Ihor Khmil, a deputy of the Vinnytsia Regional Council from the Ukrainian Strategy of Groysman (USG), initiated the creation of a working group to find the real causes of the mass death of fish at an aqua farm in the village of Stepashky, Vinnytsia Oblast. His political party colleague, the head of the Vinnytsia Regional Council, Vyacheslav Sokolovyi, could not deny his colleague this pleasure. Especially when it is not about fish at all, but about attempts to preserve at least some remnants of the political influence of the USG in the Haisyn community, where Khmil is a curator from this political force, UNN writes.
Ihor Khmil is the founder of the Dobrodar Charitable Foundation, which is now formally run by his son. He is also an ardent supporter of the Moscow Patriarchate.
In 2015, a newly built St. Andrew's Church was "solemnly" opened in Trostianets. Khmil personally donated five million hryvnias for its construction. And Metropolitan Onufriy of the UOC-MP himself came to consecrate it.
And all this was happening while our soldiers were already being killed by Russians in eastern Ukraine.
For such service to the branch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Khmil received the Order of St. George the Victorious from the hands of Onufriy .
Even the full-scale invasion of Russia did not change the outlook of the MP from Groysman. In particular, in June 2022, the Dobrodar Foundation purchased a vehicle for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. No one can argue that this is a good deed. But Ihor Khmil could not think of anything better than to take it to the consecration of Metropolitan Varsonofiy of Vinnytsia and Bar of the UOC-MP.
This groveling before the Moscow Patriarchate outraged the volunteers. However, Khmil himself did not see anything wrong with taking the car to the church whose patriarch actually sanctifies the killing of civilian Ukrainians.
"I am not a fanatic, I respect all churches. However, I insist on my constitutional right to a free choice of religion. Because it is the right to choose that distinguishes us from Russians. Why are we being labeled as the "Moscow church" when there is no longer a Moscow Patriarchate but the Ukrainian Orthodox Church," Groysman's associate said at the time.
And in September, the SBU exposed Varsonofiy for justifying Russian aggression and inciting sectarian strife among believers.
And even so, in November 2022, Khmil was the only member of the Vinnytsia Regional Council who abstained during the vote on the appeal to ban the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine.
And in April 2023, he was also the only one who abstained during the vote to terminate the lease agreements with the UOC-MP.
Already at the end of December last year, when the community of the Holy Kazan Church in Ladyzhyn decided to move to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Khmil still remained faithful to the slogan "For the faith! For Fatherhood" and published on his social media page a post by the UOC-MP in which the OCU community was accused of allegedly seizing the church.
Khmil began his journey into politics in 2015: he was elected to the Vinnytsia Regional Council from the Samopomich party and was even elected deputy chairman of the regional council.
The media periodically raised the issue of Khmil's wealth. In particular, it was said that he had transferred large plots of land, estates in Vinnytsia and Kyiv regions, apartments, businesses, a shopping center in Trostianets, and an elite car to his relatives.
In September 2022, it was reported that Ihor Khmil was detained at the Mohyliv-Podilskyi customs with a package containing an unknown substance, pills, and ammunition.
Khmil himself confirmed the fact of his detention, but, according to him, the car he was riding in was a working car, and it was allegedly used by many different people all the time.
He claimed that he had seen the package in the car for the first time. It was never established what substance was in it. Khmil claimed that the pills were dietary supplements and that they were hunting cartridges that he had simply forgotten in the car.
Context
Last October, a massive fish pestilence occurred at an aqua farm in the village of Stepashky. The head of the Vinnytsia Regional Council, Vyacheslav Sokolovyi, created a working group on this issue on the initiative of Ihor Khmil.
Some members of this group claimed that it was created solely for political reasons.
Ecologists have already voiced their conclusions about the causes of the fish death. The head of the aqua farm, Alexander Korkh, agreed with them.
A meeting of the working group is scheduled for January 16.