Hennadii Vatsak’s Dolce Vita: Ukrainian MP Flaunts Wartime Luxury Absent from His Asset Declaration

Ukrainian MP Hennadii Vatsak, a member of the Dovira (Trust) parliamentary group, has released a motivational video titled Your Path, Your Choice. His reflections on success, discipline and overcoming adversity are accompanied by a display of luxury vehicles. The footage features two Rolls-Royces, an Aston Martin, a Jeep, a helicopter, a plane and a jet ski.

Of the seven vehicles shown, only one appears in Vatsak’s 2025 asset declaration: a 2023 Rolls-Royce Cullinan. According to the filing, he has leased the vehicle from Vatsak Confectionery House since 1 December 2025. The second Rolls-Royce, Aston Martin, Jeep, plane, helicopter and jet ski are absent from the declaration. In total, the MP disclosed 14 vehicles owned or used by him and members of his family.

The video appeared just days after an investigation by Bihus.Info, a Ukrainian investigative journalism outlet. Its reporters identified cars worth an estimated $3.5 million associated with Vatsak, his family, companies and associates. They also examined mining businesses owned by the MP and his relatives that have featured in criminal investigations into suspected illegal extraction of minerals.

Vatsak’s story began long before the Rolls-Royces. The future MP built his wealth in confectionery.

From Paramedic to Confectionery Magnate

Hennadii Vatsak began his working life as a paramedic and waiter. In the early 2000s, he entered the confectionery business in Mohyliv-Podilskyi, a town in Ukraine’s Vinnytsia region near the Moldovan border.

What began as a small production operation grew into Vatsak Confectionery House, with its own network of retail outlets. His surname became a brand, while the business developed into a family enterprise involving several relatives.

Vatsak began his political career at regional level. He was elected to the Vinnytsia Regional Council in 2010 and 2015 before winning a seat in Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, in the 2019 election for single-member constituency No. 16. He subsequently joined the Dovira parliamentary group.

Business remained central to his public image. Vatsak regularly publicised charitable activities, visits to his constituency and assistance to local residents, including the distribution of products made by his own confectionery company.

According to his 2025 asset declaration, the family reported income of approximately $254,000. Viktoriia Vatsak accounted for around $158,000, Stanislav Vatsak for $74,000 and the MP himself for $20,000.

Confectionery, however, was not the family’s only business interest.

The Confectionery Business and $700,000 in Unpaid Taxes

In 2025, Ukraine’s Bureau of Economic Security, the agency responsible for investigating economic crimes, investigated Vatsak Confectionery House.

Investigators alleged that the company used a network of 126 registered sole traders to sell its confectionery products.

According to the investigation, products were supplied to these traders at artificially low prices before being resold to consumers at a markup. Investigators believed the traders were effectively controlled by the company and that the arrangement reduced the manufacturer’s tax liabilities.

The confectionery house’s director, Valerii Tverdokhlib, was formally notified of suspicion in connection with alleged unpaid taxes exceeding $700,000.

The company subsequently repaid more than $700,000 to the state, and the director was released from criminal liability under provisions of Ukrainian law.

Vatsak himself was not charged in the case.

In November 2026, Bihus.Info examined how the retail network operated following the tax investigation. Reporters bought products at one of its Kyiv stores and found that the fiscal receipt identified a sole trader, Olha Aliksiichuk, as the seller. They also identified indirect indications linking her to accounting services for Vatsak-associated businesses.

It remains unclear how substantially the retail model changed after the intervention by the Bureau of Economic Security.

Camelot and Lancelot: A Business Built on Stone

The Vatsak family’s interests extend beyond confectionery into mineral extraction.

The MP owns the production company Camelot, while his relative Yevdokiia Vatsak owns the crushing and sorting company Lancelot. Both operate in the Vinnytsia region.

In 2020, Camelot obtained a special permit to conduct geological exploration at the Mohyliv-Podilskyi sandstone site, including subsequent pilot extraction. Investigators allege that the company instead carried out full-scale commercial mining in breach of the permit conditions.

In July 2026, the company’s director, Volodymyr Poliak, was formally notified of suspicion. Law enforcement authorities estimated the alleged damage to the state at more than $7.5 million.

Poliak had previously been convicted in a separate illegal mining case involving damage exceeding approximately $67,000. Court documents stated that the work had been carried out without the company owner’s knowledge.

Authorities also investigated possible violations at Camelot’s Ozaryntsi and Nemiy sites, including extraction allegedly conducted in breach of permit conditions and beyond authorised boundaries.

Lancelot’s activities also attracted scrutiny. The company acquired industrial extraction rights at the Ozaryntsi-2 deposit for approximately $3,300, some 89% below the auction’s original starting price. The reduction does not, in itself, establish any wrongdoing.

According to Bihus.Info, Ukraine’s State Service of Geology and Mineral Resources told reporters that it had not inspected these mining operators between 2019 and 2026.

Criminal proceedings involving the directors of mining companies do not establish wrongdoing by their owners. Nevertheless, the alleged losses in the Camelot case are more than ten times the amount of the tax claims against the confectionery business.

A $3.5 Million Car Collection

Vatsak’s 2025 asset declaration lists 14 vehicles, including a Jaguar F-Type, Maserati Quattroporte, Range Rover, Bentley Bentayga, BMW X7, several Mercedes-Benz vans and a Rolls-Royce Cullinan.

Some belong to the MP, while others are owned or used by members of his family.

Bihus.Info found that the wider collection of luxury vehicles associated with Vatsak, his relatives and businesses was considerably larger.

A 2022 Rolls-Royce Ghost and a 2021 Lamborghini Urus are registered to Vatsak Confectionery House. An Aston Martin DBS Superleggera, in which Vatsak reportedly received a speeding fine, is registered to a woman associated with the retail network’s administration.

A Bentley Continental GT and Maserati Levante belong to relatives of the MP’s assistant. A 2024 Rolls-Royce Spectre, previously driven by a man resembling Vatsak, is registered to a woman linked to the confectionery business’s overseas operations.

Bihus.Info estimated the combined value of the identified vehicles at approximately $3.5 million.

Reporters also noticed recurring combinations of zeros and ones on the number plates of several luxury cars, matching patterns seen on vehicles belonging to the Vatsak family.

The motivational video provided further images of the vehicles. Alongside the Rolls-Royces and Aston Martin, Vatsak displayed a Jeep, helicopter, plane and jet ski.

A review of the official register maintained by Ukraine’s National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP), which oversees public officials’ asset declarations, confirmed that only the leased Rolls-Royce Cullinan among the seven vehicles shown appears in Vatsak’s 2025 annual declaration. The MP submitted the filing on 29 March 2026.

However, appearing alongside a vehicle in a video released in November 2026 does not, by itself, establish that Vatsak owned it or held reportable usage rights during the previous year.

Parliamentary Attendance and Voting

In the Verkhovna Rada, Vatsak has combined extensive legislative activity with relatively low participation in parliamentary votes.

According to the Ukrainian parliamentary watchdog CHESNO, as of October 2025, the MP had been absent for 28% of votes. In another 23% of cases, his voting card was registered in the system but no vote was cast.

In total, Vatsak expressed no position in approximately half of the votes examined.

Yet he had sponsored or co-sponsored 398 legislative initiatives, 87 of which became enacted measures. By the number of registered initiatives, he was among the 25 MPs with the highest totals.

His record of parliamentary speeches was different. According to CHESNO’s October 2025 figures, Vatsak had addressed the chamber just ten times since entering parliament. His most recent speech was in January 2021.

Vatsak serves as secretary of the parliamentary committee on transport and infrastructure.

Political analyst Yevhen Kostohryzov has noted that some of the MP’s legislative initiatives concerned simplified customs procedures for goods used in the confectionery industry and the transport of commercial cargo.

Such proposals could potentially have benefited Vatsak’s businesses. However, the overlap between an MP’s commercial interests and the subject of legislation does not, on its own, establish a conflict of interest.

Your Path, Your Choice

By November 2026, Hennadii Vatsak had built a confectionery business, established family interests in mining, become associated with an extensive collection of luxury cars and secured a seat in Ukraine’s parliament.

During that period, his confectionery company repaid more than $700,000 to the state following a tax investigation. Mining companies associated with him became subjects of criminal proceedings, including one involving alleged losses exceeding $7.5 million. Vatsak himself has not been found guilty of wrongdoing in either matter.

Against this backdrop, the MP released a motivational video encouraging viewers to overcome adversity and choose their own path.

To illustrate that message, he featured two Rolls-Royces, an Aston Martin, a Jeep, a plane, a helicopter and a jet ski.