The renewed Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine declared its real estate, and it turned out that most government officials have relatively modest housing conditions. However, there are exceptions. The largest house among government members was declared by Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba - almost 377 square meters. At the same time, some government officials do not have their own housing at all and rent apartments, often under rather ambiguous conditions.
For comparison: some MPs live in real palaces - houses with an area of over 2 thousand square meters. And although both branches of government - the executive and the legislative - have high incomes, their standard of living differs significantly.
The largest house among the ministers belongs to the family of Oleksiy Kuleba. The estate in Kryukiv region with an area of 376.5 sq.m. has belonged to his wife since 2005, when Kuleba himself was only 22 years old. The politician's wife, Halyna Dmytrichenko-Kuleba, registered an individual entrepreneur only in October 2023 and declared an income of 138.6 thousand UAH per month.
Kuleba's family also recently received the right to an unfinished apartment in Yaremche. In addition, Kuleba uses an apartment in the Shevchenkivskyi residential complex, which belongs to another person, free of charge.
Former Minister of Energy and current Head of the Ministry of Justice Herman Galushchenko owns a house in Velyka Soltanivka with an area of 319.7 sq. m. He also has a small apartment in Kyiv.
Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal lives in a 215.9 sq m house in Lviv, which he has owned since 2014. Youth Minister Matviy Bidny has an almost similar home — 215.1 sq m.
But some government officials live in rented apartments. In particular, Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko has been renting luxury apartments in Pechersk since 2021 from a related person, Chernihiv pensioner Lydia Umanets. This raises certain questions about the transparency of such agreements.
Another example is the new head of the Ministry of Energy, Svitlana Grinchuk. She rents an apartment in the clubhouse “Gogolivska, 47” with an area of 127.1 sq. m. According to market prices, the monthly rent for such housing, including a parking space, can reach over 70 thousand UAH, which is up to 70% of her income.
The largest house among the deputies is owned by Vadym Stolar. In Kozyn, he rents a 2,062.8 sq m estate from his ex-wife. Second place is held by Vasyl Petyovka, whose family lives in a 2,032 sq m house in Mukachevo. And third is held by “servant of the people” Ruslan Horbenko with an estate of 1,834 sq m in Lisnyky.
Interestingly, the houses of the people's deputies are several times larger than the living area of any member of the government. This creates a contrast between the "servants of the people" in the Verkhovna Rada and those who actually run the country in the executive branch.
The declarations of government officials are somewhat more modest than those of parliamentarians. However, there is no shortage of questions here, especially in cases of rent from “related persons” or expenses for luxury housing that do not quite match official income.
