An Investigation into Local Councilors' Foreign Travel in 2025
A review of foreign trips taken by local council deputies in 2025 has uncovered numerous issues concerning the use of municipal funds, including instances of fraudulent travel claims. More than 150 local councilors traveled abroad, spending approximately 2.4 million hryvnias from local budgets. This spending occurs against a backdrop of ongoing scrutiny over public officials' use of state resources.
Under a government decision adopted in 2025, female city council deputies are permitted to travel abroad, except for those in salaried positions. However, the investigation revealed widespread violations of travel regulations. For instance,
Verkhovna Rada Chairman Ruslan Stefanchuk stated that he did not sign the authorization for Mykola Tyshchenko's official trip to Thailand.
Expenditures by Local Council Deputies
The number of trips and associated costs varied significantly between cities:
- In Lviv City Council, 36 deputies went on trips, spending over 1.4 million hryvnias.
- Sumy City Council sent 8 deputies on trips, with costs exceeding 405 thousand hryvnias.
- Four deputies from Sumy City Council financed their trips personally or through their hosts.
- In Kyiv City Council, 8 deputies spent 164 thousand hryvnias on their travel.
A notable case involves Roman Kravchuk, a deputy of the Lutsk City Council, who visited the United States three times in 2025, meeting with Senator Joe Wilson in October. Meanwhile, data on official travel is not documented in the Kharkiv and Mykolaiv city councils, and no deputies from the Odesa City Council were sent on official trips.
Another significant aspect is the case of Ruslan Vyshnevetskyi, a deputy of the Dnipro City Council, who was notified of suspicion in December 2025 for using forged documents. In June 2023, he traveled to Hungary but transited through Austria to reach the Greek island of Rhodes. Separately, Volodymyr Sosonovskyi, head of the Kushuhum community, organized an illegal border crossing for deputies of the settlement council.
Furthermore, Oleg Bielonozhko, deputy head of the Poltava Regional Council, arranged an official trip to Bydgoszcz, Poland, but instead traveled to Portugal. Dmytro Zahumenskyi, head of the Kyiv City State Administration apparatus, traveled to the EU in November 2023 and October 2024, vacationing in Spain and Italy, and is currently under house arrest.
In summary, the 2025 analysis of local councilors' foreign travel exposes numerous violations and issues that demand attention from law enforcement and the public. These findings point to systemic problems in the use of public funds and potential abuses by deputies. The legal breaches in travel procedures call into question not only the legitimacy of the expenditures but also the ethical conduct of elected officials. The situation requires thorough investigation and measures to prevent similar occurrences in the future.