Average Ukrainian Political Contribution 27 Times Larger than American - CHESNO

Over the past two years, some 20,000 Ukrainians have formally funded politicians to the tune of over 4 billion hryvnias ($160.4 million). The average contribution is 121,000 hryvnias ($4,851).

This is reported by the CHESNO public movement with reference to the financial statements of parties and candidates for 2018 and the first three quarters of 2019.

In contrast, the report points out that the average contribution to Donald Trump's 2019 re-election campaign was $176.

“By law, Ukrainian parties can be financed by both legal entities (businesses or NGOs) and natural persons (individuals). The latter have been more active,” the message reads.

Over the past two years, individuals have donated 2.4 billion hryvnias ($96.2 million) to political parties and candidates in the presidential election. Ex-president Petro Poroshenko’s Bloc (now renamed European Solidarity) had the highest number of individual donors at 4,512, whilst Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People only had 300.

Another 509 million ($20.4 million) were donated by 281 businesses and NGOs. About half a billion hryvnias ($20 million) were received by the election funds of MP candidates.

"That is, parties and presidential candidates raised about 4 billion hryvnias  ($160.4 million) – the amount equal to the annual budget of the (central Ukrainian -ed.) city of Vinnytsia, for example," the public movement explains.

The largest amount of funds from individuals – 564 million ($22.6 million) – was received by ex-PM Yulia Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna.

The only party to be majority-funded by legal entities was the Agrarian Party of Ukraine. The political force endorsed by popstars was often financed by agricultural enterprises but managed to get just 0.51% of the vote.