From Yanukovych’s entourage to the orbit of Kushnir and Molchanova: who is behind the scandalous capital’s 25-story building on Karavayevi Dachi

From Yanukovych’s entourage to the orbit of Kushnir and Molchanova: who is behind the scandalous capital’s 25-story building on Karavayevi Dachi

Another construction scandal is brewing in the capital. Residents of Karavayevi Dachi are dissatisfied with the planned “reconstruction” of a commercial center (former kindergarten) at 4 Zakhidnyi Lane into a 25-story residential “candle”. There are currently doubts that these works comply with the land’s intended purpose and that it is indeed reconstruction rather than new construction (the latter may be evidenced by the “potential volumes” of new housing). Previously, law enforcement agencies were interested in this development, but they did not want or could not bring the corresponding criminal case to any result. Notably, at one time, the respective land plot was rented by a company from the entourage of the fugitive president Viktor Yanukovych, and in 2021-2024, the owner of the “new” tenant LLC “Sport Invest System” was the father of the notorious ex-MP Oleksandr Trukhin. The latter subsequently sold this company to persons who, apparently, have an indirect relation to the orbit of Ihor Kushnir and Vladyslava Molchanova.

As KV has learned, a scandal is brewing in the Svyatoshynskyi District of Kyiv over the planned development of a plot at 4 Zakhidnyi Lane (Karavayevi Dachi).

The matter concerns the reconstruction of the commercial building located on this territory into a multi-story residential building with public premises and parking. In local Facebook groups, Karavayevi Dachi residents report the installation of an information board on the construction site and express their outrage about it. Local residents fear that the appearance of another residential “candle” could lead to increased strain on the district’s engineering communications and social infrastructure.

Information board on the construction site (photo from social media)

“How strange: it used to be a kindergarten, then some commercial entity took it over, and now – bingo! A 25-story building will be here. Doesn’t Kyiv need kindergartens?”, – wrote local resident Larisa Krushynina on Facebook.

KV decided to analyze the history of this still “potential” development. 

Background

On October 29, 2009, the Kyiv City Council, by decision No. 576/2645, approved the transfer of a land plot of 0.47 ha at 4 Zakhidnyi Lane for rent to LLC “Developer Company AVK” for 25 years for the maintenance and operation of a commercial center (its area – 706.5 sq.m.). The public knew this business center as “Zakhidnyi”. In November of the following year, the city council and the said company signed the respective lease agreement. Three years later, in November 2014, “Developer Company AVK” sold its commercial center to another business entity – LLC “Sport Invest System”. In June 2015, “Developer Company AVK” was liquidated.

In July 2015, LLC “Sport Invest System” applied to the capital authorities with a petition to allocate the plot under their commercial center for its maintenance and operation. A year later, on July 12, 2016, the Kyiv City Council satisfied this request – by decision No. 596/596, this land (cadastral number – 8000000000:69:136:0008) was transferred to the said company for rent for 10 years. In March 2017, a lease agreement was signed between the city council and “Sport Invest System”.

Plot on the OpenDataBot portal map 

On October 6, 2021, the Department of Urban Planning and Architecture of the Kyiv City State Administration (KMDA) issued LLC “Sport Invest System” urban planning conditions and restrictions (UCR) for the design of the commercial center building on the said plot into a multi-story residential building with public premises and parking. This document stated that the plot’s intended purpose was “for the operation and maintenance of a commercial center” (“for the construction and maintenance of trade buildings”). At the same time, it was clarified that, according to functional purpose under the General Plan of Kyiv, the said land belongs to the territory of multi-story residential development. Among other things, the UCR specified that the maximum height of the reconstructed building should not exceed 100 meters.

Shortly after, on October 21, 2021, the Svyatoshynskyi Department of the National Police of Kyiv opened criminal proceedings No. 42021102090000211 on the fact of “possible violations of land and urban planning legislation requirements during construction (reconstruction) on the land plot at 4 Zakhidnyi Lane”. This investigation was initiated as a result of “monitoring [by law enforcement] of mass media”. However, evidently, the National Police did not take up this case very actively, and then completely “shelved” it. 

Thus, at the end of 2022 or beginning of 2023, investigators submitted a petition to the Svyatoshynskyi District Court of Kyiv for permission to inspect the respective plot «with the involvement of specialists from the Department of Architectural and Construction Control of KCSA, the Department of Land Resources of KCSA, the Main Department of the State GeoCadastre in Kyiv, KP «Kyiv Institute of Land Relations» and KP «Kyivblahoustriy». However, as the investigating judge noted, this petition “did not reference any evidence confirming the fact of illegal construction at all”, which is why on February 10, 2023, law enforcement was denied satisfaction, after which no rulings on this case were published in the registry of court decisions.

At the beginning of 2022, LLC “Sport Invest System” first attempted to obtain permission for the reconstruction of the commercial center building into a multi-story residential building with public premises and parking. However, at that time, the State Inspectorate for Architecture and Urban Planning (DIAM) refused the company. Several reasons were cited. In particular, DIAM noted the mismatch between the development intentions and the land’s intended purpose (recall, “for the construction and maintenance of trade buildings”). In addition, the customer did not submit to DIAM the technical conclusion on the possibility of building reconstruction provided for by the urban planning conditions and restrictions, and also did not obtain (or did not submit to the inspectorate. – KV) “approval of design solutions in case of designing an object over 45 meters”, which “Sport Invest System” was required to obtain according to UCR requirements. 

Nevertheless, at the end of October 2022, DIAM still issued such permit IU013221026443 for the reconstruction of the commercial center building into a multi-story residential building with public premises and parking at 4 Zakhidnyi Lane in the Sviatoshynskyi District of Kyiv. How the issue with the intended purpose was resolved in this case is currently unknown. According to the permit, LLC “Sport Invest System” obtained the right to reconstruct the commercial center into a 25-story residential building. The general contractor for this reconstruction was declared to be LLC “Monolit Budservice”.

Interestingly, in June 2024, the said plot was put up for sale for $3 million – however, evidently, it was actually about selling LLC “Sport Invest System”, which has the lease right to this land, because it is impossible to sell a municipal ownership plot without city council consent under the law. The respective advertisement specified that UCR and DIAM permit for the development of the plot had already been obtained, and that the building on this territory must be demolished – evidently, this may be partial confirmation that no reconstruction is planned, but rather “full-fledged new construction”. This version is also supported by the fact that, as stated in the advertisement, construction is to take place in two phases, resulting in two 25-story residential sections united by a stylobate. It can be assumed that they hardly would “fit” within the foundation of a two-story commercial center, whose area, recall, is 706.5 sq.m. – that is, the area of the first floor, by which the foundation is “measured”, is accordingly about 308 sq.m.

What is known about the developers

According to the YouControl analytical system, the capital’s LLC “Developer Company AVK” was registered in February 2008, but, as noted above, this business entity has been liquidated for more than ten years. Its last director was Mykola Honcharov, founder – Kyiv resident Dmytro Sidlyarenko.

“Developer Company AVK” during its activity was part of Viktor Yanukovych’s entourage. Thus, it, along with a number of other companies (some of which were also registered in the “Zakhidnyi” office center), acted as contractors for the construction of the fugitive president’s residences in the Mezhyhiria tract and in the village of Sukholuchchia (both – Vyshhorod District). For this reason, “Developer Company AVK” along with other business entities was involved in criminal proceedings on the facts of misappropriation of lands under these estates (at that time, the plots were state-owned and were in use by, respectively, VC «Pushcha-Vodytsia» and the Dnipro-Teteriv State Forest Industry Enterprise).

LLC “Sport Invest System” was registered in April 2013. Since July 2024, the ultimate beneficiaries of this company are Kyiv resident Andriy Kobets (share of statutory capital – 38.9%), Kremenchuk resident of Poltava region Dmytro Bilonoh (28.65%), another Kyiv resident Bohdan Dudka (16.55%), and Kharkiv resident Ihor Khodakevych (15.90%). Thus, evidently, these citizens bought the company, which was put up for sale along with the lease right to the plot at Zakhidnyi Lane. At the same time, the first two, likely, are part of the entourage of very well-known capital developers. 

Thus, Dmytro Bilonoh is the director of LLC “Croos Ran”, which the YouControl system attributes to the so-called corporate group of Ihor Kushnir – former head of PJSC “HC ‘Kyivmiskbud’” (headed this developer from April 2012 to December 2023). Moreover – the owner of “Croos Ran” is the latter’s wife Oksana Kushnir. Recall that it was during Ihor Kushnir’s “reign” that “Kyivmiskbud” “acquired” residential complexes of the bankrupt “Ukrbud”, which it still cannot complete. Kushnir left his position amid scandal – after journalists published information that under his leadership “Kyivmiskbud” regularly transferred funds to companies related to his entourage, that Oksana Kushnir’s company purchased a French firm on which a luxurious villa on the Côte d’Azur worth about 20 million euros is registered, that the head of “Kyivmiskbud” traveled abroad for a disability certificate to conquer Everest, etc. 

At the same time, during Kushnir’s work at “Kyivmiskbud”, it seems his family “acquired” a considerable number of assets in the capital – this was evidently facilitated by his influence on KCSA officials and Kyiv City Council deputies. For example, as of 2023, two buildings at 25/16 Valeriy Lobanovskyi Avenue, which “Kyivmiskbud” once owned, were registered to Ihor Kushnir’s wife Oksana’s company. In turn, their son Ilya Kushnir, who was a deputy of the current convocation of the Kyiv City Council from “UDAR”, has received a number of “juicy” land plots for use through his companies in recent years. 

In particular, this concerns over 1.5 ha of land under the former balneological hospital in Sotsmist (Dniprovskyi District), which left state ownership on dubious grounds, and more than 2.8 ha of land in Koncha-Zaspa (Holosiivskyi District), where a cottage town is being built under the guise of reconstructing a recreation base (law enforcement has taken interest in its construction). By the way, the developer of the latter project is the company “BudCapital”, which media link to the same senior Kushnir and his business partner Vadym Stolar (current Verkhovna Rada MP of the IX convocation, elected from the now banned “OPZZh”).

In addition, back in 2019, the National Police initiated an investigation into possible violations of legislation during the construction of the “InWood” cottage town in a recreational area on Lisovo-Kozynska Street in Koncha-Zaspa, which is being built “under the flags” of the same “BudCapital” on order from Ilya Kushnir’s company. Law enforcement found that the development is carried out under the guise of reconstructing a recreation base that was evidently built illegally on this territory in the 1990s. Moreover, investigators established that the land plot under the elite housing is not intended for such construction at all. 

In turn, another co-owner of LLC “Sport Invest System” Andriy Kobets likely has ties to the entourage of Vladyslava Molchanova – a notorious capital businesswoman and co-owner of one of Kyiv’s largest developers “Stolitsa Group”. In particular, he, along with Molchanova’s sons Ivan and Fyodor, is a co-founder of the charitable organization “Charitable Foundation ‘Humanitarian Forces of Ukraine’”. In addition, Kobets is a co-owner of LLC “IBI Alliance” together with Liana Popova and Oleksandr Mamedov, who also seem not strangers to the above-mentioned developer’s entourage. Thus, Liana Popova is the head of the venture fund “Invest Management Group”, whose official owner is Vladyslava Molchanova herself. As for Oleksandr Mamedov, he was the director of the now liquidated LLC “Institute of Professional Directors” in 2007-2008, which was part of the “BT Invest” corporate group (including, in particular, the “Novus” supermarket chain), owned by Molchanova’s business partners – Lithuanians Raimondas Tumenas, Marina Poznyakova, and Agne Ruzgiene.

Moreover, certain connections with Molchanova seem to have been had or still are had by LLC “Monolit Budservice” – the general contractor for construction in Western Lane. Yes, in 2018-2024, the owner of this company was Vasyl Oliynyk, who back in 2021 was called by “Stolitsa Group” a partner “in the implementation of ambitious company projects, including the residential complex «Warsaw microdistrict», residential complex «Hoffmann house», residential complex «Quartet», residential complex «Galactica», residential complex «Recreation» and others”. Let us remind you that Oliynyk from February 2024 to May 2025 headed the aforementioned PJSC “HC “Kyivmiskbud” – he was the successor of Ihor Kushnir.

We note that the representative of Vladyslava Molchanova – managing partner of the Law Association “Alarius” Viktor Surnyk – categorically denied KV information regarding Molchanova being connected to LLC “Sport Invest System” and LLC “Monolit Budservice” (because of this, the publication with the corresponding title had to be deleted). 

Nevertheless, as KV has repeatedly reported, companies from the orbit of “Stolitsa Group” regularly appear in various “construction” scandals. Most of this developer’s complexes were built and are being built on the capital’s Vynohradar – based on investment agreements concluded with the state enterprise “SD VA “Pushcha-Vodytsia” (the “Pushcha-Vodytsia” agrocombine). Thus, in this area, in particular, residential complexes “Warsaw”, “Warsaw-2”, “Warsaw-3” and “Warsaw plus” are being built. Previously, the National Police had numerous questions about these constructions – precisely due to the dubiousness of the concluded investment agreements. In addition, the residential complex “H2O”, which “Stolitsa Group” is building on the capital’s Osokorky, is constantly “in the news” – the developer “took over” this project from the bankrupt “Arkadа” bank and for a long time has not been able to complete it for various reasons.

And one of the most resonant stories related to Vladyslava Molchanova’s companies happened at the beginning of September 2025. Then NABU and SAPO notified this developer, her business partner, the odious ex-MP-“regional” Yuriy Ivanushchenko, and other persons of suspicions in the case regarding possible manipulations with land plots totaling 18 hectares under the Kyiv “Stolychnyi” market (Sofiyivska Borshchahivka). According to the investigation, these persons, with the assistance of StateGeoCadaster officials, illegally privatized land that was previously leased to the same “Pushcha-Vodytsia” agrocombine, and then re-registered it to “their own people”. Molchanova called this case ordered and promises to defend “her honest name and reputation”. At the same time, the developer’s entourage tried in every way to hinder the investigation. For example, her civil husband Serhiy Korovchenko wanted to challenge the seizure of his phone, which contained correspondence with Molchanova – he explained this by the fact that he is her lawyer, and therefore their communication is confidential.

We note that previously interesting personalities were also among the ultimate beneficiaries of LLC “Sport Invest System”. For example, in 2020-2021, its co-owner was Kyiv resident Artur Yalovyi, who was the founder and ultimate beneficiary of a number of companies that are part of the orbit of influence of Eduard Bondarenko (businessman, former head of “Donbasenergo”, which at one time was attributed to the son of the same Viktor Yanukovych, Oleksandr) and Maksym Yefimov (MP of the VIII-IX convocations, elected from “BPP-Solidarity” and as a non-partisan self-nominated candidate). Among such business entities, it is worth mentioning PJSC “Energoinvest Holding” (Yalovyi was its owner in 2020-2022).

In addition, in 2021-2024, the owner of LLC “Sport Invest System” was Mykola Trukhin – the father of the well-known entrepreneur, former deputy of the Poltava Regional Council from BPP (2015-2019) and current People’s Deputy of the IX convocation from “Servant of the People” Oleksandr Trukhin. The latter is best known for the loud scandal with a traffic accident that occurred in August 2021 on the Boryspil highway near Kyiv, in which, among others, the then head of the Ukrainian Football Association’s arbitration committee, Luciano Luci, was injured. Media published data that the MP was behind the wheel of the car that allegedly caused the accident, that he allegedly showed signs of alcohol intoxication, and that he offered a bribe of $150,000 to the policeman who arrived at the accident scene. In February 2023, Oleksandr Trukhin entered into a plea agreement with the investigation, admitting the fact of offering an improper benefit to a law enforcer, and shortly thereafter resigned his MP mandate. At the same time, for the traffic accident itself, another person who allegedly was driving the car in which Trukhin was traveling was “harshly” punished – in August 2022, the court fined this citizen 850 hryvnias.

The Department of Land Resources of the KCSA has been headed by Valentyna Pelykh since April 2, 2021. She is currently a suspect in the case regarding the alleged seizure of a land plot under the Ferris wheel on Kontraktova Square. The position of Director of the Department of Urban Planning and Architecture of the KCSA has been “calmly” held since November 1, 2016, despite the complete urban planning chaos in the capital, by Oleksandr Svystunov.

Currently, the sphere of land relations in the capital is controlled by the Deputy Head of the KCSA Vladyslav Andronov (on the collage on the right), and another deputy of Vitaliy Klychko – Vyacheslav Nepop (on the collage on the left) – is responsible for the activities of the “urban planning” department.

Author: Oleksandr Hlazunov