Vitaliy Bondarenko and his family "rental scheme": How the head of Kyiv security police hides elite real estate near Mezhyhirya

Close relatives and friends of Vitaliy Bondarenko, the head of the physical security police protection department in Kyiv, are closely connected to law enforcement agencies. His sister also works within the police protection structure, his sister’s son is employed at the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI), and a neighbor from the same village, mentioned in Bondarenko’s declaration, is the father of a former investigator with a significant amount of land in the most elite settlements of the Kyiv region. They all rent either real estate or vehicles from one another. However, the income from such rentals is not indicated in any of the financial reports of the aforementioned individuals.

Vitaliy Bondarenko hails from the Vinnytsia region. He has been building a career within the structure of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for a long time. He worked at the regional service center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Poltava region at the same time when one of the heads was caught taking bribes for issuing driver’s licenses. Along with the corrupt manager, law enforcement authorities also exposed the director of a driving school who was involved in the scheme.

By a curious coincidence, Bondarenko’s ex-wife, Oksana, with whom he divorced in 2022, was a co-founder of a driving school during that period. However, it was based in Kyiv.

From Vitaliy Bondarenko’s declarations, it can be learned that he has been living for a long time in the village of Novi Petrivtsi, near Mezhyhirya and the Kyiv Reservoir. He rents a plot of land measuring 1,527 square meters and a house of nearly 300 square meters from his sister, Tetyana Bondarenko. From earlier declarations of the policeman, it can be concluded that the woman became the owner of this property between 2004 and 2006.

The plot is located in the “Lazariv Sad” area, just a 9-minute walk from the Mezhyhirya residence.

Currently, a 13-sotka plot of land in this area is being sold for $200,000. The description in the listing gives a clear understanding of the kind of area where the head of the police protection department, Vitaliy Bondarenko, resides: “One of the last available plots in a unique location - the elite “Lazariv Sad” area. The plot is located on Knyahynia Olha Street, in a closed-type cottage community with an access control system and video surveillance cameras. The area is fully built up with VIP mansions. Asphalt access, all utilities near the plot, the rear side of the plot borders a forest strip, which provides the opportunity to increase the area to 20-30 sotkas.”

A house in “Lazariv Sad”, with an area of 300 square meters, is currently being sold for a staggering $650,000.

Since the property rights register is not operational at the moment, finding out exactly which house in “Lazariv Sad” Bondarenko lives in is not so easy. However, on the cadastral map, one can find a plot of approximately the size indicated by the policeman in his declaration. The map shows that a large house and likely a swimming pool are located on the land.

Here is how one of the entrances to the closed territory of the “Lazariv Sad” area looks:

Vitaliy Bondarenko’s sister, Tetyana, from whom he supposedly rents the house, has also worked in law enforcement all her life. In particular, she worked in the State Automobile Inspectorate (DAI) in Vinnytsia region, later moved to a position at the Ministry of Internal Affairs service center in Vinnytsia, and then transferred to a similar position in the Kyiv region. Currently, Tetyana Bondarenko works as the deputy head of the Vinnytsia Higher Vocational School of the Police Protection Department, where in 2024 she earned just over 72,000 hryvnias. Even if her savings of 1.3 million hryvnias are added to this amount, it would not be enough to cover even a third of the cost of the land and house in Novi Petrivtsi where her brother Vitaliy Bondarenko lives.

It is evident that the head of the police protection department uses his sister’s property for free, as no expenses for it are listed in his declaration.

Interestingly, while Tetyana Bondarenko rents out elite housing near Kyiv to her brother, she herself has lived since at least 2017 in an apartment in Kyiv that belongs to Vitaliy Bondarenko’s ex-wife, Oksana.

The mutual exchange of real estate does not end there. In 2018, Tetyana’s son, Vladyslav Palamarchuk, also moved into the same apartment of Bondarenko’s ex-wife. At that time, he worked at the Prosecutor General’s Office and the State Bureau of Investigation. The man began building his career as an investigator in the Vinnytsia region.

In 2025, Palamarchuk became a senior investigator-criminalist at the First Investigative Department of the Poltava Office of the State Bureau of Investigation.

Last year, Vladyslav Palamarchuk purchased an apartment in Poltava, has the right to use another one, and also owns a share of a residence in Zhmerynka, where the family originates from. He drives around the city in his mother’s Cherokee jeep. However, it is unclear how they share the car, as Tetyana Bondarenko, who works in Vinnytsia, also indicates in her declaration that she uses it.

The ex-husband of the sister of the head of the police protection department, Vitaliy Bondarenko, Viktor Palamarchuk, also seems to have a penchant for elite housing. At least in 2015-2016, the man lived in the village of Bilohorodka in the Kyiv-Sviatoshyn district. According to the declarations of his son and, accordingly, Bondarenko’s sister, he rented a house of 357 square meters from Tetyana Domalevska.

The woman is the wife of Andriy Kazak, the Director of the Investment Department of the National Bank of Ukraine. In their ownership, the couple has a huge amount of land in Volyn and Vinnytsia regions. As a reminder, the Bondarenko family also hails from the Vinnytsia region.

Interestingly, as of 2023, Vitaliy Bondarenko owned three land plots in the Vinnytsia region with a total area of 5,517 square meters and a residential house of 96 square meters.

In the latest declaration, these lands disappeared, as did a Volkswagen Touareg car, which he rented from his neighbor in Novi Petrivtsi, Hryhoriy Voron.

A person with the same name and surname is the father of Artem Voron, an investigator at the National Police of Ukraine. Together with his wife, he owns two houses in Novi Petrivtsi near Mezhyhirya. One mansion is 107 square meters, the other is as large as 300 square meters.

The family also owns 4 land plots in this village with a total area of 5,126 square meters, and an additional 36,037 square meters of land in the Ivankiv district of the Kyiv region.

Investigator Artem Voron, along with his father and brother, also owns 14 vehicles, eight of which are trucks. It is evident that the Voron family has a business related to logistics.

This entire cycle of houses, apartments, and cars among interconnected law enforcement officers may indicate a desire to conceal the true owners of this property. In any case, neither the head of the police protection department in Kyiv, Vitaliy Bondarenko, nor his sister Tetyana, who works at a police college, nor her son Vladyslav Palamarchuk with a position at the SBI, nor even her ex-husband Viktor Palamarchuk, who is fond of large living spaces, have incomes that would allow them to own even one of the aforementioned elite real estate objects.

Author: Olena Dobrodiy