It is no secret that the work of political technologists involves distorting reality, skillfully manipulating facts, and presenting the public with distorted information. This is exactly what happened with the mayor of Irpin, Oleksandr Markushyn. Over the past two years, PR professionals and media workers have done everything to replace the image of a corrupt mayor with that of a hero mayor in the public consciousness. Therefore, let’s examine the facts.
The image of the hero mayor was conceived and formed at the beginning of the full-scale invasion by his then-close associate and political consultant Petro Shcherbyna. Together with the mayor’s assistant, Ruslana Lavrenyuk, they carried out the main communications with international and central Ukrainian media.
We all know that it is PR specialists who create myths. Considering that Markushyn became mayor from the “New Faces” party, the party leader Volodymyr Karpliuk tasked Shcherbyna with creating the image of a hero out of Oleksandr Markushin.
Markushyn himself has not fought a single day, while the real defense of Irpin was carried out by ordinary and brave guys from the Territorial Defense, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Main Directorate of Intelligence, special units, and battalions of various subordination.
The ideology of the media campaign consisted of two points: in February-March, there were constant TikTok-format videos from Markushyn’s perspective (the texts of these videos were written by journalists from the Irpin TV channel ITV, while Petro Shcherbyna and his team managed Markushyn’s Telegram channel) and the mass distribution of information in English and German through the Telegram channel IRPIN UKRAINE Press-centre. By the way, the current director of the Irpin Lyceum of Innovative Technologies, Maria Hostin, was a volunteer translator for this channel.
Only after the de-occupation of Kyiv region did the residents of the community realize that there had been a substitution of concepts. After some time, the Armed Forces soldier Mykhailo Sapon openly stated that Oleksandr Markushyn was a “TikTok warrior.”
The foundation for creating the pseudo-image of the heroic mayor was the book “Battle for Irpin” authored by Petro Shcherbyna. The publication of the book gained serious attention, and Markushyn gifted it to a significant portion of international guests in the Irpin community.
Based on the book “Battle for Irpin,” the film “Outpost Irpin” was created, which was released on the anniversary of the de-occupation of Kyiv region in both Ukrainian and English. The film clearly presents a biased portrayal of Oleksandr Markushyn, depicting him as a superhero, although local activists claim that Markushyn visited Irpin only to shoot his video addresses.
The actual defense of Irpin in February-March 2022 was led by Volodymyr Fedchenko “Kaskad” and Volodymyr Korotya “Povstanets” (the commander, as well as commanders of special units of various levels and subordination, including units from the Main Derictorate of Intelligence, Territorial Defense, and Security Service of Ukraine). Other units, such as “Karpaty Sich,” the Foreign Legion, and the Georgian Legion, also participated in the defense of Irpin.
The mystification of Markushyn’s image was also intensified by the former mayor of Irpin, Volodymyr Karpliuk, who, to showcase Irpin as the city recovering the fastest in Ukraine, created and financed two projects – the NPO “Irpin Recovery Fund” (founded by Volodymyr Karpliuk and Serhiy Taruta) and the Irpin Reconstruction Summit (searching for and coordinating 200 architects who prepared reconstruction projects for the Irpin community).
Karpliuk funded Markushin’s trips to the USA and European Union countries. There are rumors that before Markushin’s speech in the European Parliament in Brussels, Karpliuk forced him to study a Ukrainian text on two A4 pages for three hours. As a result, Markushyn still had to read the text “from a paper.”
Irpin activist Lyudmyla Pershin wrote on her Facebook page about Oleksandr Markushyn on November 22, 2023: “Irpinians, do you want a fairytale about the ‘hero mayor’? Then brew some calming tea, get comfortable so you don’t fall, and read the fantasies of the ‘hero’… It’s funny to read how someone who fled talks about a neighbor who fled.”
This refers to Markushyn’s public statement that he personally liberated Bucha from the occupiers. This sparked a series of jokes and memes. The mayor of Bucha, Anatoliy Fedoruk, even registered a humorous petition to award Markushin the title of Hero of Ukraine.
Starting from July 2023, the myth about “hero Markushyn,” who personally liberated Kyiv region from the enemy, was promoted by black PR specialist and former producer of the program “Head and Tails,” Taisiya Yusupova.
Ms. Yusupova created a personal press service for Markushyn, the funds for which were siphoned through inflated salaries for employees of the executive committee of the Irpin City Council. According to analysts, Markushyn siphoned over 17 million UAH from the city budget for these purposes. At the same time, the employees of Markushyn’s shadow press service were not officially registered anywhere; the “washed” salaries from the Irpin budget were paid in envelopes.
This story clearly demonstrates that the best sons of Ukraine are giving their lives for Ukraine, while thanks to the media, such corrupt officials and fraudsters as Oleksandr Markushyn become heroes.