The President of Ukraine once again raised the issue of the fairness of volunteer donations, emphasising that the Gusakov case is currently under thorough investigation. Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko reported that the ministry had drawn attention to possible financial abuse — fundraising through at least four different financial institutions and digital services, whose potentially fraudulent actions affected an unknown number of victims.
According to the president, Nazarii Gusakov, who suffers from SMA, left Ukraine on 13 June. His current whereabouts are unknown. All available materials from social networks and Telegram channels are being analysed to establish the full picture and prevent the discrediting of volunteering as a phenomenon.
The president emphasised that the facts presented are not a reason to question the volunteer movement as a whole. Legal responsibility will be applied to specific perpetrators in order to protect trust in charity.
“It is very important to restore justice and avoid any discrediting of fundraising and volunteering as such. There must be a legal response to individual cases of fraud,” the president said.
Lviv resident Nazarii Gusakov, who has been diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy, is accused of fraud involving fundraising for treatment. Allegedly, the medicines for which he raised millions of hryvnias have been purchased for him for a year now with money from the Lviv budget.
The 31-year-old man, who uses a wheelchair and has almost no movement in his limbs, says that in addition to medication, he also needs expensive rehabilitation. He denies all allegations of fraud.
The main complaint against Nazariy Gusakov is that he continues to collect money for medication even though the drugs are provided to him free of charge.
On 17 June, posts began circulating on social media claiming that Nazariy was not answering questions about where the reports on the funds collected for treatment were. He was also accused of providing different data on the need for medication and allegedly publishing the same photos of drugs that he had purchased at different times.
‘Where are the reports for millions of hryvnias?’ social media users wrote.
In Nazariy’s Telegram account @razanSMA, there are many screenshots from the past year showing funds coming into his accounts and banks — someone donated 500 hryvnias, someone 10,000 hryvnias, and there are two photos with packages of Evrysdi. At the same time, there are no photos of cheques or receipts for expenses in the Telegram channel.
In addition, people began to write that the man played poker and assumed that he spent the collected funds on bets. In 2022, Nazariy himself said that he worked as an analyst for the bookmakers 1xbet and leonbet and ‘played poker a little’.
Recently, Gusakov’s fundraising efforts have been actively reposted by well-known Ukrainian volunteers, journalists and bloggers – Igor Lachenkov, Sergei Sternenko, Denis Bigus and Mikhail Tkach. They stated that they had contacted Gusakov for clarification.
Journalist Denis Bigus wrote that he found everything he saw ‘disgusting,’ as did other people who supported Nazariy in the media. At the same time, he added that ‘it is morally difficult to suspect a person with a terminal illness of fraud.’
One of the accusations against Gusakov was that millions of dollars had passed through his crypto wallets over several years.
Lviv.Media reported that it had data on several dozen incoming transactions to Nazariy Gusakov’s crypto wallet from July 2022 to May 2025. The total amount of transactions for almost three years is 5 million 135 thousand US dollars, writes Lviv.Media.
Gusakov said in a comment to the publication that this was not his money, but the funds of people who transferred their winnings from bets through his crypto wallet. He allegedly only took a percentage for this. At the same time, he stated that he did not know the people who sent the money.
Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi, commenting on the scandal with Gusakov, said that after the start of the distribution of medicines, the city council hoped that he would stop collecting funds. However, over time, according to the mayor, the man began to do so again, arguing that he needed rehabilitation.
The mayor of Lviv called the story with accusations against Gusakov a ‘difficult situation’ that could ‘seriously damage the culture of charity in Ukraine.’
“I will not comment on other people’s money, collections, and crypto wallets. But this case proves that we need to be careful. Reporting on the use of funds is a necessity. At the same time, we must not allow ourselves to lose faith. Because goodness and trust are what we still hold on to,” he added.