09.02.2025 Money laundering

How much did our ministers earn in 2024 and how much did they embezzle? 

ЗThe media published information on the salaries of Ukrainian ministers. According to this information, in 2024, the highest salaries were paid to the leaders related to national security and energy. In particular, the leaders in terms of salaries were:

  • Rustem Umerov (Minister of Defense) – UAH 1,623,299.
  • Herman Halushchenko (Minister of Energy) – UAH 1,594,463.
  • Ihor Klymenko (Minister of Internal Affairs) – UAH 1,560,938.

At the same time, each of the above ministers managed to participate in a number of shadow schemes over the past year, so we can talk about a proportional increase in their income.

For example, Umerov, being the Minister of Defense of Ukraine, is responsible for the procurement of ammunition, uniforms, ammunition, and food for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which is carried out, among other things, by the State Enterprise “State Logistics Operator” and the Defense Procurement Agency.

One of the dozens of manipulations that demonstrates the scale of the scheme was the purchase of bulletproof vests for the Armed Forces. At that time, the State Logistics Operator actually blocked the supply of bulletproof vests needed by the army. This happened due to non-transparent schemes and manipulations in tenders.

The Ukrainian manufacturer TEMP-3000 offered bulletproof vests for UAH 27,000, which is significantly lower than the prices of competitors, which started at UAH 35,000. TEMP lowered its prices, but its production was accused of dumping and monopoly. As a result, the DOT started manipulating prices by announcing tenders for other prices and standards. At the same time, suppliers began offering bulletproof vests at much higher prices.

During 2024, the DOT concluded three direct contracts for bulletproof vests, the cost of which was significantly higher, namely UAH 1.279 billion for 41,840 bulletproof vests.

As a result, these manipulations left more than 100,000 Ukrainian defenders without body armor at a critical time.

In addition, in December 2024, after the DOT failed to provide the army with the necessary bulletproof vests, a new tender was urgently announced amid criticism and scandals. However, instead of correcting the mistakes, the DOT allowed firms with dubious reputations or no experience in public procurement to participate in the tender. We are talking about KhZZIZ, a company that received orders for almost UAH 2 billion in a year, although in 2023 its public orders did not exceed UAH 150 million, and UKRTAK.UA, a company involved in a smuggling scandal that received orders for UAH 2 billion in 2024, compared to UAH 10 million in 2023. But the real “surprise” was two new companies, NEXTGEN LTD and Fortress of Protection, which had no previous experience in public procurement.

All these procurements were conducted under the direct supervision of Umerov. Therefore, they constituted a part of the Minister’s shadow income.

Speaking about Energy Minister Galushchenko, it is worth noting that he is responsible for the protection and restoration of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. This gives Galushchenko the opportunity to manipulate tender procurement in the sector, thereby lining his pockets with unofficial income.

One of the examples of embezzlement is the scheme of Ukrenergo, which is accountable to the Ministry of Energy. Thus, last year, Ukrenergo signed 70 contracts of the same type for the construction of protective structures without a tender. It cost almost UAH 4 billion. None of these contracts has been closed to date.

For example, UAH 350 million was awarded without any tender to an unknown company, Seven C.I. LLC, which has never had experience in such work. Some contractors are still unable to receive the funds stipulated in the contracts, despite the full implementation of the agreements and the completion of the construction of defense facilities.

Returning to the “rating,” the journalists also published a list of ministers who worked the entire year and received the lowest salaries. Among them:

  • Olga Stefanishyna (Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice) – UAH 1,155,381;
  • Mykhailo Fedorov (Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation) – UAH 1,123,931.

This information is not surprising. After all, at least Stefanishyna and Fedorov are personally responsible for the Russian cyberattack on Ukraine’s state registers that took place at the end of 2024. By the way, while the Ukrainian competent authorities were restoring the data, the state registrars of the Ministry of Justice subordinated to Stefanishyna entered false information into the registers, thereby restricting and depriving Ukrainians of their rights. For example, our NGO Non-Stop was re-registered to an unknown man from Zhytomyr, which we learned about from a chatbot message.

Speaking of Fedorov, the man has a shadow job in addition to his official one. For example, he lobbied for and covered up the activities of the WhiteBit crypto exchange. He is also responsible for schemes to protect the activities of Russian casinos and bookmakers in Ukraine: Parimatch, Favbet, Pin Up, and others.

In addition, we would like to remind you that Fedorov’s project Diia does not have its own payment system and cannot perform payment transactions in accordance with the law. Therefore, it engages FC United Space LLC, owned by Ihor Zotko, the founder of Ukr Game Technology LLC, to conduct online payments.

The latter obtained a license to organize and conduct casino gambling on the Internet, under which the Pin-up online casino operates. Zotko himself is the chief operating officer of Pin-Up, which has a Russian trace.

In general, the distribution of salaries among ministers who held office throughout the year is as follows:

  • Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal received UAH 1,160,327 in 2024.
  • Viktor Lyashko (Minister of Health) – UAH 1,536,013.
  • Sergii Marchenko (Minister of Finance) – UAH 1,436,900.
  • Oleh Nemchinov (Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers) – UAH 1,237,012.
  • Yulia Svyrydenko (Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy) – UAH 1,166,918.

Do you think our ministers deserve their salaries?

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Let us know about it. We will help protect the violated rights!

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