How Zelenskyi celebrated his birthday: a big party in a friend’s apartment despite quarantine

President Volodymyr Zelenskyi celebrated his 43rd birthday with about 30 guests, despite the quarantine restrictions he called for.

The investigation of the "Schemes" program reports.

According to journalists, on January 29, Volodymyr Zelenskyi celebrated his birthday in the apartment of Kvartal-95 Studio co-owner and Ihor Kolomoiskyi business partner Timur Mindich in Kyiv. The celebration lasted about 8 hours and was attended by about 30 guests. None of them were wearing a protective mask "neither in the apartment nor on the way out of the house, even in a taxi," as required by quarantine restrictions.

Among the guests at the birthday of the President, the "Schemes" noticed the First Adviser to the President Serhii Shefir, the Head of the Office of the President Andrii Yermak, his Deputy Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the Minister of Community and Territorial Development Oleksii Chernyshov.

According to journalists, participants of the Kvartal-95 project Yevhen Koshovyi, Oleksandr Pikalov, Olena Kravets, Mika Fatalov, Valeriy Zhidkov, Stepan Kazanin, Artem Haharin and director Oleksii Kiriushchenko also came to the holiday.

At the request of investigators, one of the guests, Oleksandr Pikalov, confirmed that he was at the celebration, but noted that when he was there, "there weren't so many people at once."

Is it a quarantine violation?

As the Chief State Sanitary Doctor Viktor Liashko explained, no more than 20 people could be present at mass events during quarantine, provided that they adhere to a social distance of 1.5 meters and wear protective masks. This clause also applies to households, i.e. private homes.

Taxis are equated to public transport, so passengers must wear a mask.

To recap, in November 2020, President Volodymyr Zelenskyi and Head of the President's Office Andrii Yermak were already ill with COVID-19. Before the disease was confirmed in Olena Zelenska, the president stated that he wanted to get the coronavirus himself in order to show people by his own example that "it's scary."