In his recent grandiloquent speeches, Irpin Mayor Oleksandr Markushyn declared to the entire country that now is not the time to play politics because there is only one party – Ukraine. Whether the head of the community spoke the truth to the residents is something that “Moya Kyivshchyna” decided to investigate in detail.
Until 2015, Oleksandr Markushyn was a deputy from the “UDAR” party. In 2015, he left “UDAR” and became a deputy in the Irpin City Council from the “New Faces” party. After that, in 2016, the then-mayor of Irpin, Volodymyr Karpliuk, appointed Markushyn as the director of the communal enterprise “Irpinvodokanal.” In August of that year, the “New Faces” party team delegated Markushyn to the position of the first deputy mayor of Irpin, and Volodymyr Karpliuk convinced the team of the necessity to support Markushyn for the mayoral position. Karpliuk led the election campaign for Markushyn, who became the mayor of Irpin in 2020 from the “New Faces” party. This was not difficult, as Karpliuk’s team had shown fantastic results in creating new infrastructure projects over the years in Irpin. At the same time, Karpliuk headed the Investment Council of Irpin and supported all initiatives of the city council, funding cultural, social, and other projects for the development and popularization of the community. Back then, Markushyn constantly stated that he had only one party – “New Faces.”
Since 2015, Oleksandr Markushyn supported all initiatives of the “New Faces” party, despite criticism from activists. He supported the construction near Romanyvka and Stoyanka, the development of the “Vostok” camp, and voted for changing the status of the forest to convert it into the “Potoki” landscape park. During this time, Markushyn also constantly claimed that he had only one party – “New Faces.”
In February-March 2022, Oleksandr Markushyn and Volodymyr Karpliuk did everything together to free the Irpin community from the enemy. From March to May 2022, Karpliuk transferred funds to the families of territorial defense participants at Markushyn’s request.
After the de-occupation of Irpin, Oleksandr Markushyn and Volodymyr Karpliuk were among the first management teams in Ukraine to travel to cities in the USA, the European Parliament, Paris, and Warsaw. Together, they became co-founders of the Irpin Restoration Fund, which ultimately raised tens of millions for the reconstruction of the affected Irpin community. During this time, Karpliuk initiated the Irpin Reconstruction Summit project, which brought together over 200 architects from Ukraine and other countries to develop proposals for the city’s restoration. Within this project, an agreement was signed with the American company Gensler, and funding of 500,000 euros was received from the Portuguese city of Cascais for completing the construction of the Irpin kindergarten “Vinok.” Most of the international trips by city leadership for restoration efforts were funded by Karpliuk. Throughout this period, they were on the same party team, “New Faces.” For some reason, when Karpliuk was needed by Markushyn to establish the community’s recovery, the party was still “New Faces.”
Around July 2023, rumors began circulating in the city council that certain executive committee employees were receiving unjustifiably inflated salaries. Executive committee employees discussed among themselves that there was a group of specific officials who were awarded large bonuses in certain months, which were then reportedly handed “upstairs.” This information remained gossip until April 1, when officials were required to publicly submit declarations of their incomes to the NACP. Throughout this time, information about staff lists and salary calculations for employees was carefully concealed, available only to three people – Mayor Oleksandr Markushyn, the head of the executive committee’s personnel department, Tamara Halai, and the chief accountant, Khrystyna Hlushanets. It was Halai and Hlushanets who later shocked the public with their high salaries, land plots, and vehicles.
On August 2, 2023, Markushyn publicly congratulated Volodymyr Karpliuk on his birthday, calling him a friend and thanking him for his constant help and contributions to the community. However, starting in September 2023, Markushyn secretly began preparing to betray his own team. On September 19, 2023, another Telegram channel for the Irpin City Council was created, which was closed to readers and published several posts. The next posts on this channel were not published until April 1, 2024 – the day Markushyn betrayed his party.
At the same time, a website called “Partisan Irpin” was created in the city, which began to be associated with several individuals. Messages appeared in networks stating that “Partisan Irpin” was run by city council deputies from the “Servant of the People” party, Zoryana Mironishena and Artem Huryn from the “Fatherland” party. Meanwhile, the website “Partisan Irpin” was administered by Maksym Levytskyi, who received 96,000 hryvnias in budget funds from the Irpin executive committee as a chief specialist in information technology. The ideological content of the “Partisan Irpin” website was developed by Taisiya Yusupova – an informal advisor to Oleksandr Markushyn.
From July 2023 to April 2024, deputies from the “New Faces” faction continually asked Mayor Markushyn to attend a faction meeting to explain what was happening with these salaries. However, the mayor consistently postponed this conversation. In March 2024, when outraged deputies confronted him with these questions during the faction meeting, he simply ran out of the meeting.
We won’t delve into how Markushyn and Karpliuk mutually accused each other during those few days in April 2024; everyone has read it. It is worth noting that not a single one of his deputies or almost the entire faction of the “New Faces” party supported Markushyn. At that time, information began to spread that Markushyn planned to dismiss his deputies who publicly announced corruption and salary manipulations.
More importantly, on April 1, 2024, Markushyn stated that it was not the time to engage in politics and emphasized that from now on, his party was Ukraine and that he would no longer represent his own party, “New Faces.” This came as a shock to his team, as Markushyn had always claimed that he had only one party – “New Faces.”
Simultaneously with preparations to leave the “New Faces” party, Oleksandr Markushyn began negotiations about his possible candidacy for the mayor of Irpin from the “DIYA” party, which is planned to be established under Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov. For this purpose, Markushyn and his advisor Taisiya Yusupova began active communications, trying to ingratiate themselves with one of the most successful ministers in the current Cabinet, who is undoubtedly Mykhailo Fedorov. However, at that time, Markushyn forgot to mention that he would soon become involved in the largest salary scandal in the history of local self-government in Ukraine and become a subject of criminal proceedings. Information about Markushyn’s attempt to “sneak” into the “DIYA” party was confirmed by several regional Telegram channels. This contradicts Markushyn’s statements that now is not the time to play politics.
Meanwhile, Markushyn also began to ingratiate himself with Oleksandr Horobets, a member of parliament from the “Servant of the People” party. Inside parliament, it is said that during a forum on the restoration of Irpin, which Markushyn invited Horobets to, he promised several deputy positions and leadership of communal enterprises in exchange for support from the deputies from the “Servant of the People” for the mayor. However, given the toxicity of the “salary scandal,” it is unlikely that Horobets would agree to such a proposal.
In this, Markushyn also saw no politicking. Just as earlier, he used budget funds to help the Armed Forces of Ukraine while standing alongside deputies from “New Faces” at awards ceremonies, he now aims to involve deputies from the “Servant of the People” and “Fatherland” parties in joint PR actions for delivering aid and transport vehicles funded by the budget to the front.
It seems that this premature decision by Markushyn has already led to the loss of his entire team, which selflessly worked for his victory in the Irpin mayoral elections in 2020, was with him daily during the military actions in February-March 2022, and worked with him for two years on the restoration of Irpin. Whether this will help him secure a place in another leading party remains unclear. After all, according to his own words – now is not the time to play politics.