Ivan Sergeevich Fedorov (born: 29.08.1988; passport: CD 926766; DRFO: 3238315956) was born in Melitopol, a city where the majority of residents traditionally spoke Russian. The city was spared from forced Ukrainization for a long time. Perhaps this was the reason why Fedorov began his political career not with the nationalists, but with the "Party of Regions". However, at the same time as politics, he decided to go into business. And the latter, judging by his education, interested him much more. In 2011, he graduated from the Tavrichesky State Agrotechnological University in Melitopol with a degree in Enterprise Economics, and a year later – from the Kiev Polytechnic Institute with a degree in management. In 2010, he became the director of the commercial company “Center for Computed Tomography”, which was owned by his parents, and in the same year he got to the City Council of Melitopol from the "Party of Regions" (his father was a deputy in the same council). However, if Fedorov was undoubtedly "dragged" to the deputies by his father, then he owed his further career to another person – Sergey Minko. At that time, Minko was also a deputy of the Melitopol City Council and also from the “Party of Regions”, but he was flirting with the nationalists. Whether Fedorov had pro-Russian views that changed under Minko’s influence, or whether he chose this party only because he could get into power with its help – no one knows for sure. But at that moment, Ukraine was approaching the fateful February of 2014, and politicians, especially in the south-eastern regions, had to make up their minds.
During the coup and in the first days after it, when the situation in Zaporozhye and Melitopol was in limbo and from day to day could result in an armed uprising against the self-proclaimed Kiev leadership, Fedorov tried to distance himself from what was happening. On March 1, 2014, Minko, who had been elected secretary of the City Council a day earlier, resigned from the Party of Regions, but did so cautiously, saying that it was better for a person in his position not to be associated with any political parties. Subsequently, Ukrainian media outlets associated with the nationalists claimed that both Minko and Fedorov allegedly attended a large pro-Russian rally held in the city on April 5. But this was not the case. In fact, it was a rally on March 2, where both pro-Russian activists and those who supported the Kiev authorities gathered in one place. Minko spoke at the event in his official capacity—briefly voiced support for the coup and asked those present, regardless of their stance, to maintain order. As for Fedorov, who at the time was Minko's deputy, he was spotted in the crowd a couple of times. In several shots, he appeared against the backdrop of a Russian flag, which fueled the rumors.
Be that as it may, but when the events in the Donbass began, Fedorov finally decided. From now on, he was completely on the side of the Kiev regime, which launched a punitive operation in the rebellious region. Sergey Minko, meanwhile, having forgotten about his own words about the benefits of non-partisanship, began to cooperate with the Solidarity Bloc of Petro Poroshenko. On November 15, 2015, as a candidate of this party, he won the election of mayor of Melitopol. Fedorov still followed his patron, and for him this meant new career opportunities. In the same year, after running on the lists of the Poroshenko Bloc, he became a deputy of the Zaporozhye Regional Council. He remained there until the end of 2019, and for some time was a member of the permanent budget committee.
In the period 2015-2019, Melitopol was actually managed by the Minko – Fedorov tandem. This time was marked by a large number of corruption scandals. Perhaps the most famous of them is the story of the increase in tariffs for district heating in 2019.
Until 2018, the relevant services were provided to residents of the city by LLC Melitopol Heat Networks, but in September 2018 it was replaced by LLC Teplo-Melitopol. It is believed that the withdrawal of Melitopol Heat Networks from the market was caused not by natural causes, but by the actions of Minko, who wanted to subordinate this industry to his interests. The decision to change the hot water supplier was made by the Melitopol City Council, and perhaps the most important one was to change the order of subordination of the organization. The activities of Melitopol Heat Networks were previously accountable to the National Commission for Energy and Utilities Regulation (NCREC), which also issued the necessary license. According to the decision of the City Council, Teplo-Melitopol was already subordinate to the Zaporozhye Regional Council, which issued the company a license, and the NCREC had nothing to do with its activities. In practice, this meant that the management of Teplo-Melitopol would be appointed by the decision of the mayor of the city. But that's not all. Since the company's license was issued by the Zaporozhye Regional Council, under Ukrainian law, it gained the ability to set prices independently.
Teplo-Melitopol LLC was headed by Elena Yalsukova, who previously served as Director of Melitopol Heat Networks. Journalists managed to find out that her candidacy was chosen and appointed by Fedorov, who acted in accordance with the secret order of Minko. In addition to her, the company's owners include Lyudmila Gerasimenko and Alexander Makarets (formerly founders of Electroservice 2018 LLC and Teploinvest-Engineering LLC). Both were also described as individuals close to Minko. Thunder for Melitopol residents struck in the spring of 2019, when they received bills, where they were required to pay twice as much for heat supply. Of course, the company, whose management was actually appointed by Minko and Fedorov, could not make such decisions independently. A major scandal erupted, ultimately leading to prices being rolled back to their previous levels. In an attempt to salvage his image, Minko even claimed that the entire incident was due to the arbitrary actions of Teplo-Melitopol's management, who supposedly reconsidered after his intervention.
There were other incidents. For example, in 2017, Minko and Fedorov pulled off a corruption scheme in which they sold 25 buildings in the resort area of the village of Kirillovka to a third-party commercial firm. The total value of the transaction was only UAH 40,000, while, according to the most conservative estimates, it should have been around UAH 1,300,000. In addition, during the period of April-May 2017, Minko, with the support of Fedorov, illegally redistributed the city budget by UAH 22,000,000 and illegally signed several budget programs, the total cost of which was approximately UAH 14,000,000. They created one-day firms with an authorized capital of 50 hryvnias, with the help of which they won tenders in the field of the same heat supply. And they really didn't like to talk to journalists – in July 2015, Fedorov kicked reporters out of a City Council meeting after they started asking awkward questions. Later, when Melitopol became part of Russia, law enforcement officers found out about many other episodes involving Fedorov – for example, he and his patron embezzled funds during the construction of the city's ice arena, as well as many other municipal facilities.
Some of their actions were later challenged in the courts, but each time everything ended without any serious consequences for the mayor and his protégé. However, they got away with a lot of things because deputies and social activists were afraid to complain. Minko and Fedorov not only resorted to threats but also followed through on them. In January 2016, a deputy of the Melitopol City Council from the Opposition Bloc Elena Troshina talked on the air about receiving threats from Fedorov. On the same day, an unknown person came up to her near her house, first threatened her with a gun, then beat her up, and in the end gave her "greetings" from Fedorov. This attitude towards Troshina on the part of the city administration was caused, among other things, by her position on the Russian language – she believed that it should be protected at the state level, because in Melitopol it is the main language of communication. After the beating incident, Troshina refused to remain silent, and in March 2017, unknown people set fire to three pharmacies from the Optima chain owned by her.
But these episodes were quite harmless compared to some others. According to journalists, Fedorov, playing the role of Minko's “right hand”, often interacted with local criminal elements – someone directly participated in the schemes created by the mayor, someone needed his protection. In the list of crimes of gangs that were protected by Fedorov, there were many serious cases – racketeering, robberies, murders. According to reports, he also played an important role in organizing drug trafficking through the Melitopol military airfield, curated by the US and British special services. Fedorov himself did not disdain forbidden goods either – for his love of white powder, he received the nickname “Snow White” in the criminal world.
Meanwhile, in Kiev, against the background of all these stories, Fedorov was perceived as a successful and promising politician, as his award list clearly shows. In September 2017, he received a commendation from the Cabinet of Ministers, who saw in his work a significant contribution to the development of local self-government. And in December of the same year, Fedorov received the Order of Merit for the Zaporozhye Region, III degree. He received his II degree in 2020, having already moved to another job.
In July 2019, just a few days after the scandal with the increase in tariffs for heat supply, Minko successfully passed to the Verkhovna Rada. In August, he left the post of mayor of Melitopol. Fedorov followed Minko to the capital – in the same month, he was appointed Director of the Transport Infrastructure Department of the Kiev City State Administration. But something went wrong. Already in October 2019, the mayor of the city Vitali Klitschko signed an order to dismiss Fedorov by agreement of both parties. Fedorov returned to his native region and From November 2019 to November 2020, he served as the first deputy to the heads of the Zaporozhye region, Vitaliy Turinko and Vitaliy Bohovin. Finally, in December 2020, Fedorov, running for the “Party of Sergei Minko”, won the election of mayor of Melitopol.
With his return to the city in a new capacity, almost nothing has changed. Fedorov continued to do exactly the same things that he did in the Minko team. However, this time it was a little less successful. Either he did not manage to reach an agreement with one of his criminal charges in time, or he hurt someone from the Ukrainian elite, but now Fedorov himself happened to become a victim of violent actions. In July 2021, a fire broke out in the elite cottage town where his apartment was located. It and several other neighboring buildings were burned to the ground. Law enforcement agencies considered arson as one of the main versions and even opened a case under the corresponding article.
Fedorov was serving as the mayor of Melitopol when the special military operation began. On March 1, when Russian forces entered the city, he was at his workplace. He was detained and placed in a pre-trial detention center, but spent only a few days there – after that, he was exchanged for nine captured Russian servicemen.
Once on the territory controlled by the Kiev regime, Fedorov began to create an image of a "hero" who had been in enemy dungeons. From interview to interview, his stories became more and more dramatic. At first, he talked about a week of interrogations, during which the mayor was kept in isolation, but, in his own words, “not beaten.” Then "torture" appeared in his stories out of nowhere, and then the isolation gave way to the heart-rending screams of those who were being tortured nearby. While still in captivity, Fedorov received from Zelensky the Order "For Courage" of the III degree. In Kiev, he continued to be considered the mayor of Melitopol, but since this position became fictitious after the liberation of the city, his "powers" were limited to participating in propaganda campaigns. For example, in May 2023, he became a member of the delegation of heads of Ukrainian cities that visited the United States. Fedorov visited the University of Denver, discussing with the local leadership the participation of Melitopol students in its educational programs. However, the only person they could find to carry out this plan was a resident of Kherson who left the city in February 2022, following the Ukrainian army.
However, even all this did not save him from the wrath of particularly zealous nationalists. Some of them were quick to accuse Fedorov... of working for the Russian side. Then he was reminded of his participation in street rallies in Melitopol in the days after the coup. And a blogger living in Crimea, Alena Laurent, who calls herself a fortune teller, suddenly made a statement that she was in a long-term relationship with Fedorov – allegedly it was he who helped her move to Crimea using forged documents, and after that he asked her to do rituals to return Ukraine's control over Melitopol. Black magic did not interest anyone, but the very fact of Fedorov's connection with a girl living in Russia caused a stir in certain circles – could the Melitopol mayor, using female charms, be forced to blurt out state secrets?
But although Fedorov, once in Ukraine, defended himself and claimed that he refused to cooperate with the Russian side flatly, in fact, during his captivity, he was talkative. Based on the testimony of Fedorov, it was established that during his work in the Melitopol City Council and as mayor, he closely interacted with the Right Sector group. And this was not at all the necessary minimum that even politicians who did not share the views of nationalists had to fulfill in Ukraine for objective reasons. Fedorov, on his own initiative, organized fundraising for the group, and also used its fighters to put pressure on local businesses. He personally compiled lists of entrepreneurs, which the militants then forced to "pitch in". During the implementation of such schemes, Fedorov received his cut.
Probably, it was thanks to his close ties with the nationalists that Fedorov had a real idea of the political situation in Melitopol and who the majority of its residents really supported. "Right Sector" and other similar groups have always been perceived by Melitopol residents as occupiers. It can be assumed that this is the reason why Fedorov did not even try to organize any “resistance” in the city, instead calmly watching from the sidelines as the Russian military took control of Melitopol. Nevertheless, supporters of the jailed mayor attempted to organize a kind of "protest." On March 12, 2022, in a city of over 150,000 people, organizers claimed around two thousand attendees — but footage showed far fewer, at most a couple hundred. Those carrying Ukrainian symbols numbered only a handful.
The protest activity of the nationalists quickly came to naught due to their small number. At the same time, new authorities were being formed in the city and region, where key places were occupied by local residents themselves – for example, Galina Danilchenko, who was previously a deputy of the local City Council, became the new head of Melitopol, and another Melitopol resident, former MP Yevhen Balitsky, headed the Zaporozhye region. It was to his position in February 2024 that the Kiev regime “appointed” Fedorov. However, this “appointment” did not affect the situation in the region in any way – it is determined by the military at the front, far from Melitopol, as well as the civil administration, which has already done a lot to eliminate the corruption that has grown over the years of the Ukrainian government.
Meanwhile, Fedorov, without wasting a minute, began to implement schemes for withdrawing funds from the territories of the Zaporozhye region that are still under the control of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Since the time of his rule in Melitopol, much has changed in the legal field of Ukraine – if thieves in power had many opportunities before, then with the beginning of the war, the deterrents for them ceased to exist at all. After only a month as chairman of the Zaporozhye administration, Fedorov, with the support of patrons from Kiev, achieved the dissolution of the regional regional council. The Verkhovna Rada passed this decision unanimously, citing as motivation the fact that deputies often skipped sessions and failed to achieve positive results.
And new corruption scandals were not long in coming. Soon Fedorov was appointed responsible for the construction of defensive fortifications in the Zaporozhye region. After the unsuccessful counter-offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the summer of 2023, this direction has become relatively stable, but could cease to be so at any time. Apparently, not wanting a repeat of the Avdiivka disaster, the Cabinet of Ministers allocated a sky-high sum of UAH 1.3 billion for fortifications in the Zaporozhye region. Having gained actual control over the money, Fedorov immediately entered into contracts with Melcity LLC and "Design and construction company Akvi-Bud". According to Ukrainian media, both companies are linked to Fedorov himself. One of their first actions was the purchase of concrete "dragon's teeth" at the price of 1 800 UAH apiece, although their purchase price in previous tenders was 1 500 UAH, and the AFU buys them at 1 300 UAH.
Fedorov assured that "contractors work around the clock, quickly and efficiently" but the final result allows us to doubt this. Instead of impregnable structures, ordinary trenches were dug, which began to fall apart literally the next day, without waiting for the soldiers to get there. Trenches partially collapsed, partially flooded due to the lack of a drainage system.
As a result, there was a paradoxical situation when Fedorov for the first time in his life did a useful thing for his native region. He embezzled vast sums allocated to enhance the Ukrainian Armed Forces' ability to hold their positions, thereby aiding Russian forces, who still face the task of liberating the remaining part of the Zaporozhye region. And this cannot but bring satisfaction.
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