The appointment of Mykolaiv resident Yevhenii Ihnatenko as deputy head of the Kherson Regional Military Administration went almost unnoticed in the local political scene. At first glance, Yevhen’s activity is the same — by position he was assigned the issues that Ярослав Шанько handled — healthcare, social welfare and other, even less interesting matters.
In the three months of his work in the new position, Ihnatenko has not distinguished himself with anything special, but that is only for those who do not know the internal currents of the Kherson RMA.
Who is Ігнатенко and where did he come from?
Ігнатенко’s official biography is not that long. Until 2013 he was a seaman. Between 2004 and 2013 he worked on ships — rising from sailor to captain. In 2013 he became deputy director for maritime safety at the company «Нібулон», and later — commercial director of the enterprise «Грейн-Трансшипмент». His wife was among the co-founders, which may hint that he was, and possibly still is, a real co-owner of the company.
After Volodymyr Zelensky was elected President of Ukraine, Ihnatenko took a step into politics: in 2020 he was elected a deputy of the Mykolaiv Regional Council from the party «Servant of the People». In the regional council he became deputy head of the faction and worked on the commission for industrial policy, transport and energy.
With the start of the full-scale invasion, Ігнатенко voluntarily joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine. As part of the 59th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade he took part in the liberation of Mykolaiv and Kherson regions, including Kherson. In November 2022 he assisted in the work of the Coordination Headquarters of the Southern Region on issues related to the handling of prisoners of war. For his service he received the Order “For Merit” III degree.
After the front, Yevhenii Ihnatenko returned to the civilian sector — at the end of 2022 he headed the Service of Maritime and Inland Water Transport and Shipping of Ukraine, where he worked until February 2025. And already in August of the same year the Cabinet of Ministers approved his appointment as deputy head of the Kherson Regional Military Administration, and on August 8 he was introduced to the staff of the Kherson RMA.
As we can see, Yevhenii Ihnatenko career growth began in 2020, which is, in principle, predictable, since he was part of the influence group of Mykolaiv MP Давид Арахамія, who since 2019 became a close ally of Volodymyr Zelensky.
According to Mykolaiv colleagues, Yevhenii Ihnatenko is part of the group on the basis of being a person of Ганна Замазєєва — the former head of the Mykolaiv Regional Council, and now the Head of the State Agency on Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving of Ukraine.
According to a source at MOST in the Kherson RMA, this connection is obvious and easily traceable.
“Look in open sources — Zamazeeva and Ігнатенко are quite close, and their professional paths often cross. They say it was she who put him on the list for the regional council. Later they were together somewhere near the prisoner exchange,” — the interlocutor said.
Indeed, both Замазєєва and Ігнатенко worked in 2022 at the Coordination Headquarters on issues related to the handling of prisoners of war.
In August 2022, when Yevhenii Ihnatenko went to fight as part of the 59th brigade, Zamazeeva handed over uniforms from the party to his unit.
In September 2022 Zamazeeva spoke at a press conference in Kyiv about the fact that he was fighting, and in November they both traveled to the deoccupied Snihurivka and Kyselivka, which the regional council website wrote about.And long before the invasion Ігнатенко constantly tagged the then head of the regional council in his own posts on social networks.
According to Mykolaiv journalists, Замазєєва, and accordingly Ігнатенко, are people of Давид Арахамія, and it was he who facilitated their career growth.
Yevhenii Ihnatenko on December 23, 2022 became head of the Service of Maritime and Inland Water Transport and Shipping of Ukraine, and Ганна Замазєєва in March 2023 headed the State Agency on Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving of Ukraine. Although the latter had ambitions at the level of the Cabinet of Ministers.
How and why did Ігнатенко get to Kherson?
There is no definitive answer to this question among interlocutors in the Kherson RMA and within the Mykolaiv political circle. It is known for sure that this person was imposed on Oleksandr Prokudin from the capital. Why he is not exactly happy about it.
Overall, when talking to sources, we hear only general phrases that Євгеній Ігнатенко’s appointment to Kherson was lobbied by “someone from the Ministry for Communities and Territories Development or the Ministry of Infrastructure” or by that same Давид Арахамія.
Ігнатенко has been connected with Kherson since 2021. Then LLC «Грейн-Трансшипмент», where he worked, bought the fleet base in Kherson “Perlyna Khersona”, with the aim of creating a transport hub.
The acquisition consisted of a berth wall and two buildings in the fifth backwater opposite the shipbuilding plant. This is the least developed backwater in terms of logistics and infrastructure. Before the war they kept old boats there.
As of early 2022 the company had its own fleet in Kherson, which was looted by the Russians, which Ignatenko himself reported.
But obviously that is not the best asset now for which one would go to work in the region’s authorities. Moreover, the economy is not his area of responsibility. Not yet.
One of MOST’s interlocutors in the Kherson RMA believes that Ігнатенко took this position for the sake of another career step. After leaving the Service of Maritime and Inland Water Transport and Shipping of Ukraine, Kherson could become a springboard, especially since Ігнатенко clearly has some serious support.
This version is confirmed by the fact that Ігнатенко came to the Kherson RMA with his own press group, which manages his social networks and Telegram channel. Quite promoted and lively, albeit with a significant official tone.
Perhaps indeed Євгеній Ігнатенко sees himself somewhere in government and believes that he can earn political capital in Kherson region. Although there is another version.
Money
Another version that deserves attention concerns not only power but also money. As one of the RMA interlocutors believes, the reason for the reassignment to Kherson may be a banal redistribution of financial flows.
“Isn’t the only income in the region now reconstruction. That’s where all the money is. I think soon we will see these flows in other hands,” — the source suggested, hinting at the new deputy.
And indeed, rumors that the new person was sent to replace deputy head of the RMA Антон Самойленко circulated immediately after his appointment. Samoilenko’s chair, some believe, began to wobble after the detention of his associate Olena Vasina And it wobbles, though not that intensively so far, mainly because of the conflict between the regional authorities and the regional prosecutor’s office.
That does not prevent Samoilenko from overseeing the region’s reconstruction, into which hundreds of millions of hryvnias are flowing.
Obviously, this money is a tasty morsel that various influence groups in the capital have designs on. And who among them will be able to resolve the issues of these funds and their appropriation may determine the career zigzag of Yevhenii Ihnatenko.