When actor Volodymyr Zelensky won the Ukrainian presidency in April, he inspired other Ukrainian celebrities to go into politics.
Now, as Ukraine hurdles toward snap parliamentary elections on July 21, at least a dozen stars are running for seats in the Verkhovna Rada. They are actors, musicians, TV presenters, and athletes.
And most of them have never been in politics before.
President’s crew
Fittingly, the Servant of the People party led by Zelensky has the largest number of celebrities on its party list.
According to the latest polls, it will also dominate in the election, taking 49 percent of the vote and at least 120 seats in the 424-member parliament.
The celebrities running with the Servant of the People are those who worked directly with Zelensky. Not surprisingly, almost all of them are comedians.
One of them is Yurii Koriavchenkov, 44, an actor on Zelensky’s show Vecherniy Kvartal (“Late Night Kvartal”). He is running for parliament in a single-member district in Kryvyi Rih, the industrial city of 630,000 people located about 400 kilometers southeast of Kyiv. It’s the hometown of Koriavchenkov, and Zelensky.
The two have worked together for more than 20 years. Koriavchenkov, often referred to as “Yuzik” in Vecherniy Kvartal shows, is one of the most recognizable members. He usually plays secondary roles.
President Volodymyr Zelensky hugs his colleague, comedian Yurii Koriavchenkov, at the convention of Zelensky’s Servant of the People party in Kyiv on June 9, 2019. Koriavchenkov is running for parliament in a single-member district in Kryvyi Rih, a city some 400 kilometers southeast of Kyiv. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)
Another celebrity running with Zelensky’s party is a popular comedic actor Serhii Sivokho.
Sivokho, 50, also has known Zelensky for over 20 years and calls him a friend. He has been one of the judges at Liga Smekha (“League of Laughter”), a comedy competition produced and hosted by Zelensky.
Sivokho was born in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, where he lived until 2012. His hometown has been occupied by the Russian-backed militants since 2014. Now, he runs for parliament in a single-member district in Donetsk Oblast, some 700 kilometers southeast of Kyiv.
“This is my home. I think this is a real opportunity to help my home,” Sivokho told the Kyiv Post.
Another comedian in Servant of the People is Roman Hryshchuk, 29, the founder of the Mamahohotala, a studio that organizes comedy shows, writes scripts and shoots television series and films.
Hryshchuk says he was inspired by Zelensky’s victory in the presidential election, which “has made a pathway (into politics) for young people.”
Hryshchuk is running in a single-member district in Kyiv, in a neighborhood where he grew up. If elected, he does not plan to combine politics with his work in comedy.
“I won’t have enough time to do both, so it will be politics only,” he says.
Ukrainian TV presenter Oleksandr Skichko, is also running with the Servant of the People party.
Skichko, 28, is mostly known for hosting one of Ukraine’s most popular morning television show “Pidyom” (“Wake Up”) on Novy Channel, part of oligarch Victor Pinchuk’s TV empire. Skichko wants to be elected in his hometown, in a single-member electoral district in Cherkasy Oblast, 200 kilometers south of Kyiv.
But it is not all about comedians. Servant of the People also attracted some popular athletes.
Olympic wrestling champion Zhan Beleniuk stands with his coach during the European Games athletic competition in Minsk, Belarus, on June 29, 2019. Beleniuk is running for parliament with the Servant of the People party led by President Volodymyr Zelensky. (AFP)
Olympic Greco-Roman wrestling champion Zhan Beleniuk is running for parliament with the party. He is 10th on the party ticket, which means he is guaranteed a seat in the Verkhovna Rada.
Beleniuk, 28, won the silver medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, as well as gold medals at the European and world championships. Beleniuk’s father was a Rwandan pilot who studied in Kyiv and was killed during the Rwandan Civil War.
Beleniuk recorded a video showing how he will fight corruption in Ukraine when elected. In the video, he performs wrestling throws on a dummy.
Another well-known Ukrainian athlete running for parliament with Zelensky’s party is a soccer star Artem Fedetskiy.
Fedetskiy, 34, is a defender in the Karpaty (Lviv) football club and a former member of the national team. He is running in the 118th single-member district located near Lviv, a regional capital some 540 kilometers west of Kyiv.
Finally, a celebrity restaurateur Mykola Tyshchenko is running with Servant of the People in the single-member district No. 219 in Kyiv.
Tyshchenko, 47, hosted a popular show “Revizor” on Novy Channel, where he inspected the quality of restaurants and hotels across Ukraine. He was also a participant in the Ukrainian version of “Dancing with the Stars.”
Just several months before becoming president, Zelensky played Tyshchenko in a TV comedy skit. He mocked the restaurateur’s macho image.
Vakarchuk and Prytula
After Zelensky, the second most famous celebrity to enter politics in 2019 is rock star Svyatoslav Vakarchuk.
Vakarchuk is the lead singer of Okean Elzy, one of Ukraine’s oldest and most popular bands.
Vakarchuk has flirted with politics before. He was elected lawmaker in 2007, but left the parliament next year, disappointed, but didn’t lose interests in politics. Many expected him to run for president in 2019, but he opted for the parliamentarian race.
On his second coming, Vakarchuk runs for parliament as the head of his own party, Voice. It has a high chance of getting in. It has been polling at 6–8 percent, while the threshold is 5 percent.
Vakarchuk’s party members said they were in negotiations with other Ukrainian celebrities about joining Voice.
One who agreed was a popular comedian and TV presenter Serhiy Prytula.
Popular comedian and TV presenter Serhiy Prytula is running for parliament with the Voice party led by the rock star Svyatoslav Vakarchuk. (Voice Press Service)
Prytula, 38, became famous in 2008, when he started hosting the morning show “Pidyom” — the same one that employed another candidate for parliament, Skichko of the Servant of the People. Since then, he has been hosting various TV shows. He is known for his humorous and sarcastic persona. When Russia started its war in eastern Ukraine, he has been helping raise donations for the Ukrainian army.
He is 30th on the Voice party ballot.
“I wanted to be useful for the country and its people,” Prytula said in a video announcing his run for parliament.
He also praised the composition of the Voice party, noting that it includes no former members of parliament. He apparently forgot Vakarchuk.
More musicians
Other parties are also including celebrities, perhaps in a last-ditch effort to attract votes.
Ukrainian singer Anastasiia Prykhodko is running in the single-member district No. 11 in Vinnytsia Oblast, some 260 kilometers southwest from Kyiv, with the Batkivschyna (“Fatherland”) party led by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
In 2009, Prykhodko represented Russia in the Eurovision song contest. However, after Moscow annexed Crimea and invaded Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, Prykhodko took a patriotic stance and started to support the Ukrainian army.
She ended her singing career in 2018 to join Batkivshchyna. Later that year, she found herself in a mini-scandal when she could not answer some questions about the party’s politics during a television interview and walked off the set.
Mykhailo Poplavsky, a pop star from the 1990s and a current member of parliament, doesn’t want to give up his seat. He is running as the face of the Agrarian Party.
Pop singer and current member of parliament Mykhailo Poplavsky (L) and superstar singer Oleg Vinnik talk to the audience in Fastiv, a town in Kyiv Oblast on July 4, 2019. Poplavsky is running for parliament as the leader of the Agrarian Party. (UNIAN)
Poplavsky, 69, is the rector of Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts, and is known by the moniker “the singing rector.” He has often been criticized in the media for alleged corruption at his university as well as for his statements that hinted he had romantic relations with his students.
Poplavsky did not respond to the Kyiv Post’s request for comment.
Another Ukrainian celebrity, a superstar singer Oleg Vynnyk, has endorsed the Agrarian Party. But even combined, Vynnyk and Poplavsky were not enough: According to the polls, the Agrarian Party won’t make it to parliament.
Singer Ivan Bobul, 66, a colorful character known onstage as Ivo Bobul, is running on the ballot of the minor Patriot party.
Singer Ivan Bobul, known onstage as Ivo Bobul, is running on the ballot of the minor Patriot party. (UNIAN)
Another pop musician, Vitalii Bilonozhko, is running on the list of Strength and Honor, a party led by Ihor Smeshko, the former head of Security Service of Ukraine. Strength and Honor is popular among older voters — also a key demographic for Bilonozhko’s music.
Bilonozhko, 66, is also a Ukrainian star of the 1990s. He usually performs with his wife Svitlana Bilonozhko and says he will try to help retirees if he makes it to parliament.
New, old trend
While the 2019 parliamentary election may feature an unusually large number of celebrities, it is not the first time singers, TV stars, and athletes have sought political office.
For instance, Ukrainian singer Ruslana, who won the Eurovision song contest in 2004, served as a lawmaker in 2006–2007. Like Vakarchuk, she was a member of the Our Ukraine party, led by former President Viktor Yushchenko.
Football star Andriy Shevchenko unsuccessfully ran for parliament in 2012.
Moreover, one of Ukraine’s most well-known celebrities, former boxer Vitali Klitschko, has served as Kyiv’s mayor since 2014.
