Lifestyle Blog: Poroshenko family does Ice Bucket Challenge

The video
of the president’s family doing the Ice Bucket Challenge popped up on the morning on Sept. 3 on the
official Facebook page of President Petro Poroshenko.

Ukraine’s first lady Maryna Poroshenko and her three younger kids, Yevheniya, Oleksandra and
Mykhailo, filmed their ice water showers listing the names of those who they nominate
and the people who nominated them. The video was evidently shot on the lawn in Poroshenko’s mansion in Kozyn village near Kyiv.

Remarkably, the first lady was actually nominated thrice. Daria Shapovalova, the
founder of Kiev Fashion Days, nominated her on Aug. 22, the Culture Minister of Ukraine Yevhen Nishchuk did so on Aug. 31 and Poroshenko’s own son Mykhailo, 13, who did the challenge right before her.

In her video, Poroshenko mentions only nominations she received from her son and Nyshchuk.

Following the challenge rules, each of the president’s family members nominated three people to do the challenge. Most of the
nominates were family’s friends. Yevheniya
Poroshenko, 14, nominated the front man of the music band TIK, Viktor Bronyuk, as well.
The nominates of Maryna Poroshenko are Natalia Zabolotna, director of Mystetsky Arsenal art center, TV news anchor Yana Konotop and famous Ukrainian fashion designer, Viktoria Gres, who designed one of the first lady’s inauguration day dresses.
Now the nominees have 24 hours to get wet.

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In the end
of the video the family fills in the bank invoices to transfer the
money to charity. Poroshenko’s Facebook post says the money was donated to the Volonterska Sotnya volunteer movement.

However, on the video the kids say they were going to also donate to the ALS foundation – the organization that made the challenge viral in the first place. In Ukraine, most challenge participants donate to either Ukrainian army or Tabletochki, the foundation raising money for children with cancer.

President Poroshenko himself has not been caught doing Ice Bucket Challenge yet. Although he was
nominated on Aug. 24 by Artur Orujaliev, chief editor of AIN.UA, and Aleksey
Malitskiy, the founder of the Ukrainian socks brand Sammy Icon.

Kyiv Post staff writer Bozhena Sheremeta can be reached at [email protected].