Reported by
Ukrainian politician Serhii Shakhov has not physically attended parliamentary committee sessions since fleeing law enforcement over two years ago. Instead, he has joined via video-link from a location that has remained a mystery — until now.
Shakhov has been dialling in from a luxury apartment in Dubai, where he appears to live with his family, according to reporting by the Ukrainian investigative reporting platform Schemes.
The 292-square-meter apartment has been rented by Inna Zhurba since July 2022, according to leaked Dubai property records. Shakhov previously told Schemes that Zhurba is the mother of his children.
The yearly lease on the flat is worth about $100,000, the records from OCCRP’s Dubai Unlocked project show.
Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) has been seeking Shakhov since 2023, because he did not show up in court to face criminal charges. The case is related to Shakhov's alleged failure to report about $2.1 million in assets in his declaration to the government. Such declarations are legally required for Ukrainian public officials
Asset declarations must include rented homes, but Shakhov has also failed to report his Dubai residence, according to Schemes, which is a project of the Ukrainian service of RFE/RL.
Shakhov did not respond to requests for comment.
In 2021, Schemes published an investigation revealing that Shakhov had failed to declare his relationship with Zhurba, and the assets registered in her name — including a house, apartments, business and land plots. The findings became the basis for NABU’s criminal case launched later that year. And Shakhov fled the country in late 2022, after hearings had begun.
In 2023, Shakhov was questioned by the Ukrainian parliament’s regulatory committee about his absence, and he said he was receiving treatment for an unspecified medical condition in an unnamed country.Â
He also told the committee he had been granted official travel assignments, including meetings with Estonia’s parliament. However, a spokesperson for Estonia’s parliament told reporters that he had never visited.
Schemes has now discovered him in Dubai with Zhurba, and their children.Â
The leaked property records include Zhurba’s name and passport information on the lease for the Dubai flat. That apartment also appears in dozens of photos and videos uploaded by his adult daughter to Tik Tok, and the messaging app Telegram.
Those photos and videos show features of the apartment that are also present in videos of Shakhov attending Ukraine parliamentary committee sessions, which are available on YouTube.
Meanwhile, videos posted by Shakhov’s adult daughter also show that the family’s two children attended Kent College Dubai, a private school with an annual tuition exceeding $20,000 per pupil. This expense is absent from Shakhov’s asset declaration.
Although Ukrainian prosecutors have suggested that Shakhov should be stripped of his parliamentary seat, citing his prolonged absence from the country, lawmakers have declined to act. In response to inquiries, the parliament’s regulatory committee said it lacks the authority to determine whether an MP has moved abroad permanently.
