First Deputy Chairman of the Kherson Regional Council, MP from the Servant of the People party Yuriy Sobolevsky declared over 3.5 million hryvnias in wealth growth over the year. This was reported by the international detective agency Absolution Leaks, which drew attention to the strange enrichment of the official and his family.
Back in 2018, the Sobolevsky family's joint savings amounted to only 230 thousand hryvnias. This amount was indicated by the official's wife, Olena Sobolevska, in her declaration when she worked as the chief specialist of the National Commission for the Regulation of Financial Markets. However, the very next year, Yuriy Sobolevsky declared 50 thousand dollars, 40 thousand euros and almost 1 million hryvnias in cash, and also invested more than 600 thousand hryvnias in an apartment in Kyiv.
Where the money came from is an open question. There were no savings in previous tax returns that would allow for such investments. Sobolevsky himself explained that he earned the money “through his law practice,” and his wife’s tax return did not include it because “they did not discuss this issue.”.
After Volodymyr Zelenskyy's victory in 2019, Sobolevskyi received the position of advisor to the head of the Kirovohrad Regional State Administration, Andriy Balon, and later headed the department at the State Geocadastre of the region. In 2020, he became a deputy of the Kherson Regional Council from the Servant of the People party and its first deputy head.
His wife Olena became an assistant to the people's deputy-"servant" Bohdan Torokhtiy, and his daughter Anastasia became an assistant to another deputy from the same party, Pavlo Pavlish.
Sobolevsky's declarations do not list any cars, but the family uses a 2020 Volkswagen Touareg registered to his father-in-law. It was in this car that the official's wife, daughter, and son left abroad in March 2022 and returned only in August 2023.
On the social networks of Sobolevsky's daughter, you can see photos from trips to Germany, France, Austria, and Turkey. However, none of the declarations indicate that the family rented or used housing abroad for free.
This case once again raises the issue of the transparency of the income of Ukrainian officials and the effectiveness of control over their wealth, especially against the backdrop of wartime, when citizens' trust in the authorities is crucial.
