”Skhemy”: Andriy Portnovʼs son left Ukraine as a volunteer in March and still hasnʼt returned

The son of Andrii Portnov, the former first deputy head of the Yanukovych-era administration, 29-year-old Ihor Portnov received a temporary permit to leave Ukraine in March as a volunteer on a humanitarian aid mission. So he left for Poland and still hasnʼt returned.

This is reported by "Schemey".

Thus, on March 22, 2022, the Lviv military administration entered Ihor Portnov into the "Shlyah" system as a person of conscription age, who is allowed to temporarily leave the country for humanitarian aid for a period of one month. The Lviv military administration made such a decision regarding Ihor Portnov on the basis of a corresponding appeal from the NGO "Narodna Samoborona". The very next day, March 23, 2022, Portnov Jr. crossed the Ukrainian-Polish border at the Krakow checkpoint. As of September 6, 2022, Ihor Portnov has not returned to Ukraine.

23-year-old Ivan Poddubnov crossed the border with him. He is Andrii Portnovʼs nephew, the son of his sister Yulia Poddubnova, and it was in his car that the men left Ukraine. Ivan Poddubnov also did not return to Ukraine as of September 6.

Journalists of "Schemy" contacted Ihor Portnov through three messengers with a request for a comment, he read the message but did not respond. "Schemy" also requested a comment from the Lviv Regional Military Administration, which included Portnov in the "Shlyakh" system.

"We have more than 200 applications a day from public organizations to be entered into the "Shlyah" system. If translated into the number of people, it is more than 2,000 people a day who travel by humanitarian bus. Unfortunately, there are many such problems. The administration does not have the function of verification, the ability to verify this somehow," said Yuriy Buchko, deputy head of the Lviv regional administration.

Andriy Portnov himself left Ukraine on June 3, 2022, through the Chop (Tysa) checkpoint in Zakarpattia region.

• Andriy Portnov worked in the Administration of President Yanukovych from 2011 to 2014. He actively opposed the Maidan and soon fled to Russia, and from there he moved to Austria. From 2014 to 2015, Portnov was on the EU sanctions list for persons involved in embezzlement of state funds and human rights violations. Portnov advocated amnesty for Berkut fighters, and also threatened journalists and activists. In 2018, the SBU opened a case of treason against Portnov, for which the service was sued.
• At the end of August, sailors were allowed to leave Ukraine, and from September 1 — representatives of Ukrainian business. It will be possible to apply for departure through the "Diya" portal — there will be a mechanism "eTrip". The entrepreneur will deposit 200,000 hryvnias as collateral to his own account at Oschadbank. This money will be returned to him after the person who was on a business trip returns to Ukraine. In case of violation of the terms of the business trip, the deposit will be transferred to the needs of the Ministry of Defense, and the company will never again be able to issue new permits for employees to travel abroad, and the current ones will be canceled.