For Oles Kudryk, the village head of Sofiyivska Borshchahivka, a community with some of the most promising development lands, the time has come for his "swan song". This fall, he will lose his "feudal domain".
With the decentralization reform and the establishment of amalgamated territorial communities (ATCs) in Ukraine, the feudal relics, where entire districts, towns, and villages were subject to the will of local political and/or economic "barons", are increasingly becoming a thing of the past. They often changed party affiliations and political suzerains but always remained the sole proprietors of their "fiefs". One such example is Sofiyivska Borshchahivka, where the era of village head Oles Kudryk is about to end.
According to our data, Oles Kudryk may lose his domain as early as this fall, during the local elections. The issue is that, finally, the authorities have "convinced" the long-resisting Kudryk that Sofiyivska Borshchahivka needs to unite into an ATC with Petropavlivska Borshchahivka. The administrative center of the new ATC will not be in Kudryk’s control. He "painfully agreed", presumably hoping to maintain his influence in the newly established ATC, whose leadership will be elected in the fall of 2020. But most likely, Oles will be "asked to step aside". And there is no doubt that the residents of Sofiyivska Borshchahivka will be more than happy to assist in the removal of the very unpopular village head.
Why is that? Mainly because the new authorities see the local elections and decentralization as powerful tools for changing the regional elites, which are mired in corruption and parochialism and need to be "uprooted" to complete the political system reset in the country. They have deep-rooted ties, and the head of Sofiyivska Borshchahivka is a glaring example.
So far, Kudryk felt quite confident, and no scandal harmed him during his long tenure under various "criminal regimes". If anyone fits the title of "land baron" and "local prince", it is undoubtedly him. Since 2006, he worked as the deputy village head of Sofiyivska Borshchahivka under Serhiy Kremenets and was already considered a very influential figure. However, in 2010, an unfortunate event occurred - during the local elections, Yuriy Denysenko became the village head. Apparently, the local residents were somewhat fed up with the camarilla, which included Kudryk.
Nevertheless, the election defeat did not deter Kudryk’s company, and in 2011, he organized a raider takeover of the village council, led by Vasyl Perehinets. The new head died of a heart attack on April 8, 2012, in his office. Although, local residents claimed that it was not certain, as he never complained about his heart. Be that as it may, Kudryk himself decided to run for the village head. It then became clear why he had not done it earlier. He was, to put it mildly, not liked in the village, and despite all the covert support from the then all-powerful Party of Regions, he (according to exit polls) managed to lose the election. But at that time, a defeat meant little - slight manipulations with the commission - and Kudryk was announced as the winner, although many in the village continued to talk about falsifications for a long time afterward.
Upon becoming the village head, Kudryk embarked on a vibrant activity, taking the village into his hands. In fact, under Kudryk, Sofiyivska Borshchahivka turned into a massive construction site, which would have been fine if not for one thing: the land was being given away for next to nothing, and the native residents of the village did not benefit at all. In 2016, the media estimated the village’s losses from Kudryk’s land generosity at 18 million hryvnias. In fact, Kudryk’s compliance with the authorities ensured his reelection in 2015, when he threw overboard the flags of the Party of Regions, to which he had been faithful just two years prior. However, when and who among those in power during Poroshenko’s time were concerned by such political metamorphoses, as long as the person was "useful"? But Kudryk was not used to considering the village residents, nor was he used to dealing with the local budget responsibly.
Thus, the national movement against political corruption "Under Control" indicated that Kudryk avoided holding competitive procedures. In May 2017, the Sofiyivka-Borshchahivka village council, represented by village head Oles Kudryk, signed a contract with LLC "Stroybud-17" for road repairs in the village of Sofiyivska Borshchahivka. According to the E-Data portal, during April 2017, "Stroybud-17" received 2.6 million hryvnias from the budget for road repairs. This company was established only on March 6, 2017, with an authorized capital of 2000 hryvnias. Thus, the principles of the Law of Ukraine "On Public Procurement", Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine "Embezzlement of Property", and Article 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine "Abuse of Power or Official Position" were violated. And this is not an isolated case.
Local residents accused the village council head of destroying rivers, lake resources, and land appropriation. This includes the capture of the coastal protective strip of a pond located at the beginning of Naberezhna Street in Sofiyivska Borshchahivka for construction, followed by the sale of individual residential houses. Two houses have already been built, and people live there. These houses completely obstruct access to the pond.
The list of residents’ grievances against Kudryk could go on for a long time, but attention should be paid to another aspect of his multifaceted activities.
In Sofiyivska Borshchahivka, the residential complex "Voloshkovyi" was erected, which differs from other local new developments only in one way – it is reportedly favored by the village head himself. Although formally the land for construction was received by a certain Serhiy Fedorenko from the village council, who acts as the developer of the complex, the land was allocated to him not without scandal, by Kudryk himself. And it is precisely this complex that is imperfect in many respects - as the "Voloshkovyy" residential complex, among other things, violates important environmental standards.
The Chairman of the Board of Directors of Kyiv International Airport, Denys Kostrzhevskyi, stated in his interview with Interfax-Ukraine that the residential quarters in Sofiyivska Borshchahivka were built in violation of environmental norms concerning height and noise. The buildings in the new residential quarters in Sofiyivska Borshchahivka, near Kyiv, pose a height barrier for aircraft approaching landing at Kyiv Sikorsky Airport. By the way, the discomfort from the proximity of "Voloshkovyi" to the airport was noted in the well-known and authoritative blog "Where is it Good to Live in Kyiv?". There, attention was also drawn to the lack of permits for the construction of the complex’s building. But it seems that Kudryk’s sweet life is coming to an end, and his self-initiative will no longer be tolerated by the current authorities.
Mykola Tkachuk