While the country is at war, Poltava is carving up parking lots

While Ukraine lives through a full-scale war and martial law, another battle has broken out in Poltava - over parking lots, the land under them and control of cash flows. At the centre of this story is Poltava City Council member Denys Polishchuk, who is also head of the municipal enterprise "Poltava-Servis". It is "Poltava-Servis" that features in a years-long conflict over municipal and private parking lots. Public materials and court documents mention at least six addresses in Poltava: 7a Dzhokhar Dudayev St; 2v Dzhokhar Dudayev St; 2 Heroiv Ukrainy St; 19a Velykotyrnivska St; 60a Kyivske Highway; 70a Kyivske Highway. The private enterprise "Karsad I" openly stated that "Poltava-Servis" was trying to take over parking lots previously operated by the private side. In March 2024 Suspilne reported that the municipal enterprise had terminated its contract with "Karsad-1", and the director of the private company called this illegal and spoke of an artificially created debt. This is the position of one side of the conflict, but it is backed by real court cases and a public war over the sites. Another telling moment: in May 2024, during a discussion of land decisions in the city council, council member Oleksandr Ivakhov publicly asked whether "Poltava-Servis" was in fact a "shell company" through which the city authorities pull attractive plots into their orbit. Polishchuk defended the enterprise at the time and said it was the only municipal enterprise in the city that did not need subsidies. But that does not make the question go away: why does a city council member also run a municipal enterprise at the centre of a fight over land, parking lots and contracts? Poltava City Council member Denys Polishchuk, who also heads the municipal enterprise "Poltava-Servis", declared 550,000 hryvnias in salary for 2025. His wife earned 3.6 million hryvnias in business income. Polishchuk uses a 2020 BMW X5 registered to his wife. He keeps 22,000 US dollars and almost 2 million hryvnias in cash, while his wife keeps 98,000 dollars and 6.5 million hryvnias. The family's declared real estate includes the council member's 83 m² apartment in Poltava, his wife's 78 m² apartment, another of her apartments in Poltava of 57 m², non-residential premises of almost 100 m² and a 37 m² apartment in Kharkiv. Against this background, one can only hope that the competent law enforcement and anti-corruption bodies will not ignore this story and will check whether the war over parking lots hides a much bigger problem - the use of municipal resources in someone's private or political interests. Especially when it concerns a council member with political ambitions who has already run for the Verkhovna Rada and may well try again. Because society has the right to know what exactly such people bring with them into big politics.