For nine years now, political parties in Ukraine have been financed from the state budget. The party that received the majority of votes during the parliamentary elections receives the most funding. Since 2022, more than a billion hryvnias have already been spent on funding the 4 parties that have passed the 5% threshold. Read the article of Komersant ukrainskyi to find out how much each party received and what it spent on during the 2 years of full-scale invasion.
According to the Laws of Ukraine “On the State Budget of Ukraine for 2023” and “On the State Budget of Ukraine for 2022”, UAH 753.4 million and UAH 885.6 million were allocated to finance the parties, respectively.
As a result, in 2023, parties received UAH 703.3 million, and in 2022 – UAH 617.5 million, according to the press service of the YouControl analytical system.
Since the beginning of 2022, such parties as Servant of the People, Fatherland, Voice, European Solidarity, and Opposition Platform – For Life have been funded, although it was later banned, in January 2022 it still managed to receive UAH 33.2 million (25% of the total amount of state funding).
Servant of the People party
The Servant of the People party, which received the majority of votes during the last parliamentary elections, received the most funds from the state budget in 2022-2023. The total amount of revenues for these 2 years was UAH 1.2 billion, of which only UAH 225 was received from two individuals, the rest was public funding.
Over the years, the largest payment by the party was a UAH 130 million payment in 2022 to finance the Armed Forces.
The party also paid almost UAH 89 million to PROFMARKET SERVICE LLC for personnel services. The company is currently in the process of winding up its operations.
The chairman of the liquidation commission, Makarova Valentyna Yuriyivna, is listed in the financial statements of the political party “ Servant of the People” as the chief accountant or other person authorised to sign the statements.
The Servant of the People also paid more than UAH 32 million for renting premises and related services from Akamant LLC. According to media reports, it is this company that provides the Servant of the People with rental services for the Parkovy Exhibition and Convention Centre, where the party has its headquarters.
The party also paid UAH 1.8 million for sublease of premises, over UAH 18.5 million for IT and related services. The party had to pay UAH 5.4 million for the production of video clips and cuts, UAH 6.5 million for information and other services, and almost UAH 7 million for banner advertising on the RBC-Ukraine website.
In addition, over the past two years, the party spent money on project management and legal services.
In January of this year, the NACP press service reported that the Servant of the People had returned almost UAH 49 million of unused budget funds for 2022 to the state budget. This happened after the law renewed financial reporting obligations for Ukrainian political parties in December last year.
Batkivshchyna party
In 2022-2023, the All-Ukrainian Union “Batkivshchyna” received UAH 168.78 million. The bulk of these revenues came from state funding of the party’s activities from the budget.
Individuals also funded the party: in 2022, individual entrepreneur Korzh Valentyna Anatoliivna transferred UAH 65 thousand to the party, in 2023, 7 individuals contributed UAH 32.3 thousand.
The largest amount of money from Batkivshchyna was received by Finkel & Gimpelson Law Firm, which received over UAH 20 million in 2022-2023. The party also paid UAH 13 million to Ecotechprom LLC and UAH 9.7 million to Olena Rybchenko, but the latter still owes the party.
In total, Batkivshchyna’s liabilities amounted to UAH 8.12 million at the end of 2023: RTM-Ukraine LLC – UAH 1.25 million, MC-Finance LLC – UAH 316.86 thousand, etc.
Overall, Batkivshchyna’s liabilities in 2023 increased almost 3 times compared to 2022. Back then, the total debt amounted to UAH 2.92 million.
The largest creditor in 2023 was RTM-Ukraine LLC. At the end of 2022, it had liabilities of more than UAH 340 thousand to EKOTECHPROM LLC, which is a member of MC Finance LLC.
As for Olena Rybchenko, a private entrepreneur, the party’s debt to her is UAH 960 thousand.
Batkivshchyna also paid over UAH 4 million to Ruslan Rusyn, a private entrepreneur, for the protection of offices and premises of local party organisations in 2023. For the same type of services in 2022-2023, another UAH 5.5 million was paid to individual entrepreneur Suprun Serhii Valeriiovych.
Tetiana Saviak received UAH 3.85 million for legal services.
Tetiana Mytrofanska received UAH 6.17 million for event organisation services over two years.
European Solidarity Party
This party received about UAH 303 million in revenues over 2 years. Out of this amount, the party paid over UAH 119 million to the NGO “Solidarity of Communities”.
In 2022, European Solidarity paid UAH 17 million to Pryamyi TV channel and NBM TV and Radio Company (Channel 5). Previously, the beneficiary of these companies was former President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko.
The party also paid UAH 3.4 million for the services of ELITCONSULTING PE. In 2023, more than UAH 2.2 million was received for legal assistance by the LAW CENTRE OF THE XXI CENTURY JSC (one of the company’s members is Rostyslav Sachok, a partner of the company “Alekseev, Boyarchukov and Partners”, one of the founders of which was Serhiy Alekseev, former MP of the 8th convocation from the BPP)
In 2022-2023, almost UAH 1.5 million was paid from the accounts of European Solidarity to the LLC “ENTERPRISE “KYIV”.
“One of the company’s members is NERVOYMIST TA KAPITAL LLC. The beneficiary of the latter is Serhiy Martynenko, a cousin of former MP of the 3rd-7th convocations Mykola Martynenko. In 2022, the party received UAH 4.75 million in contributions in the form of works, goods or services from the Kyiv Enterprise LLC, and the company is the largest creditor of European Solidarity at the end of 2023 with a total liability of UAH 13.5 million,” the Youcontrol report says.
In 2022-2023, Petro Poroshenko also made contributions to the party (UAH 252 thousand) and the Food Company Podillya (almost UAH 4.5 million), whose beneficiary is the politician’s son, Oleksiy Poroshenko.
Party “Voice”
The Voice party received the least amount of money from the state: from 2021 to 2023, its funding was suspended due to violations identified by the NACP and resumed only at the end of 2023.
According to spending.gov.ua, in the first quarter of 2024, the party received almost UAH 29 million from the state.
However, there were still enrolments in the party in 2021-2023: they received more than UAH 200 thousand in total.
In 2023, the party’s expenses also decreased by 22 times, amounting to about UAH 580 thousand, compared to UAH 12.6 million in 2022.
In 2022, the largest total payments from the party’s account were made to OPLATY 24 LLC – UAH 1.97 million and Vasyl Kisil & Partners Law Firm – UAH 1.77 million.
However, the party’s debts have increased – at the end of 2023, the debt of the Voice party increased more than 6,600 times compared to 2022 and amounted to UAH 9.37 million, of which
- uAH 2 million – individual entrepreneur Yurii Hennadiiovych Bohdanov;
- 1.7 million UAH – individual entrepreneur Valeria Kosyak;
- 1.44 – Iryna Sadovnykova, a private entrepreneur.
According to YouControl, all of these people were or may still be associated with the Golos party.