Empty declarations and business under occupation: what the deputies of Kakhovka City Council hid

Half of the deputies of the Kakhovka City Council have not filed declarations for years, despite their legal obligation even during the war and the occupation of the community. Some deputies report with many years of delay, others submit empty declarations, and some stories have already reached criminal proceedings.

This was reported by the Center for Investigative Journalism.

In the Kakhovka City Council, whose community has been under Russian occupation for a long time, a significant number of deputies have not fulfilled their obligation to declare income for years. Despite the loss of their powers during martial law, the requirement for local elected officials to file declarations has not been canceled.

Of the 34 deputies elected in 2020, 11 have already resigned their seats early. One of the reasons for this decision is the unwillingness to report on their income and property. At the same time, even those MPs who had legal grounds to hide their declarations due to their service in the Armed Forces did not withhold them from public access.

The most high-profile case involves MP Artem Trofymchuk from the Propozytsiya party. At the end of 2025, the police opened criminal proceedings against him for failing to submit annual declarations for 2021-2023. Only after that did the MP submit the reports, but they were virtually empty - with no data on income, housing, family, or savings. Moreover, his declaration for 2025 is still missing from the register. This is not the first such case in the MP's biography - even before the great war, the court had already found him guilty of violating the rules of financial control.

In total, 17 members of the Kakhovka City Council have not filed declarations for more than four years. Among them are representatives of different political forces - OPFL, Servant of the People, Fatherland, European Solidarity, Green Party, and We Live Here! Some of them are on the territory controlled by Ukraine or abroad, and therefore had to resume reporting after leaving the occupation.

The NACP explained that military personnel, prisoners of war, people undergoing treatment, or those who are still in the occupied territories have an exception to the obligation to declare. But if an official leaves the TOT and goes to a safe place, the declaration must be submitted within 90 days. Intentional failure to submit is punishable by criminal liability, and delay without good reason is punishable by administrative liability.

The story of former MP Natalia Kapustina is particularly noteworthy. After resigning her mandate early, she registered a business in the occupied territory of Kherson region, according to Russian registers. The types of activities coincide with her Ukrainian individual entrepreneur. Journalists have repeatedly tried to get a comment from her, but to no avail.

At the same time, many questions arise among MPs who continue to submit declarations. For example, former MP Maksym Surin declares meager family income, but his wife in 2024 became the owner of a new Toyota Highlander worth between 2.5 and 3.3 million hryvnias. The price of the car is not indicated in the documents, although the family also declared significant cash savings.

Another example is MP Liudmyla Bendeberia, who declared the purchase of a house in Kyiv, although her official income was not enough for such a purchase. Later, she explained that it was not an apartment, but a dorm room donated by her relatives, and admitted the mistake in her declaration.

Another common problem is the lack of information about the actual place of residence in the declarations. Many MPs who have long lived in Kyiv, abroad, or in other regions of Ukraine continue to indicate only real estate in the temporarily occupied territory. As a result, it officially looks like they still live in Kakhovka.

Despite numerous violations, the history of Kakhovka deputies demonstrates another trend: most of them have not purchased expensive assets in recent years, and a significant part of their property has remained in the occupied territory, just like the property of many community members.

In May, the Center for Public Investigations, together with Intent, analyzed the declarations of Kherson City Council members for 2025. Out of 53 elected officials, 22 current and 9 former deputies had declarations in the NACP register.

The Kherson City Council, which effectively stopped working after the outbreak of a full-scale war, is rapidly losing deputies due to resignations, criminal cases, and suspicions of treason. Nevertheless, current and former elected officials declare tens of millions of hryvnias in cash, luxury property, and large land assets - often without official income or registered to relatives.

Анна Бальчінос