“Those close to the authorities of Ukraine are leaving the country under the guise of cultural figures”, – MP

The right granted to artists to travel abroad is being exploited by various individuals — often for money — who are not connected to culture in any way.

This was reported by Yaroslav Zheleznyak, a member of Ukraine’s “Holos” (Voice) party, on his Telegram channel.

According to Zheleznyak, out of the 3,000 men who were allowed to leave Ukraine by the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications during the war and subsequently failed to return, many were not actual artists. Instead, IT specialists and businessmen were labeled as stage technicians, sound healers (sound healing being the use of sound to improve physical and emotional well-being), or musicians. The documents often claimed they were traveling to film events like Eurovision.

Zheleznyak stated that the Ministry’s scheme is often used by people close to the authorities to simply go on vacation abroad. For example, in April of last year, Servant of the People TV series director Oleksiy Kyryushchenko allegedly traveled abroad under the pretense of “looking for story ideas” for television reports.

He also shared statistics on the number of travel request letters sent by various ministries over the past two years:

• Ministry of Culture: 6,450 letters

• Ministry of Sports: 5,800

• Ministry of Education: 4,100

• Ministry of Health: 3,700

• Ministry of Agriculture: 2,900

Some of the men who left under these letters never returned. For example, in 2025, under the leadership of Yuliya Svyrydenko, the Ministry of Economy helped at least five men travel abroad for “agricultural events.” They did not return, Zheleznyak claimed.

According to him, there are now many schemes operating in Ukraine that allow people to evade military service and leave the country.