Ukrainian MPs, even after retiring, continue to enjoy their special status. The legislative framework they themselves created allows them to receive pensions, the size of which sometimes exceeds any notion of fairness.
How do people's deputies receive space pensions?
The richest pensioner in Ukraine is former MP Serhiy Kivalov. He took advantage of the old provision of the law “On the Status of a People’s Deputy”, which allowed him to receive up to 90% of the salary of a working parliamentarian. This law is no longer in force, but through the court Kivalov was able to bypass the standard calculations. His pension is not based on the deputy’s salary, but on the salary from his own private university, which he artificially increased by 5.2 times before the trial.
Other former MPs, such as Oleksandr Borzykh, have also obtained an increase in their payments through the courts. For example, he received a certificate of salary of a working secretary of a Verkhovna Rada committee, which amounts to more than 68 thousand UAH, and ordered 90% of this amount for his pension. Now his monthly pension reaches 61,752 UAH.
Even those with considerable incomes, like Borzykh, who owns two apartments and a brand new Volkswagen Tiguan worth UAH 1.7 million, continue to sue the Pension Fund.
Judges' records: lifetime payments in the millions
Retired judges receive even larger payments. Vasyl Nimchenko, a current MP and former judge of the Constitutional Court, receives UAH 192,136 per month. This is a lifetime pension that cannot be reduced.
Pensions among current MPs are more modest: for example, Yuriy Boyko has a pension of UAH 20.4 thousand, and Mykola Skoryk has UAH 11.8 thousand. However, this is more of an exception than a rule.
The Cabinet of Ministers adopted a resolution in 2025 on the application of coefficients to reduce excessively high pensions. Payments exceeding 10 subsistence minimums (23.6 thousand UAH) are now subject to reduction on a progressive scale.
For example, Serhiy Kivalov's pension of UAH 246,000 will be reduced to a much smaller amount after applying the coefficients.
However, this decision may be temporary. Some courts are already considering lawsuits to overturn these coefficients. If the Supreme Court rules that the pension cuts are illegal, it could pave the way for a new wave of “pension records.”.
The problem of deputy pensions remains a painful issue for Ukrainian society. While most pensioners barely make ends meet, former people's deputies receive payments through the courts that are more like the salaries of top managers. The Cabinet's decision on coefficients is only a partial solution to the problem. Time will tell whether the state will be able to bring order to this system.
