Servant of People Sobolevskyi declares millions of unknown origin and fails to declare premium car for years – media. PHOTO
Yurii Sobolevskyi, First Deputy Head of the Kherson Regional Council and a regional council member from Servant of the People, declared a sudden increase of more than 3.5 million hryvnias in one year — funds of unexplained origin, mostly in foreign cash. Meanwhile, his family showcases a lavish lifestyle on social media, including numerous trips abroad and the use of a premium-class car registered to his retired father-in-law.
This is stated in the investigation by Schemes, reports Censor.NET with reference to Radio Liberty.
According to the investigation, during the 2019 elections, Yurii Sobolevskyi served as the representative of presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kherson region, Crimea, and Sevastopol. He also headed the Servant of the People campaign headquarters in Kherson region. That same year, following Zelenskyy’s victory, Sobolevskyi became an adviser to then head of the Kirovohrad Regional Administration Andrii Balon and later headed a department at the State Geocadastre’s regional office in Kirovohrad.
In his 2019 asset declaration, Yurii Sobolevskyi listed $50,000 in cash, €40,000, and nearly ₴1 million. That same year, he purchased property rights for an apartment in one of Kyiv’s residential complexes for over ₴600,000 and reported additional expenses of ₴300,000 in the same declaration.
Back in 2018, the family’s combined savings totaled ₴230,000. These funds were declared by his wife, Olena Sobolevska, when she worked as a senior specialist at the National Commission for the Regulation of Financial Services Markets.
Thus, according to the investigation, the Sobolevskyi family’s wealth increased by more than ₴3.5 million in a single year.
The Schemes investigation also highlighted a 2020 Volkswagen Touareg used by Sobolevskyi’s family but not listed in the official’s declaration.
In 2020, Sobolevsky was elected to the Kherson Regional Council from the Servant of the People party and later became first deputy chairman and head of the regional council's executive apparatus. His wife became a volunteer assistant to People's Deputy Bohdan Torokhtii, and later his daughter Anastasiia also became an assistant to People's Servant deputy Pavlo Pavlish.
Journalists spotted the premium-class car in social media posts by Sobolevskyi’s daughter, Anastasiia. Videos and photos showing either her or Sobolevskyi’s wife behind the wheel were posted in 2023, 2024, and 2025.
The 2020 Volkswagen Touareg was purchased in December 2020 from a car dealership by Sobolevskyi's father-in-law, Andrii Borysenko, who was already retired at the time. The cost of the car at the time of purchase was 2 million hryvnias, which was over $70,000 at the time. From 1998 to the end of 2020, when the car was purchased, Sobolevskyi's father-in-law officially earned 618,000 hryvnias. In addition, since 2015, he has been receiving a pension of an average of 6,000 hryvnias per month. The difference between his total income and the cost of the car is almost one million hryvnias.
Traffic violation records also confirm that the official’s wife personally uses the SUV. In May 2024, Olena Sobolevska received a traffic fine in Kyiv while driving the vehicle.
According to border-crossing data obtained by Schemes from insider sources, Sobolevskyi’s wife and children left Ukraine in March 2022 and returned in August 2023, traveling in the same Volkswagen Touareg. During that period, the family lived in Augsburg, Germany, but Sobolevskyi’s declaration contains no mention of the family renting or residing in any accommodation abroad, whether paid or free of charge.
Sobolevskyi’s daughter actively posted photos and videos from trips abroad on social media. In summer 2022, she visited France; in autumn 2022, Austria; she celebrated New Year 2023 in the Czech Republic, and 2025 in Turkey, according to the investigation.
In a comment to journalists, the official claims that he earned the money working as a lawyer, and it was not included in his wife's declaration because "the issue was not discussed." Regarding the car, he noted that he and his wife contributed their own money, but did not indicate the car in the declaration because his wife only uses it occasionally, so he did not consider it "fundamental and significant."
