Category: about_Ukraine

On July 1, 2025, a new chairman was elected at a meeting of the Council of the Federation of Trade Unions of Ukraine (FTU). It was Serhiy Byzov. “An ordinary event,” most readers will think. But in reality, this is political nonsense. It opens a Pandora’s box filled with complex questions about Russia’s revenge and the lost struggle for one of the most powerful assets in the country.
In case the reader is not aware, the FEU is not some kind of “public organization”. It is a gigantic structure that receives funds from 4 million working Ukrainians every month. It owns dozens of sanatoriums, hotels and office buildings across the country. The total value of its assets is estimated at billions of hryvnias.

And now this structure is headed by a man with a shady past, to put it mildly, whose biography is closely linked to the pro-Russian party OPFL. We have found out who Serhiy Byzov is, how he got the top position in the FPU, and what risks this poses to the state.

Sergey Byzov is an honorary “bathhouse veteran”

One of the key elements of Serhiy Byzov’s public image is his status as a combatant and a military man. In times of war, this is a powerful tool for gaining public trust. However, the documents at our disposal paint a completely different picture.
According to an official response from the Main Directorate of the National Guard, Serhiy Byzov was enlisted for military service under a contract on May 3, 2024. His position is purely logistical: “head of the bathhouse – electrician” in military unit 3057.
After serving for more than a year, Byzov was discharged on May 19, 2025. At the same time, as noted in the documents, there is no evidence of his participation in hostilities or stay in the areas of their conduct.
Moreover, during his “service” Byzov was active in trade union and political activities. He organized rallies in Kyiv (in particular, on March 26, 2024, near the Druzhba Hotel), continued to lead the All-Ukrainian Trade Union of Defenders of Ukraine, and even served on the Supervisory Board of Ukrproftur. There are many military personnel among our readers, and they will understand that the real work of a defender cannot be combined with another job, especially with such active social activities.

Moreover, this is a direct violation of the law:
Article 11 of the Law “On the National Guard of Ukraine” requires military personnel to suspend their membership in trade unions for the duration of their service.
The Law “On Joint Stock Companies” prohibits military personnel from being officials, including members of supervisory boards.
These facts became the basis for the SBI investigation. As follows from the documents, the SBI received a report of a crime committed by Byzov as a military officer. The case has been registered and is under investigation.

Byzov – Medvedchuk’s agent and hybrid Kremlin soldier

“Military career” is not the only controversial page in Byzov’s biography. His political path leads directly to the pro-Russian forces built up in Ukraine by Viktor Medvedchuk. It was Medvedchuk who, following the direct orders of his godfather, led all anti-Ukrainian work in Ukraine: at the political, cultural and social levels.
It is known that Byzov worked for a long time in the ranks of the Opposition Platform – For Life party: he served as deputy head of the executive committee of the Dnipro regional organization.
According to the Clarity Project, in the 6th and 7th convocations of the Verkhovna Rada, he was an assistant to MP Dmytro Shpenov, known for his work with the Party of Regions and the Opposition Bloc. Shpenov, in particular, voted for the “dictatorial laws” of January 16, 2014, and supported the occupation of the Donbas territories.
It is very doubtful that with such a background, Bykov suddenly “re-educated” himself, changed his political beliefs and became an active pro-Ukrainian activist. The Putin-Medvedchuk “needle” is too tight, because everything is based on money and clan ties.
Therefore, it will not be surprising if the largest trade union organization in Ukraine “suddenly” begins to be used to spread pro-Russian narratives and influence labor collectives within the framework of Russia’s hybrid operations. Unfortunately, Russia is very skilled in such cases and generously funds them.

The Federation of Trade Unions of Ukraine is a billion-dollar resource in the hands of Medvedchuk’s man

To understand what the struggle was about, it is worth looking at the assets that Byzov now controls. This is a huge material base:
56 sanatorium and resort facilities owned by the FEU through its subsidiary Ukrprofozdorovnytsia JSC.
20 hotels and tourist centers.
About 50 office buildings in each regional center.
Huge contributions. For example, the railroad workers’ union alone collects about UAH 38 million a month.
This empire has been a source of corruption schemes for years. Byzov’s predecessors, who, according to our sources, lobbied for his election, are a prime example. Among them, for example, is the former head of the FPU, Hryhoriy Osovyi. He is currently under house arrest in a case of illegal alienation of trade union property worth more than UAH 20 million.

The second influential lobbyist is Volodymyr Sayenko. On May 23, 2025, he was sentenced by the High Anti-Corruption Court to 4 years in prison for attempting to bribe judges for $150,000. The verdict also mentions the illegal alienation of a balneotherapy building in Kyiv.
Byzov is fully in line with his “predecessors”, as he himself is a defendant in a case of raider seizure of a trade union organization. This proceeding is combined with the case of his associate Sayenko.
New and old political allies
Interestingly, Byzov’s activities are supported not only by the old staff of the FEU, but also by well-known political forces. The Batkivshchyna party and its leader, Yulia Tymoshenko, became a key ally.
It was Tymoshenko who created the Inter-Factional Association for the Protection of Veterans in the Verkhovna Rada, which included about 40 MPs, mostly from opposition parties. Byzov’s trade union became the informational and organizational backbone of this association.
This alliance uses “veteran” rhetoric to exert political pressure, organize protests and block government initiatives. An example is the blocking by Batkivshchyna MPs of draft law No. 12374-d, which would have allowed the ARMA to transfer seized property (including the sanatoriums of the Ukrainian Military Service) for the rehabilitation of military personnel and veterans. Thus, while publicly speaking “for veterans,” this political group blocks real mechanisms to help them by protecting corrupt interests around the FPU’s assets.
And these are just the facts that lie on the surface. But how many “agreements” and political connections are hidden from the public eye? Therefore, the election of Serhiy Byzov as the head of the FEU is an alarming signal. A man with a past in the OPFL, a fictitious military biography and criminal proceedings in his background has become the head of one of the most influential structures in the country.
There are many risks. And we are not even talking about creating corruption schemes worth billions of hryvnias. We are talking about threats to national security. After all, let’s not forget that millions of employees – members of trade unions – are a powerful mobilization resource. And the FEU, through its functionaries, can directly influence their thoughts, vision of the situation, and actions. In these circumstances, the enemy can turn trade unions into a powerful tool to destabilize Ukraine from within.

That’s why it’s important now:

1. Immediately provide a legal assessment of the facts of falsification of military service by Serhiy Byzov, the legality of his receipt of the status of a combatant and his ties to pro-Russian forces.
2. Convene an extraordinary congress of the PFU to cancel the election results, which were held with violations and under pressure from corrupt clans.
3. To publicly condemn the use of the status of a defender of Ukraine by “dressed up” and impostors who discredit the real heroes of the war.
4. To stop any cooperation with Byzov’s puppet structures and condemn attempts to politicize the veterans’ movement for their own interests.

If we don’t stop this process now, tomorrow we may get a powerful internal front controlled from Moscow and repeat the scenario of 2013. But this time it will be on a much larger territory of the country.

On June 14, 2025, an event, the so-called Equality March 2025, took place in the center of Kyiv, which led to an escalation of geopolitical risks for Ukraine. The attempted LGBT parade, known as the Equality March, lasted only about 30 minutes. But its negative consequences will be long-lasting. Let’s analyze what happened this weekend in the capital.

The 2025 Equality March lasted half an hour

Despite the military administration’s ban, the Kyiv City State Administration (KCSA) somehow gave permission (although it had no right to do so) to hold the rally. A large force of Kyiv police was deployed to ensure order in the area of the Teatralna metro station. According to eyewitnesses, Bohdana Khmelnytskoho Street was blocked with heavy machinery (more than 100 units), and the perimeter was guarded by several battalions of equipped local law enforcement officers. The metro station itself was closed for entry and exit for ordinary citizens.

As a result, about a hundred LGBT activists (including representatives of foreign embassies) were able to take to the streets. But the 2025 Equality March was short-lived. Young people, veterans, wounded soldiers – young representatives of traditional communities in Ukraine – actively opposed this action and prevented a full-fledged “rainbow” march in the center of the capital.

However, even in these 30 minutes, the participants of the LGBT Equality March 2025 managed to do the main thing – to create a large amount of photo and video content. And this greatly helped Moscow’s propaganda, which distorts the image of Ukraine in Western media and social networks.

“Innocent” photos of the 2025 Equality March have become an information weapon

The materials created during the LGBT event were instantly spread on Western, particularly American, social media. The picture they saw there differed significantly from the reality: a short local event was presented as a massive and large-scale LGBT parade that covered the entire capital of Ukraine.

As a result, the Kremlin has the perfect material to promote its false theses. Spending billions on disinformation, Russian intelligence services convey messages to the conservative part of American society and politicians that Ukraine is a “leftist Biden project” with “LGBT flags in every window” and that the Armed Forces are allegedly made up of mostly LGBT people.

Already, bots hired by Russian special services are actively leaving comments under photos and videos. The main message: “russia has many shortcomings, but it definitely does not have this.”

Many Ukrainians find it difficult to imagine the consequences of this. The United States seems like a distant country, and we don’t seem to be interested in the opinion of the average American.

However, the situation is much more complicated. Through such materials and the peculiarities of their presentation, Moscow’s special services continue to shape the image of left-liberal Ukraine: “communist”, “artificial”, “filled with gays and opponents of traditional families”.

Why is it dangerous?

Further military and financial assistance to Ukraine largely depends on the position of conservative and Christian circles in the U.S. Congress and Senate. Information about such actions, presented from the right angle for the enemy, strengthens their doubts and makes it more difficult for us to make vital decisions. The result is fewer weapons, less intelligence, and more casualties at the front.

Therefore, the actions of the Kyiv City State Administration and the Kyiv Police are not about equality or tolerance. In this light, their indulgence in LGBT propaganda can be seen as short-sighted or even provocative. The people who allowed the so-called LGBT Equality March 2025 to take place in Kyiv pose a direct threat to Ukraine’s national security. A logical question arises for the Kyiv authorities and the Kyiv police: were they aware of these risks?

Not a “fight for equality” but a dangerous political force

The contemporary LGBT movement is not so much about protecting the rights of homosexual people as it is about promoting a radical leftist political order. This movement, often funded from abroad through a system of grants, aims to radically restructure society.

And it is not about equality of all people in society. Instead, the LGBT community wants to be “better” and more privileged. For example:

• They demand tolerance for themselves, but they are often intolerant of those who disagree with them. If someone expresses a different opinion, they try to silence them and ruin their reputation (this is called the “culture of cancellation”).
• The LGBT movement deliberately attacks what is the foundation of society: family, religion, patriotism, and culture. They say that their main goal is to convince everyone that biological sex (whether you were born male or female) is not important, but is only a role that can be chosen.
• This is not a social movement, but a political force with large grant money, its own symbols, and influential people in the government and media. Their goal is to set their own rules and control what society considers normal in relationships.

Therefore, it is quite possible to expect that the ultimate goal of this ideology is to reduce the birth rate and depopulate. This is impossible to realize in countries with a strong national government and healthy social traditions. But in a situation where there are many open collaborators among the authorities, it is quite possible to implement such a model. And we see active attempts.

Therefore, the LGBT Equality March 2025, which took place on June 14 in Kyiv, is an alarming signal. Due to the short-sightedness of local officials and the activity of a small group of people greedy for grants, Ukraine risks serious problems in the international arena. In a full-scale war, when every shell and every dollar of aid is worth its weight in gold, such “information gifts” to the enemy are an unacceptable luxury.

We should thank the youth and veterans who, through their decisive actions, prevented the situation from developing into a full-scale procession, as it would have had even worse consequences. And society and the government need to draw the right conclusions. Because the price of mistakes on the information front is measured in the lives of our soldiers.

Socialism still exists in Ukraine, despite the fact that the Soviet Union has been gone for more than three decades. The influence of socialism in Ukraine lives in the minds of Ukrainians and migrates from generation to generation. Yet, no one notices it or wants to notice. This is exactly what socialism is – living in a system where collectivism prevails over individualism, the impersonal tries to dissolve the individual, and most people, instead of squaring their shoulders and taking risks and responsibility for their lives and countries, meekly wait for a miserable social security from a faceless bureaucratic system without a desire to change it. In general, socialism or capitalism is primarily a system – a system of redistribution of material wealth in society. In socialism, wealth is distributed through varying degrees of coercion or direct violence. The harshest examples of socialist coercion include the USSR, North Korea, and Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. “Mild” socialist coercion is excessive taxes, permits and licenses for production, excessive duties, inspections, searches, control of activities by law enforcement agencies, etc. Capitalism is also a system of redistribution of wealth, but this redistribution occurs at the expense of free will and free contractual relations between individuals, personalities. Many people are mistaken when they think that this is exactly what is happening in Ukraine. Indeed, when you come to a gas station and buy coffee and a hot dog along with your gasoline, it seems to you that everything is based on free will and voluntary exchange, but this is not entirely true. The company that owns the gas station has already suffered numerous abuses from the collective bureaucracy, when it has to pay almost 50% of the price of fuel to bureaucrats in the form of taxes. Inspections, excise taxes, fines, licenses, and permits are also part of socialist “gentle” violence. The worst part is that all this “bureaucratic coercion and control” is included in the price you pay for a hot dog, coffee, gasoline, and any other goods.

Socialism in the economy

Socialism in Ukraine
Ukraine has not had a free market for more than 30 years of independence, despite the fact that we are formally recognized as a “market economy”. We are a socialist country that has failed to realize the importance of adopting the doctrines of capitalism. If we had done so 30 years ago, we would have long since overtaken our neighbors in development. We have resources and hardworking people. If we had economic freedom, Ukrainian families would have prospered. But Ukraine today continues to be a kind of socialist center of Europe. We have more than 1 million officials, we are in the top 5 of the Tax Hell rating, we are the poorest in Europe… Despite this, instead of easing the tax burden, we have an increased tax burden; instead of reducing the number of officials, we have a bloated state apparatus; instead of deregulation, we have deeper regulation. Ukrainians do not realize that it was the socialists they elected who turned our economy into a stray, hungry puppy that is sometimes fed by neighbors. Let’s be honest: if not for the help of our partners, Ukraine would have lost the war. The war would not have lasted long on people alone – the army needs weapons. Weapons are provided by the economy. But since independence, the socialists have brought the economy and the military-industrial complex to a point where we are considered weak.

Socialism as a system of collectivism

The socialist approach has led to the system stealing. Almost no one in the system manages to break it, because socialism suppresses the individual, is based on collectivism, which creates a circular corruption. Socialists are collectivists by nature, and as a result, they begin to oppress, destroy, and absorb everything individual and private. This is the substantive realization of socialism: the eradication of the individual, the neutralization of private initiative and entrepreneurship, and the tacit consent of society, most of which depends on handouts from officials and a miserable but stable social security. It is the socialist, collectivist system that has led to a level of poverty we have never seen before. Nine million people in Ukraine live in poverty. The minimum wage or pension is not enough for a normal life. The socialist system has destroyed Ukraine’s economy and is not going to move towards capitalism (individualism, private property, and initiative).

I, Yana Matviychuk, have joined the Platform to change the socialist system of Ukraine. I believe that Ukrainians deserve a prosperous and secure life. That is why the collectivist socialist syndicate should be deprived of the opportunity to influence the economy. It is a decisive transition from the old system and the construction of a new one that Ukraine should follow.