Ukrainian parties spent over UAH 3B over past five years - CVU

He said this at a press conference on Wednesday, September 29, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"Over the past five years, Ukrainian political parties have spent more than UAH 3 billion. The lion's share of these funds is the funds received as part of state funding for political parties," he said.

CVU experts analyzed the costs of political parties since the introduction of public funding - for 2016-2020.

"According to the Committee of Voters, the analysis of official reports showed that Oleh Liashko's Radical Party and the Batkivshchyna All-Ukrainian Association have spent the most money over the past five years. In particular, Oleh Liashko's Radical Party spent UAH 644 million on statutory activities. The party also became the leader in terms of expenditures for the 2019 parliamentary election campaign, spending almost UAH 115 million during the election campaign," Koshel said.

The Batkivshchyna party spent UAH 631 million, including UAH 87 million on the 2019 parliamentary election campaign.

The European Solidarity party spent UAH 577 million in 2016-2020, and the Servant of the People spent UAH 513 million in 2019-2020.

"If we analyze other parties with significant costs, we point to the party Opposition Platform - For Life – UAH 190 million, Svoboda - UAH 119 million, the Ukrainian Strategy of Groysman – UAH 117 million. The latter did not receive funds as part of state funding," Koshel said.

At the same time, the Udar party spent only UAH 3 million.

"One of the negative conclusions we draw is that the lion's share of funds - 40% of political parties' expenditures – is spent on direct advertising. We have analyzed the financial reports and based on the results of state funding for 2016-2020, we can say that about 40% of funds are spent on direct advertising. And this is a rather modest assessment because it does not take into account propaganda activities, which can also often be direct advertising," Koshel said.

The Nashi party said in its annual report for 2018 that its expenditures totaled UAH 10.2 million, including UAH 10.1 million spent on billboard advertising. That is, in fact, 98-99% of the party's annual expenditures were used exclusively for direct advertising.

The Opposition Platform – For Life party spent a significant amount of funds on propaganda activities - over UAH 80 million. In 2019, the political party spent UAH 19.9 million on propaganda activities and UAH 13.4 million on television advertising.

Batkivshchyna and the Radical Party have spent significant funds on advertising over the past five years. In 2018, Batkivshchyna spent UAH 188 million, including UAH 155 million on propaganda activities.

In 2018, the Radical Party spent almost UAH 94 million, including UAH 58 million on advertising. In particular, UAH 36 million was spent on television advertising.

The Verkhovna Rada in 2015 passed a law on the financing of political parties from the state budget. The funds are distributed among the parties in proportion to the level of their support in the elections.

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