President Volodymyr Zelensky came to power calling for transparency and direct democracy, ideas that resonated with Ukrainians sick and tired of politics-as-usual. On May 16, days before his inauguration, the comedic actor-turned-politician told the media that he wants to select regional governors through a transparent procedure.
Since assuming office, Zelensky fired the governors of 20 out of 24 oblasts. Most of them were appointed by his predecessor Petro Poroshenko.
Then, on June 26, the names of eight potential governors picked by Zelensky leaked. Several had controversial track records — businesses in unrecognized states, close family members in Russia, and ties to insurgents.
And there was little transparency in their selection. The public only learned their names because Deputy Prime Minister Pavlo Rozenko, an appointee of Poroshenko and a harsh critic of Zelensky, leaked the list of nominees for governor posts, which Zelensky’s administration handed out to the Cabinet.
The appointment of governors is a complex procedure. According to a law passed in 2017, the Cabinet of Ministers formally submits a candidate for governor to the president who has the option of either appointing the given individual or proposing another candidate to the government.
But that same law discontinued an open selection process, during which candidates were screened prior to nomination.
Andriy Gerus, the president’s representative in the Cabinet of Ministers, told the Kyiv Post that the nominations are being carried out according to the official procedure. He said that public debate over the candidates should start after the Cabinet submits the list to the president.
“If you read the law, you know how it works,” said Gerus.
Rozenko told the Kyiv Post that the government received the candidates from the president, with little knowledge of who they were.
According to Gerus, the Cabinet already approved the nominations. Rozenko says he personally voted against them.
Later, he says he asked the president over Facebook not to sign the nominations into force, expressing regret that the process was nowhere as transparent as Zelensky promised it would be before taking office.
Here’s what we know so far about the people who will most likely soon become governors in eight Ukrainian regions.
Vitaly Komarnytsky, Luhansk Oblast
Vitaly Komarnytsky, 55, is a former regional lawmaker from the Party of Regions of ousted ex-President Viktor Yanukovych. He currently serves as dean of Luhansk University of Internal Affairs located in Severodonetsk. Situated 750 kilometers east of Kyiv, Severodonetsk has become the administrative capital of the Ukrainian government-controlled territories of Luhansk Oblast.
Komarnytsky is alleged to have ties to Russia-backed insurgents.
In 2014, a website of the Russia-backed insurgents in Luhansk Oblast ran an article reporting that Komarnytsky had been forced to flee Luhansk. The article said “Komarnytsky presented himself as a supporter of the young Luhansk People’s Republic,” the unrecognized, Russia-backed statelet that was fighting against the Ukrainian forces.
According to The Babel news website, one of Komarnytsky’s sons is a Russian citizen. Komarnytsky couldn’t be reached for comment.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, Donetsk Oblast
Pavlo Kyrylenko, 33, is expected to become the governor of Donetsk Oblast. He currently works as a military prosecutor in Zakarpattia and previously worked as a prosecutor in Donetsk and Crimea before a stint in the General Prosecutor’s office.
The Myrotvorets website, a questionable and often politicized database of people who are alleged to pose a threat to Ukraine’s national security, lists a man named Yevhen Kyrylenko as a fighter for Oplot, an illegal insurgent organization fighting against Ukraine in Donbas.
The man is two years older than Pavlo Kyrylenko and is registered in a city controlled by insurgents, in an apartment owned by future governor Pavlo Kyrylenko.
Andriy Andreychikov, Odesa Oblast
Andriy Andreychikov, 41, is a businessman from Transnistria, a rogue territorial entity that is officially part of Moldova, but has not been controlled by Chisinau since the early 1990s. According to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Schemes investigative program, Balker, a company owned by Andreychikov, specializes in selling scrap metal to factories in Transnistria.
In the past four years, Andreychikov’s company sold Hr 400 million ($15 million) worth of scrap metal to Transnistria, Schemes reported on June 27.
Journalists also found that his other company, Myslyvets-2007, is co-owned by nine other individuals, including Serhiy Kushnir, who heads the Odesa branch of a pro-Russian organization called Rodina.
Another co-owner of Andreychikov’s company is Dmytro Cherep, who received a two-year suspended sentence for leading an attempt to seize power in Odesa with the help of Russia-backed insurgents.
In a comment to Dumskaya.net, a Odesa regional news website, Andreychikov admitted that he does share a business with these following people, but said he only controls 9 percent of the company and doesn’t have any other contact with them.
Mykhailo Bno-Airiian, Kyiv Oblast
For the past five years, Mykhailo Bno-Airiian, 35, worked in the government’s energy sector. First, he headed the strategic planning and European integration department in Ukraine’s energy ministry. Later, he worked as a top manager at Ukrenergo, a state-owned energy company in charge of overseeing the work of Ukraine’s electricity lines.
In December 2018, Bno-Airiian posted a photo on Facebook with Dmytro Razumkov, leader of the Zelensky’s Servant of the People party. He wrote that he was glad to meet with his classmate from university.
Bno-Airiian didn’t respond to the Kyiv Post’s request for comment by the time of publication.
Yuriy Gusev, Kherson Oblast
Yuriy Gusev, 39, has had a long political career. In 2002, he was a candidate for parliament from the low-profile agrarian party Winter Generation Bloc led by Valeriy Khoroshkovsky, a multi-millionaire and, later, the chief of Ukraine’s Security Service under Yanukovych.
The party list also included Inna Bohoslovska, later a lawmaker from the Party of Regions, and Valeriy Voshchevsky, a multi-millionaire who would go on to be a deputy prime minister under President Petro Poroshenko.
The party didn’t make it into parliament.
After disappearing from public life for nearly 10 years, Gusev reappeared in 2011, when he was appointed head of the national projects department of the government’s notorious State Investment Agency, which is best known for signing a contract with a ski instructor to build a liquefied natural gas terminal.
The agency’s head fled the country after the EuroMaidan Revolution in 2014, and the agency itself was subsequently liquidated.
However, Gusev wasn’t left without a job. He went on to serve as the deputy head of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry between 2014 and 2016.
After Zelensky took office, Gusev was first added to the Servant of the People party list, but later dropped out, citing a “change of plans.”
Gusev heads Kherson Zemlytstvo, a non-government organization uniting business people connected to Kherson Oblast.
Vladyslav Manger, head of the Kherson Oblast regional council, Andriy Hordeyev, the former governor of Kherson Oblast, and his deputy Yevhen Ryshсhuk are members of Kherson Zemlytstvo. Manger is a suspect in the murder of Kateryna Gandziuk, a Kherson activist who died in a Kyiv hospital in November from injuries suffered during an acid attack on July 31, 2018.
Ryshchuk and Hordeyev were accused of involvement in the assassination plot by Gandziuk’s father and human rights activists.
The Kherson Zemlytstvo organization has over 700 active members.
Ihor Bondarenko, Zakarpattia Oblast
Ihor Bondarenko, 55, is a well-known regional businessman who owns a chocolate factory named after himself: Bondarenko. He also has a chain of coffeehouses in Uzhhorod, the capital of Zakarpattia Oblast, 750-kilometers to the west of Kyiv.
In the 2000s, Bondarenko held numerous regional government posts in Zakarpattia Oblast, after which he became a department head in Ukraine’s Ministry of Justice.
Ihor Shevchenko, Cherkassy Oblast
The future governor of Cherkassy Oblast has never worked in government. Ihor Shevchenko, 46, lives in Cherkassy and, since 2001, has operated a shipping business. He owns one company in Ukraine and one in Italy.
According to Shevchenko’s asset declaration, he owns an apartment and a 25 percent stake in a land plot in Russia.
In Ukraine, Shevchenko owns a house, a couple of land plots, three trucks and a car.
Markiyan Malsky, Lviv Oblast
Markian Malsky, 34, is the only governor candidate who was chosen through a somewhat transparent process.
On June 14, Zelensky proposed three candidates for the governor of Lviv Oblast on Facebook. Malsky won in a landslide.
Malsky is a lawyer who worked in a number of law firms, including Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Paris. In 2016, he was appointed as an Honorary Consul of Austria in Lviv. Malsky is a board member of Ukraine’s Arbitration Association and the regional department of the European Business Association.
In a June 4 interview with the Kyiv Post, Malsky said he was not planning on entering politics in the near future, as it would conflict with his status as an honorary consul.
