A full-scale invasion is no reason to abandon luxury habits for members of the Ukrainian elite. Despite the war, VIP refugees and business travelers en masse choose the Cote d’Azur. In the UP investigations, they are called the Monaco Battalion.
After scandals with foreign holidays at the beginning of the year, the National Security and Defense Council banned officials and deputies from leaving. From now on, people’s deputies, prosecutors, judges, representatives of local self-government can cross the border exclusively for official purposes.
Recently, the elite battalion has been replenished with deputies of the banned Opposition Platform for Life, Sergei Levochkin and Vadim Stolar. Also, the ex-president Leonid Kuchma, the mayor of Kramatorsk Alexander Goncharenko, the Surkis brothers, the son of Vyacheslav Boguslayev and many others were seen at the elite resort.
Yes, in March I ended up at Nice airport people’s deputy from the group “Restoration of Ukraine” Maxim Yefimov. At the same time, there were no public reports on business trips to the Cote d’Azur in the social networks of the deputy. But there was a mention of a working trip to Slovakia. As it turned out, he went to Slovakia with Efimov and Mayor of front-line Kramatorsk Alexander Goncharenko. He was also with Efimov at the airport in Nice, where he arrived on a charter on March 17 from the Polish city of Rzeszow, using the VIP terminal. Accompanied by two men, they got into a minibus and left the airport. At the same time, in a conversation with journalist Tkach, Goncharenko initially denied that he was in Nice. Efimov admitted the fact of the trip - he said that he visited his 10-year-old daughter. After Goncharenko saw the footage of his stay in Nice, he nevertheless admitted that he flew to the Cote d’Azur after a business trip to Slovakia. And like, too, to her daughter, who recently entered college. Note that during the absence of Goncharenko, the city of Kramatorsk was subjected to two heavy shelling by the Russian army.
Not uncommon in Nice and charters from Moldova. Entrepreneur Alexander Katsuba arrived at one of them in March. Previously, his name was often leaked in the information space during the presidency of Yanukovych. As you know, in 2012, 26-year-old Katsuba became deputy head of the state company Naftogaz instead of his older brother Sergei. This family is also associated with one of the high-profile corruption scandals of those times - the purchase of the so-called “Boyko towers”.
Katsuba’s cars were also spotted outside one of Monaco’s restaurants. Alexander personally got out of the car with his family. Katsuba himself explains that he was leaving Ukraine to buy cars for the Armed Forces of Ukraine and “came to visit the children.”
People’s Deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of the 9th convocation Sergei Lyovochkin was spotted at Monaco airport in May. The charter flight followed from Vienna. There, according to UP sources, Levochkin met with oligarch Dmitry Firtash. Sources note that Lyovochkin was able to obtain permission to leave Ukraine for official reasons - “for the sake of parliamentary activity.” And the press service of the deputy assured that Lyovochkin permanently resides in Ukraine and only left the country twice - for knee surgery and on a business trip. After the meetings, Levochkin actually flew to Nice airport for the subsequent transfer to the clinic for postoperative control. However, this does not explain his trip to Vienna.
Together with Lyovochkin’s charter, the people’s Deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of the IX convocation from the Opposition Platform for Life Grigory Surkis. And the car of brother Grigory Surkis, President of FC Dynamo Igor Surkis noticed at the Monte Carlo casino (Monaco). According to Mikhail Tkach, Igor Surkis’ Mercedes at the casino can be seen regularly.
Vadim Stolar, a people’s deputy from the banned pro-Russian party Opposition Platform for Life, also found himself on the Cote d’Azur. There, the people’s choice rents a villa on Cap Ferrat. This is an elite seaside resort 10 km east of Nice. This place has been called “Found Paradise” - among all the places on the Côte d’Azur, none is as “snobbish” as Cap Ferrat. Its 15 km coastline is lined with luxurious villas, interspersed with cozy bays, beaches and lush vegetation. And in the port of Saint-Jean, luxury yachts are moored next to fishing boats.
Every day, a luxurious yellow Lamborgini Urus on Czech license plates leaves the estate. Its cost is about 300 thousand euros. According to UP sources, this is Stolar’s car. By the way, staff cars, which also regularly appear near the estate, have converted Ukrainian numbers - without the Ukrainian flag.
The former people’s deputy from the Batkivshchyna party Oleksandr Tabalov and the former deputy of the Kharkiv Regional Council Volodymyr Skorobagach, whose family moved there almost a year ago, were also seen there. Then the daughter of Skorobagach, also a Kharkiv deputy, said that her father was leaving the country as a volunteer for a charitable foundation. He later resigned as a deputy.
UP journalists also noticed Leonid Kuchma there, accompanied by a security guard and a doctor. Kuchma went to training, after which he returned to the estate of his son-in-law, businessman Viktor Pinchuk. As reported Press Secretary of the Second President of Ukraine Darka Olifer in the comments of the UP, since February 2022, Leonid Kuchma has only left Ukraine twice - in July 2022 and in late April - early May 2023. Both trips are related to health. He is currently in Kyiv.
In addition, Boris Baum, a former adviser to the ex-deputy head of the OP Kirill Timoshenko, as well as the first deputy chairman of the advisory council for the regulation of gambling and lotteries, also ended up in Monaco. After shooting Baum on the phone, the journalists were detained by the police on the outskirts of Monaco.
According to UP sources, the son of Vyacheslav Boguslayev, suspected of treason, Alexander is also in Monaco. It is reported that he lives in apartments in the most expensive house in the Principality of One Monte-Carlo. It is a few steps from the Monte-Carlo Casino and the Hotel de Paris. It is noted that after the arrest of Vyacheslav Boguslav, his son was no longer seen in Monaco.
Mykhailo Tkach notes that after the first two investigations of the UP, there are even more Ukrainians on the Cote d’Azur… Representatives of the Ukrainian elite prefer to “sit out” the war in luxurious conditions abroad…
Earlier DATA wrote about Ukrainian businessmen, politicians, oligarchs and their children vacationing in French Courchevel during the war in Ukraine.
Source: Fakty
I am currently working as a news website author at Daily News Hack. I mostly cover trending news and have been doing so for quite some time now. I have always had a keen interest in current affairs and the world around me, which is what led me to my current job.
