon did not attend council meetings, and was given eight paid and unpaid leaves. And in August, he was finally deprived of his powers as a deputy.
Svyatoslav Kutsenko, a 40-year-old deputy of the Bucha district council in Kyiv region from the Batkivshchyna party, went abroad with the permission of the Ministry of Infrastructure and, according to our information, has not returned. Kutsenko has quite controversial reputation: he voted for scandalous decisions, and in 2017 he was stripped of his deputy powers in the Irpin City Council.
Sviatoslav Kutsenko
In January 2023, Kutsenko crossed the border by car at the Krakovets-Korchova border crossing point with Poland. His phone number is currently out of service, and the district council told NGL.media that in February Kutsenko joined the session via video conference, but was absent from the following meeting in May. The deputy’s powers were terminated early in August at his request.
Borys Dovbeta, a 43-year-old deputy of the Zolochiv district council from the “Strength and Honor” party in Lviv region, left Ukraine through the “Shliakh” system in April last year, thanks to the request from the Zolochiv district council to the Lviv Regional Military Administration. His permit was valid until May 6, 2022, Lviv RMA said.
Borys Dovbeta
According to Orest Kavetsky, head of the Zolochiv district council, Dovbeta used to deliver humanitarian aid from abroad, so the district council asked the RMA to let him go abroad. Kavetsky informed that Dovbeta wrote an application to be deprived of his mandate, and in June of this year, his request was granted. No one knows where Dovbeta is now. “I have not communicated with him since he went abroad,” Orest Kavetsky told NGL.media.
Last summer, Vitalii Dorokhin, a 47-year-old deputy of the Dniprovsky District Council from the Servant of the People party, also went abroad with the permission of the Ministry of Infrastructure. According to documents on the council’s website, the deputy was regularly absent from council meetings.
Vitalii Dorokhin
Council chair Maksym Leshchenko said that on June 2 this year, Dorokhin wrote a letter of resignation and his powers were terminated early in September.
Roman Reznik, 32, who was elected to the Saksahansk District Council of Kryvyi Rih from the Servant of the People party, also resigned his seat early. “The council considered his application, and he was removed from the deputy corps. Another deputy has already taken his place,” said Vasyl Starovoit, chair of the district council.
Roman Reznik
It turned out that Roman Reznik left the country in August last year, and he was deprived of his parliamentary mandate this summer. According to Ukrtransbezpeka, Roman Reznik was entered into the Shlyakh system by the Lviv RMA and left the very next day after receiving the permit. The request for Reznik’s departure was filed with the Lviv Regional Traffic Police by the public organization “Theatre Khlib” from Mykolaiv, Lviv Oblast. We would like to remind you that “Theatre Khlib” and the local branch of Prosvita linked with it were on top of the list of organizations involved in the escape of the largest number of men through the “Shliakh”. Later it turned out that these organizations were headed by Natalia Mukha, 34, who is close with the Lviv RMA head`s family.