IDPs, social media and a volunteer: the election campaign of Luhansk deputies begins in the rear
Despite the uncertainty of electoral prospects in the context of war, as well as the fact that a significant part of the Luhansk region remains under occupation, some people’s deputies from this region have already begun active activities in the public sphere. Some are engaged in helping internally displaced persons, and others have actively joined volunteer projects or are trying to maintain their political visibility. We discuss which of the Luhansk people’s deputies is the most visible in the political arena and whether this can be considered a cautious start to the upcoming election campaign.
The Servant of the People faction and the focus on internally displaced persons
Among the active deputies, we can single out Maksym Tkachenko, Ruslan Horbenko, and Oleksiy Kuznetsov. All three belong to the Servant of the People faction, although only Tkachenko has openly confirmed his membership in the party. It is he who receives the most attention: the deputy is known for his activities in support of internally displaced persons.
Tkachenko heads the Luhansk regional party organization and is the deputy chairman of the parliamentary faction. He also actively cooperates with the public organization “IDPs of Ukraine,” which implements humanitarian and cultural initiatives for displaced persons in different regions of Ukraine. The deputy often personally participates in various actions.
However, his comment about 150,000 displaced persons who allegedly returned to the occupation due to difficulties in adapting caused a significant resonance. Tkachenko explained that he expressed an assumption, not a fact, but this explanation has already been used in Russian propaganda.
Oleksiy Kuznetsov, in turn, focused on supporting the military. His activities primarily involve work with charitable foundations, particularly with the Sergei Gaidai Foundation.
Opposition deputies: intentions to return?
The so-called group of opposition deputies includes Yuriy Boyko, Yulia Ioffe, Sergei Dunaeva, and Viktoriya Hryb. After the war, Boyko found himself at the center of several scandals: he was stripped of the title of Hero of Ukraine, expelled from a parliamentary committee, and summoned to the SBU for a high-profile video address in which he criticized derussification.
His colleagues — Ioffe and Dunayev — chose the tactic of silence, not making public statements. MP Hryb continues to engage in expert circles actively, avoiding pre-election rhetoric.
Shakhov’s team, without a leader
It is worth mentioning separately the deputies who represented Serhiy Shakhov’s team: Shakhov himself, Serhiy Velmozhny, Oleksandr Sukhov, and Oleksandr Lukashev. Before the war, their activities were remembered for their generous support of social projects within the population.
However, after the war, their activity decreased significantly. The “Our Land” party, to which three of them belonged, was banned, and Serhiy Shakhov himself was put on the wanted list. According to journalists, he has been living in Dubai in recent years, although he sometimes appears online at parliamentary committee meetings.
Will there be an election campaign?
None of the deputies have formally announced the start of the campaign. Still, their activity may indicate not only “work in the district” but also an attempt to maintain political recognition under challenging conditions. Electoral issues remain unclear, but each of them is trying to play their own long game.
It also became known that the Russians took tens of thousands of books to the libraries of the Luhansk region to “zombify” children.
