Which District of Kyiv Backed Pro-Russian Parties the Most? Exclusive Data Published on Kyiv Day

Pro-Russian forces in the capital won a total of over 15% of the vote in the last local elections, with one in seven Kyiv residents voting for them.

The Pecherskyi district was the strongest supporter of the now banned OPFL party in the 2020 local elections. This is evidenced by data obtained by the Holka public initiative for Kyiv Day as part of the special project “My Dear Kyiv.” Such data is being published for the first time.

The head of the Holka public initiative, Iryna Fedoriv, emphasizes:

“There would have been elections in 2025 if it weren’t for the war, and Kyiv residents would already have seen campaign billboards and bags of buckwheat. There are things we must not forget during the war, because after victory there will be elections. If after Maidan, in second place after Klitschko, was the independent candidate and Maidan activist Lesya Orobets, then due to the short political memory of Kyiv residents, the representative of the now banned OPFL party, Oleksandr Popov, came in second in the last elections. The same Popov who erected a “Christmas tree” on Maidan in 2013 and whose office was supervised by the then deputy secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, Sivkovich, was also present, along with members of the Party of Regions, including Shufrich. It all ended with the dispersal of a peaceful student protest and escalated into the Revolution of Dignity. Popov, like those who were elected to local government from pro-Russian parties, still holds his seat.

Among the pro-Russian forces fighting for the capital, apart from the OPFL, there is another banned party – the Shariy Party. It gained slightly less than 3% of the vote. Looking at the electoral geography, as in the case of the OPFL, most of the supporters of this political force were in the heart of the capital.

The list was headed by the little-known pseudo-sociologist Mykhailo Zheleznyak, who, according to Texty.org, promoted Medvedchuk and the OPFL and appears on pro-Russian YouTube channels, including UkrLifeTV. Zheleznyak received fees for positive mentions of Shariy. This was reported by Bihus.info.

In fact, turnout in the last election was very low – less than 35% – and one seat in a city of over a million people was essentially won by less than 5,000 votes.

Fedoriv adds: “When Omelchenko was head of Kyiv and mayor of the city, he let the Maidan protesters into the Kyiv City State Administration during the Orange Revolution, and when Chernovetskyi fled, the city began to be ruled by Popov, a protégé of the traitor Yanukovych, who, unfortunately, still holds a representative position in the Kyiv City Council. Kiev residents have no right to ever remain on the sidelines of the political process. All revolutions were gathered on the Maidan, and it depends on who rules the capital whether the country will be able to defend its democratic system and statehood at this turning point in history.”