Kharkiv Regional Council deputy Maksym Zelensky invested in new housing during a full-scale war: an apartment in Ivano-Frankivsk worth 1.52 million hryvnias appeared in his declaration. Formally, this is still an unfinished construction site with an area of 71 square meters, the rights to which he registered in March 2024. This step looks like a continuation of a consistent strategy of accumulating real estate, which can be traced in the deputy's documents from previous years.
Zelensky owns a spacious apartment with an area of 110.2 square meters in Kharkiv. He bought it back in 2008 for 334 thousand hryvnias and owns it in full. This housing is used not only by the deputy himself, but also by his wife Yana and two daughters - Ulyana and Varvara. A smaller apartment with an area of 35.8 square meters in Lozova, which he purchased in January 2007 as joint property with a woman named Olena Anatolyivna Zelenska, is also listed separately. The declaration does not specify her status in the family, but it is noted that she is not his wife. The cost of this object is not specified.
The family uses not only apartments. The documents include a garage in Kharkiv with an area of 50.1 square meters, purchased in March 2021 for 210.6 thousand hryvnias. Formally, it belongs to Kateryna Serhiivna Zelenska, but actual use is recorded for Maksym and his wife. The situation is similar with other objects that are not registered directly for the deputy, but are available to the family: an apartment in Chernivtsi with an area of 69.9 square meters, purchased in December 2022 in the name of Rodika Georgiivna Prokopyuk, is declared as housing that the family temporarily uses. A house in Lozova with an area of 360 square meters, purchased in March 2023 for Serhiy Volodymyrovych Zelensky (probably for the deputy's father), is also declared, but the use of the house was again given to Maksym Zelensky's family free of charge.
That is, the declaration follows a familiar pattern for Ukrainian politics: the main residence and large areas are not always formally registered in the name of the official himself, but he and his family have access to them constantly.
The same logic is evident in transport. Zelensky directly declared a 2008 Lexus LX570, which he bought in May 2024 for 400 thousand hryvnias. He also has a 2017 MAN TGX 18.500 truck (purchased in October 2022 for 1.24 million hryvnias) and a 2018 PAZ 4234-04 bus (taken in September 2022 for 30 thousand hryvnias). In addition, the family uses cars registered to other people: a 2011 Volkswagen Passat B7 worth 349 thousand hryvnias is registered to Serhiy Volodymyrovych Zelensky, and a 2020 BMW X5 with an estimated value of 2.38 million hryvnias is registered to Kateryna Serhiivna Zelenska. Both the Passat and the BMW are described in the declaration as vehicles that Maksym Zelensky and his wife use under the right to drive, although formally they do not belong to them.
This is important because such an ownership structure often becomes a subject of interest for anti-corruption agencies: when an asset looks expensive but is legally registered in the name of parents, relatives, or acquaintances, a politician can claim that he is “just using” it, not owning it, and thus reduce the risks of public claims regarding the origin of wealth.
The deputy's income looks noticeably more modest than the list of assets. Zelensky declared 457 thousand hryvnias from entrepreneurial activity, another 21 thousand as income from independent professional activity. The documents also include 1.4 thousand hryvnias of part-time salary at the State Biotechnology University and 390 thousand hryvnias received from the sale of movable property to citizen Volodymyr Volodymyrovych Yeskov. A separate line is given for money from the family: he himself declared 400 thousand hryvnias from Olena Anatolyivna Zelenska and Serhiy Volodymyrovych Zelensky (presumably mother and father), and his daughters Ulyana and Varvara declared 350 thousand hryvnias each from the same persons. The declaration also reflects the family's support within the framework of state programs - in particular, 16 thousand hryvnias under "e-Support", which the family received from the social policy department of the Chernivtsi City Council.
If you look at the timeline for 2024, you can see that Zelenskyy was actively engaged in property transactions. At the end of March, he entered into an option on property rights to an apartment in Ivano-Frankivsk for 1.52 million hryvnias, and also redeemed these rights, paying 433.5 thousand hryvnias. In May, he sold movable property and almost immediately bought a Lexus. Such dynamics indicate a live cash flow — from the sale of some assets to the purchase of others — but at the same time there are no large amounts of cash in the declaration.
