Kherson residents have already begun to somewhat forget the former head of the Kherson MVA Roman Mrochko, whom Zelensky dismissed back on April 17, 2025, but the ex-city leader has not forgotten us – he is starting his election campaign for the second time.
Yes-yes, no elections in Ukraine have been announced or are planned, but Roman Mykolayovych is used to running a phantom campaign.
The Return of the Prodigal Mrochko
After the fiasco with the dismissal in April this year, Roman Mrochko visited Kherson several times, publicly gave his own undeclared shotgun to the military and privately met with various people.
But he soon disappeared from the information field, although his presence was felt on the pages of one little-known media outlet from Kyiv that continued to praise the dismissed official and vilify his successor. Due to the low popularity of that media outlet you might not have noticed the campaign, but such processes were happening – albeit very weakly and tediously.
Presumably, as he should have, Roman Mrochko returned to the command of the logistics troops where he served before his appointment in Kherson. Although he was more often seen in Vinnytsia, where Mrochko got some members of his team jobs. There were even rumors that he tried to lead the Vinnytsia OVA.
“It is unlikely he would have succeeded. As far as I know, the person who helped Mrochko take charge of Kherson and stay there so long stopped answering his calls after April 2025. No one in the [presidential] Office wanted to talk to him. So it is unlikely he could have negotiated anything serious with anyone,” – a MOST interlocutor close to the President’s Office told MOST.
Who this mysterious patron of Mrochko is and why he took such offense at his protégé, the source refused to disclose.
“Roman’s problems have been long-standing, but after his dismissal he became a laughingstock in our circles when it became known about the purchase of a house near Kyiv. No one wanted to deal with him then,” – he added.
The story about the house in spring 2025 ended in nothing, since part of that property was officially bought by the parents of the ex-head of the MVA, and part by his sister who lives in the USA. Nevertheless, the story significantly tarnished his reputation.
But in the autumn of 2025 he visited Kherson several times. He was seen by readers of MOST.
At the end of November he met with representatives of Kherson business. Sources close to these businessmen told MOST about this.
At the meetings Mrochko voiced his desire… to become the mayor of Kherson.
Attempt number two
In September 2024 we wrote a long piece about how Roman Mrochko started an election campaign in bleeding Kherson. The piece had considerable resonance, and we returned to it more than once to explain to readers the strange actions of Roman Mrochko.
Then we wrote that the interim city leader had no chances, and his only advantage was administrative resources and access to lists of people who receive humanitarian aid.
Now those lists are in the hands of his successor.
Mrochko calls his successor Yaroslav Shanko unpopular among Kherson residents. He says this in those same conversations, explaining why he decided he wants to become the mayor of Kherson.
“The weakness of the city authorities is the main thesis Roman Mrochko operates with, explaining to everyone around his supposedly high chances of being elected mayor”, – our interlocutor familiar with the situation said.
So far the future candidate in phantom elections is starting a media campaign. The way he understands it.
On December 6 he recorded a hyper-emotional video against the backdrop of the entrance stele.
Then he went to a children’s holiday organized by local NGOs close to the city authorities.
And yesterday he congratulated his followers on Facebook on Local Self-Government Day. He illustrated the post with his own photo against the backdrop of the Kherson City Council building.
However, what relation he has to local self-government, aside from the disgraceful story with the failed removal of deputy Olga Spivakina’s mandate, is not clear from the post.
But Roman Mrochko did not write about one meeting in Kherson.
Banquet with volunteers or the beginning of forming an election headquarters?
On the evening of December 5 Roman Mrochko was drinking in one of Kherson’s restaurants in strange company.
Former and current employees of the Kherson MVA, military, volunteers and even the deputy head of the city military administration gathered in one place.
The photo was published by Mykola Yakovlev, who worked as Mrochko’s deputy and was dismissed in November 2024.
He captioned the photo as a greeting for Volunteer Day, which was celebrated that day, but in fact at the restaurant they drank to the health of the head of the Civil Protection Department Serhiy Tarasenko. He turned 37 on December 3. Serhiy Tarasenko and his wife were among the few officials who, at Mrochko’s request, wrote posts on social networks asking Zelensky to return such a wonderful leader to Kherson.
According to one of the participants in the feast, not everyone knew that Roman Mrochko would be there, but most were not opposed to it, and the guests had a good time.
They also discussed elections at the table and Roman Mrochko’s high chances. And they even drank to the health of… Andriy Yermak. We hope that was sarcasm.
It very much looks like some of these people will become something like Mrochko’s election headquarters. Especially since most of them have resources. For example, well-known volunteers Ihor Chornyi and Andriy Petukhov. The latter became a media star and definitely plans to convert his popularity into political dividends.
The MVA officials in this company almost all represent the sphere connected to humanitarian aid. Anton Yefanov has worked as deputy head of the MVA since Mrochko’s time and is responsible, among other things, for the distribution of humanitarian aid.
Between the birthday person and Mrochko stands Ihor Serik. He works as the chief specialist of the department for social protection of the population of the Kherson MVA. And on the far right — Yevhen Dotsenko — the chief specialist of the sector for the provision of social services to the population of the Suvorov district and starostats of the department for social protection of the population.
That is, all these people are responsible for the main trump card that Roman Mrochko lost when he lost power.
Of course, we are not claiming that any headquarters exists or will soon appear. But the company gathered at the same moment Mrochko launched a new stage of his pre-election offensive leads to exactly such thoughts.
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If one hypothetically imagines that elections in Kherson will ever take place, it is unclear how Roman Mrochko will manage to make voters forget about the rampant corruption that he fostered and led in Kherson. Even more unclear is how he will manage to stay in the information space and within sight of potential voters over many years (and it is unlikely that elections will happen earlier).