Speaking to local journalists, the governor explained why he didn’t go to Kyiv to attend the award ceremony in the “Regional Leader of the Year” category where Viktor Matchuk had been declared winner: “First, I was demanded to pay a kickback. Second, I do not know the selection criteria, especially in the case of managers. In addition, I do not know by whom I was nominated for the contest.”

Viktor Matchuk couldn’t tell the size of the kickback because, as he put it, he lost the document on which the sum was entered and just saying the figure would create problems for him.