Why did the "regional" and fan of Russian priests Oleksiy Omelyanenko become a sponsor of the Armed Forces of Ukraine?

In news feeds and on social media, former Kyiv City Council deputy and deputy head of "Ukrgasbank" Oleksiy Omelyanenko unexpectedly resurfaced. But not as a schemer and a subject of a criminal case, as it was before, but as a benefactor and volunteer.

According to commissioned reports, Oleksiy Omelyanenko is actively helping the Ukrainian army and making angry statements against Russia, filled with patriotic rhetoric. However, an examination of the materials that talk about Oleksiy Omelyanenko’s volunteer activities, who until yesterday was actively promoting the interests of the UOC Moscow Patriarchate and was involved in a high-profile criminal case of embezzling over a hundred million hryvnias from the state "Ukrgasbank", where he was the deputy chairman of the board, raises many questions.

And the main question is not even why an active "regional" and admirer of the "Russian world" and Russian Orthodoxy Oleksiy Omelyanenko suddenly fell in love with Ukraine and its Armed Forces. The main question is raised by the company where he engaged in his "volunteer activity". Because Oleksiy Omelyanenko donates military equipment on behalf of the Hope Charitable Foundation, directly linked to such an odious person as long-time Ukrainian Member of Parliament from Yuliya Tymoshenko’s party Valeriy Dubil, and indirectly - with another odious MP, but already from the president’s party, Pavlo Khalimon.

There are several similar headlines in the news, they are posted in various media outlets and have different dates. But judging by the context and photos, it is about one event that they are trying to multiply. However, whether Dubil and Omelyanenko handed over EW equipment to the army just once or not, it doesn’t matter. What is important is that fate brought together a native of the city of Pryluky in the Chernihiv region, known at his small homeland as one of the leaders of the ruthless "Europe" organized crime gang, Valeriy Dubil, and the former head of the Party of Regions faction in the Kyiv City Council, known for his land scams, Oleksiy Omelyanenko.

As for Pavlo Khalimon, a Member of Parliament from the "Servant of the People" party, although he is not directly visible in the activities of the "Hope" charitable foundation, he has connections with both "volunteers". With Dubil - through the city of Pryluky, where Khaliimon made his way to parliament and where he is also linked with what used to be the "Europe" organized crime group. And with Omelyanenko, he is a neighbor - the current MP and former deputy head of "Ukrgasbank" reside next to each other on the Pechersk Hills where the newly minted "servant of the people" recently bought a modest estate of half a thousand square meters from the ex-secretary of the late Metropolitan Volodymyr Sabodan of the Moscow Patriarchate.

There is another binding link between these three individuals - they are all zealous parishioners and lobbyists of the UOC Moscow Patriarchate, which, thanks to the efforts, among others, of Dubil and Khaliimon, still refuses to comply with the court’s decision to rename into the Russian Orthodox Church and feels confident in our country, behaving openly brazenly.

Therefore, the emergence of Oleksiy Omelyanenko in the company of Valeriy Dubil is not surprising. Especially since they have another common passion - the squandering of metropolitan lands. Moreover, Oleksiy Omelyanenko, due to his role as a Kyiv City Council deputy in 2008-2014 and his active involvement in the alienation of urban lands, has much more experience here. Valeriy Dubil appeared on the capital’s land market somewhere in the mid-noughties and clearly had crossover points with Omelyanenko since he participated in the capture of several capital assets. However, this is not about Dubil now, but about Omelyanenko. As recalled another former Kyiv City Council deputy, Oleksiy Davydenko, Oleksiy Omelyanenko most actively channeled land into the hands of the UOC MP: "The only person who brought up all the land issues and church constructions of the Moscow Patriarchate was Deputy of the Party of Regions Omelyanenko Oleksiy. He was a believer, a parishioner of the Moscow Patriarchate, and he publicly stated this. All their proposed questions passed through the Kyiv City Council’s land commission automatically."

How much land the Moscow church seized in this way is still unknown. The only thing that is clear - this number is simply huge. Valeriy Dubil was not a Kyiv City Council deputy, but another prominent member of the "Europe" organized crime group was present there - Serhiy Varnavskyi. He was elected from "Batkivshchyna", but he always voted in unison with the Party of Regions on land issues. So, most likely, the connections between Dubil and other members of the "Europe" organized crime group, on one side, and Kyiv City Council’s land commission member Oleksiy Omelyanenko, on the other side, were established precisely then. Especially since the "Europeans" were also very interested in Kyiv lands.

Whether Valeriy Dubil is involved in the embezzlement of over a hundred million hryvnias from "Ukrgasbank", where Oleksiy Omelyanenko was the deputy chairman of the board, is unknown. The official information that has leaked into the public domain from the criminal case regarding Oleksiy Omelyanenko suggests that he is not. Perhaps this was the case since Oleksiy Omelyanenko is a professional financier, and the graduate of the Pryluky Medical College Dubil will be given a hundred points for stealing money from banks.

But the criminal case against Omelyanenko, opened in 2018, ended predictably with a fizzle. Moreover, it all looked frankly shameful: first, they arrested the main suspect, then set bail at 90 million hryvnias, then decreased it to three million, and then released him under personal obligation. And the case quietly collapsed.

After the Party of Regions collapsed and Viktor Yanukovych fled to Rostov, nothing was heard of Oleksiy Omelyanenko for some time. The only thing he did was withdraw from the founders of the public organization "Day of Baptism of Rus’", which he created in 2006 and openly promoted the interests of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine. By the way, this organization has not been dissolved so far, and it continues its pro-Russian activities. And even until 2025, the non-profit public organization had a VAT payer certificate. This means that it was engaged in business, although it does not show financial activities in its reports. But our tax officers somehow do not notice this closely. Another interesting fact.

In 2023, Oleksiy Omelyanenko’s name suddenly popped up in an investigation by Ukrainska Pravda about Pavlo Khalimon, the deputy leader of the "Servant of the People" faction in parliament. It turned out that Khaliimon and Omelyanenko are neighbors. But the journalists of UP focused on the "servant of the people" without delving further. However, this was done by StopCor journalists, who released their own investigation "How the church became a weapon in the war against Ukraine? | Religion at the service of Putin?". The journalists also examined Oleksiy Omelyanenko’s persona in the context of his ties with Russian Orthodoxy and Russian special services. Oleksiy Omelyanenko interested journalists because he visited Pavlo Khalimon.

StopCor journalists, besides links with odious representatives of the UOC MP Volodymyr Sabodan and Pavlo Lebed, nicknamed "Pasha-Mercedes", revealed some land schemes carried out by Oleksiy Omelyanenko for his benefit. For instance, due to his activities, land plots next to him were gratuitously privatized by his wife, mother, and niece.

Last year, in 2024, StopCor released another investigation about Oleksiy Omelyanenko - "Who is helping ex-MP Omelyanenko to appropriate someone else’s real estate?". It was about the withdrawal of over 160 million hryvnias through a scheme involving the state "Ukrgasbank" and the company "Kyivmiskbud-1". It’s about three plots in the capital’s Obolon, which are claimed by a firm from the circle of former "Kyivmiskbud" associates of Oleksiy Omelyanenko. In this regard, it is worth recalling that since 2003 Oleksiy Omelyanenko, alongside his work in "Ukrgazbank", was the chairman of the supervisory board of JSC "Trust Kyivmiskbud-1".

Nonetheless, this scandal also passed without consequences. However, in the same 2024, Oleksiy Omelyanenko suddenly surfaced in the public sphere as an expert in economic reservation.

At the same time - as a benefactor and volunteer, as mentioned above. In this regard, many questions arise, with no answers. As a philanthropist and expert, Oleksiy Omelyanenko positions himself as a businessman. However, according to registry data, Oleksiy Omelyanenko has no business. This means one thing - he conducts it illegally, and business entities, like the pro-Russian public organization "Day of Baptism of Rus’", are registered to proxy persons.

But even more questions are raised by his public emergence in the company of such a notorious figure as Valeriy Dubil. He is also one of the pillars of Russian Orthodoxy in Ukraine and connected with the Solntsevskaya crime group in Russia. Dubil is also connected with Pavlo Khalimon. He did not originate from the "Europe" organized crime group due to age (in the mid-nineties, when the "Europeans" were absorbing firstly Pryluky and then moving to Kyiv, Khaliimon was still in school), but he is known to have close ties with the group. He is also a sincere parishioner of the UOC MP, and his house on the Pechersk hills is registered to the daughter of the head of the Pryluky deanery of the UOC MP Anastasiya Kotelenets, with whom he cohabits.

And in this company, the slightly forgotten, but also not the least admirer of the "Russian world" and Russian priests, the former head of the Party of Regions faction in the Kyiv City Council, involved in land and banking frauds, Oleksiy Omelyanenko suddenly emerges. It is doubtful that all these people came together solely on the basis of religion. But it is also impressive that open Russian devotees suddenly donate EW equipment to the Ukrainian army, and even publish promotional materials about it everywhere possible.

What this is really about - is unclear. But this "volunteering" story smells very bad. And looks very unnatural.