The “European Solidarity” party positions itself as a pro-Ukrainian political force that supports the Armed Forces of Ukraine, opposes Russian influence in all areas of life, and specifically stands against the Moscow Patriarchate, Russian businessmen under sanctions, and other agents of Russian influence. However, the actions of one of the party’s key PR strategists and the leader Petro Poroshenko’s associate, Volodymyr Horkovenko, effectively turn this positioning upside down.
Mr. Gorkovenko is known for his fondness for so-called “side gigs” — PR assignments that contradict not only the ideology declared by his party but also the basic norms of informational integrity. The “masterclasses” of this PR truly astonish.
For instance, during the full-scale war, Gorkovenko shamelessly criticizes active servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine who are performing combat missions, while also advocating for sanctioned pro-Russian oligarchs and crime bosses. He doesn’t shy away from collaborating with representatives of the now-banned Opposition Platform – For Life (OPFL) party.
Below, we outline key cases of Gorkovenko’s “side gigs” and controversies that illustrate the impressive opportunism of the “European Solidarity” party’s version of a bargain-basement Goebbels.
Criticism of servicemen who voiced support for banning the Russian Orthodox Church
In one of his Facebook posts, Volodymyr Horkovenko expressed doubts that servicemen advocating for the ban of the Russian Orthodox Church were acting independently. He described their posts on the subject as “uniform” and “template-like,” even though at least two of the servicemen he criticized are well-known Ukrainian warriors who have earned authority and respect among their comrades.
One of the founders of the InformNapalm network, Mykhailo Makaruk, who is currently fighting in eastern Ukraine, reacted to Volodymyr Horkovenko’s post. He called him a “liar” and noted that “people in the Armed Forces of Ukraine have their own initiative, freedom of expression, and intellect,” and no one gave them orders to write such posts. Volodymyr Horkovenko did not respond to Makaruk’s post.
Advocacy for pro-Russian oligarch Fuks
On July 10, 2024, Volodymyr Horkovenko published a blog on the censor.net website, which was widely shared by other sites. In this blog, he accused Ukrainian media of a commissioned attack on the notorious sanctioned Ukrainian-Russian oligarch Pavlo Fuks. In the same text, he also attempted to convince readers that Fuks had no ties to the equally controversial head of the State Migration Service, Vyacheslav Huz. However, investigators from the publication “Mezha” convincingly proved the connection between Fuks and Huz, which led Huz to essentially declare a hunt on journalists.
Let us remind you that Fuks, a native of Kharkiv, is an oligarch who voluntarily obtained Russian citizenship. According to the FBI, Fuks is a “co-opted asset” of Russian intelligence. In 2021, sanctions were imposed on Fuks by the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. At the end of 2023, the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, Kyrylo Budanov, identified Fuks as a Russian citizen. Operational sources report that Fuks acted as an intermediary between Alexander Bortnikov, the director of the FSB of the Russian Federation, and the now-deceased mayor of Kharkiv, Hennadiy Kernes, to conduct a “special operation” for the voluntary surrender of Kharkiv in 2014. According to a Rolling Stone investigation, in 2022, on the eve of the invasion, Fuks paid mercenaries in Kharkiv to paint swastikas on buildings.
Organization of a coalition in the district council between “European Solidarity” and OPFL, threats of physical violence against a journalist
In 2020, Volodymyr Horkovenko ran for the Kyiv Regional Council and the Boryspil District Council from the “European Solidarity” party. He did not join the district council, as he received a deputy mandate in the regional council. However, local activists call him the “overseer” of the district branch of the party. In May 2023, a coalition was formed in the district council that included “European Solidarity” and OPFL. In response to accusations from journalist Volodymyr Hurinенко about collaborating with a pro-Russian party, Volodymyr Horkovenko began threatening him, promising to “conduct a lesson with flashes and fireworks” when they meet.
Public defense of Russian citizen and crime boss Mamuka Oniani
Volodymyr Horkovenko published his own investigation on the “treachery of the Ukrainian law enforcement system” in defense of Mamuka Oniani. The author claims that “the man was quietly and unlawfully deprived of Ukrainian citizenship nine years ago.” Horkovenko accuses employees of the Ukrainian Migration Service of forging Mamuka Oniani’s Russian passport and unjustifiably including him in the National Security and Defense Council’s sanctions lists as a person with the status of a crime boss.
Mamuka Oniani, known as a crime boss with the nickname “Mamuka,” is the nephew of one of the most influential members of the so-called “Sukhumi clan,” Tariel Oniani, nicknamed “Taro.” Mamuka Oniani holds Russian citizenship. In early 2021, he was banned from entering Ukraine and was subsequently included in the National Security and Defense Council’s list of criminal elements. On May 11, 2022, the police detained Mamuka Oniani as a crime boss from the NSDC list in Prykarpattia, where he was hiding in a private house.
An anecdotal report on parliamentary activity
In the 2023 parliamentary report published on the Kyiv Regional Council’s website, Volodymyr Horkovenko lists participation in seven meetings as one of his achievements.
Among Horkovenko’s other “achievements” for 2023 are providing assistance to Kyiv region residents using the deputy fund (the regional council’s budget) and informing voters about his activities through the media. Horkovenko informs residents about his work via social media and in this report, which contains numerous grammatical errors, raising doubts about his professional competence as a journalist.
Justification of a son who promoted drug use
According to an investigation by the “Informator” website, Volodymyr Horkovenko’s son, Nazar, may be involved in the promotion and sale of narcotic and psychoactive substances. Nazar studies at London’s Bayes Business School, where tuition costs at least £92,000, and has also founded a company in London called KYIV420 LTD (in slang, the number 420 refers to marijuana use), which was engaged in selling clothing with prints depicting and naming psychoactive and narcotic substances such as MDMA (amphetamine), marijuana, LSD, Xanax, and others.
In Ukraine, until recently, there was a website with the same name, KYIV420, under a different domain, where drugs such as marijuana and hashish were sold.
Both websites were created in 2023, two months apart. Shortly after the investigation was published, the Ukrainian website ceased operations, while the British one, whose connection to Horkovenko’s son is confirmed by information from British registries, reduced its assortment. In particular, the most explicit T-shirts with prints of drug names disappeared from the site.
After the release of the second investigation, Volodymyr Horkovenko wrote a post on Facebook in which he called the materials on the “Informator” website commissioned but fully confirmed some key facts from the publication. In particular, he admitted that his son, who studies at London’s Bayes Business School, is connected to a company called Kyiv420 and sells clothing with questionable prints. He also stated that thanks to the “Informator” investigation, demand for his son’s company’s products had increased, and his son plans to expand the business.
Conflict with the 24th Channel
In October 2023, the management and journalists of the 24th Channel filed a statement with the National Anti-Corruption Bureau regarding the actions of Kyiv Regional Council deputy Volodymyr Horkovenko, who had previously accused the 24th Channel of corruption in his blog post on Censor.net without evidence. In response, the 24th Channel stated that Horkovenko was spreading false information as part of a media campaign to discredit Lviv Mayor Sadovyi, who owns the 24th Channel.
During August, September, and October 2023, Horkovenko published three articles in his blog on Censor.net, dedicated to various aspects of possible violations by Andriy Sadovyi in his role as mayor of Lviv. However, both before and after October 2023, none of Horkovenko’s articles addressed the local Lviv or regional agenda or Sadovyi as the city’s mayor. After the publication of Horkovenko’s blogs, online media outlets simultaneously released articles containing no information other than what was published in Horkovenko’s blogs. This is a clear sign of a coordinated “black PR” media campaign, as claimed by journalists of the 24th Channel.
Work as a PR specialist in the interests of the former chairman of the board of NEC “Ukrenergo,” Volodymyr Kudrytskyi
In June 2024, articles with signs of bias appeared in the media, in which Volodymyr Horkovenko acted as an expert in energy and banking, despite lacking the relevant education and necessary expertise, and launched a media attack on Alliance Bank.
Specifically, he accused the bank, which refused to pay a bank guarantee for a dubious agreement between “Ukrenergo” and a company close to oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky – “United Energy” – resulting in NEC losing 1.4 billion UAH for supplied electricity, of violating the terms of the bank guarantee. As with the information campaign against Andriy Sadovyi, Horkovenko’s comments against Alliance Bank were simultaneously replicated across several media outlets.
Later, journalists discovered that Volodymyr Horkovenko was acting as an unofficial PR specialist for Volodymyr Kudrytskyi and found out that the Horkovenko and Kudrytskyi families had purchased neighboring plots of land in Kyiv.
After the bank legally proved the bad faith actions of “Ukrenergo” under the leadership of Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, Volodymyr Horkovenko registered a petition calling for sanctions against the bank.
A strange declaration: three years unemployed, then somehow earned over 3.7 million UAH
According to the Unified State Register of Declarations of the NACP, from 2019 to 2022, Volodymyr Horkovenko was temporarily unemployed and lived off his wife’s income. However, the 2023 declaration states that Volodymyr Horkovenko received income from entrepreneurial activity amounting to 3,719,400 UAH. At the same time, according to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, Individual Entrepreneurs, and Public Organizations of the Ministry of Justice, Horkovenko is not an individual entrepreneur, nor is he an owner or founder of legal entities. Therefore, the Ministry of Justice registry data indicates that he is not engaged in entrepreneurial activity. Questions about the nature of Horkovenko’s entrepreneurial activity in 2023, which brought him an income of 3,719,400 UAH, as well as the specific sources (legal or natural persons) from which he received an annual income exceeding 3 million UAH, remain unanswered.
Suspicions of commissioned media campaigns and dissemination of “talking points”
In 2019, the Kyiv Post published documents indicating that Petro Poroshenko’s team paid Ukrainian media in 2015-2016 for publishing positive materials about the president and organizing “black PR” against his opponents. The discovered documents were part of an unofficial media plan in which the president’s team specified which politicians or experts to quote and which to ignore, with honoraria paid accordingly. The documents were found in the office of Volodymyr Horkovenko, who at the time headed the Department of Information Policy of the Presidential Administration. They listed the budgets of Ukrainian TV channels, print media, websites, and radio stations that received money for publishing paid articles as news. According to the investigation, at least six print publications were involved in this media plan. Figures for payments to various media outlets were also disclosed: during the 2015 local election campaign, more than $1 million, mostly in cash, was paid to seven radio stations for “news placements.”
