Yurii Hryhorovych Vilkul (; born 14 November, 1949) is a Ukrainian politician, who served first as elected mayor of

Kryvyi Rih Kryvyi Rih ( ; , ), also known as Krivoy Rog ( ), is a city in central Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Kryvyi Rih Raion and its subordinate Kryvyi Rih urban hromada in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. The city is part of the Kryvyi Rih Metropo ...

from 2010 to 2020, then later again as acting mayor since 2021. He is currently a member of Vilkul Bloc – Ukrainian Perspective, which is led by his son

Oleksandr Vilkul Oleksandr Yuriyovych Vilkul (; born 24 May 1974), also known as Aleksandr Yuryevich Vilkul () is a Ukrainian businessman and politician who is currently serving as Head of the Ukrainian Military Administration of Kryvyi Rih. He has previously s ...

Political Career

Mayor of Kryvyi Rih

In the

2010 Ukrainian local elections The 2010 Ukrainian local elections took place on 31 October 2010,

, Vilkul won the

mayoral election, securing his first term in office. On October 25, 2015, during the

2015 Ukrainian local elections On 25 October 2015 local elections took place in Ukraine. The elections were conducted a little over a year since the 2014 snap local elections, which were only held throughout parts of the country. A second round of voting for the election of ...

, Vilkul defeated his opponent by 752 votes (0.5% margin) in the second round, out of a total 108,000 voters. In the election, Myloboh won five out of the city's seven districts. But in the city's smallest district,

Inhuletskyi District Inhuletsky District (') is the southernmost urban district of Kryvyi Rih city, central-southern Ukraine. Named after the river Inhulets that flows through the area. In the year 2002, Inhuletsky District absorbed a former town of Inhulets, now it ...

, Vilkul won a disproportionately large number of votes. Several opposition parties filed an appeal due to potential

election fraud Electoral fraud, sometimes referred to as election manipulation, voter fraud, or vote rigging, involves illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of a favored candidate, depressing the vote share o ...

, but was rejected by the courts. This led to several protests in November and December. On December 23, 2015, the

Verkhovna Rada The Verkhovna Rada ( ; VR), officially the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, is the unicameralism, unicameral parliament of Ukraine. It consists of 450 Deputy (legislator), deputies presided over by a speaker. The Verkhovna Rada meets in the Verkhovn ...

decided to reschedule the mayoral election to address the fraud allegations. This election was held on March 27, 2016, where Vilkul won 70% of the vote. However, all the ballots from the election were stolen from the city archive. Vilkul was elected mayor of Kryvyi Rih for the second time. During the

2020 Ukrainian local elections The 2020 Ukrainian local elections took place on Sunday 25 October 2020.Ukrai ...

, Vilkul won 44.96% of the vote in the first round, advancing to the second round along with Dmytro Shevchyk from the

Servant of the People Servant of the People (; ''SN'') is a Liberalism, liberal, Centrism, centrist, Pro-Europeanism, pro-European List of political parties in Ukraine, political party in Ukraine. Since both the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election and the 2019 Ukra ...

party, who won 25.94%. However, Vilkul then withdrew his candidacy citing health concerns, and endorsed from the pro-Russian

Opposition Platform — For Life The Opposition Platform – For Life (; , OPZZh) was a Russophilia, pro-Russian and Euroscepticism, Eurosceptic Political parties in Ukraine, political party in Ukraine banned after the 2022 Russian invasion. The party was the successor of Fo ...

party. Pavlov, who only won 9.15% of the vote in the first round, then replaced Vilkul in the second round and was elected mayor of

. Since August 25, 2021, following Pavlov's death, Vilkul has been elected as Secretary of the

Kryvyi Rih City Council Kryvyi Rih City Council is an administrative division and a local government body in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. The administrative center is Kryvyi Rih. Overview The City Council Assambly of the city makes up the administration's legislative branch ...

, while also serving as acting mayor of Kryvyi Rih.

Scandals

During the 2015 Kryvyi Rih mayoral election, there was a scandal alleging Vilkul of voter bribery. As a result, protests erupted against recognizing Vilkul as the legitimate winner. In this election, Vilkul only won two municipal districts while his opponent won five. Due to widespread protests, the announcement of the election results was postponed. Protests continued with more than three thousand people, as security forces tried to disperse the crowd. On March 27, 2016, in response to fraud allegations, the city reconducted the mayoral election. In early 2016, there were reports that Yurii Vilkul began distributing "aid" of 500 hryvnias to some citizens, including those who worked at municipal enterprises, large families, and pensioners.

Personal life

Vilkul is married and have two children, a son, Olexander Vilkul, and a daughter. Vilkul has deposits in his bank account totaling 3.544 million hryvnias.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vilkul, Yuriy 1949 births Living people Party of Regions politicians Opposition Bloc politicians Recipients of the Order of Merit (Ukraine), 2nd class Recipients of the Order of Merit (Ukraine), 3rd class Recipients of the Honorary Diploma of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Politicians from Kryvyi Rih