1.7 billion lights in the world: how the company of a blogger and masseuse "Star Energy Trade" became the main energy supplier for Poltava region

Contracts worth 1.7 billion hryvnias — the anime fan’s firm «Star Energy Trade» has become one of the key electricity suppliers for municipal enterprises and the police of the Poltava region.

LLC «Star Energy Trade» was registered in May 2022 by 24-year-old Kyiv resident Viktoriya Lyudmyrska. She is passionate about cosplay.

Half a year after its creation, the company receives its first major contract from «Lubnyvodokanal» for 18.2 million UAH. The municipal enterprise signed the agreement directly with the newcomer company, agreeing to pay one hryvnia more per kilowatt-hour than other customers in the region. This involves a probable overpayment of 4 million UAH.

Liudmyrska moves to the position of director, and the sole owner becomes Iryna Seryohova, who owns a massage salon in Kremenchuk. Previously, the woman worked as a journalist at the municipal TV channel «Kremenchuk News». After being dismissed in June 2022, she tried to create her own media project but later registered as an FOP and focused on the beauty sphere.

In the documents that «Star Energy Trade» submits for tenders, there is an order for hiring Seryohova. In social networks, she continues to actively advertise massage services. In December 2023, a new CEO Oleh Popenko appears. He becomes a co-owner of the company.

Popenko in 2014 headed ME «Kremenchuk-Invest», in 2016-2019 was the financial director of the ME for housing stock management in Kyiv. Then — the Housing and Communal Services Committee in the Public Council at the KCSA and worked as an advisor to the deputy head of the KCSA. In 2020, he founded the NGO «Union of Utility Services Consumers» and since then has promoted himself as an expert in housing and communal services and energy.

With Popenko’s arrival, the volume of tenders increased 80 times. Among the customers of «Star Energy Trade» are only municipal institutions and organizations of several regions: OKVP «Dnipro-Kirovograd», «Teplokomunenergo» in Oleksandriya, «Poltavavodokanal», «Poltavateploenergo», the police department of the Poltava region, etc.

How to explain the rapid success of an unknown company in budget electricity procurement, why does its CEO appear at anti-crisis meetings as an independent expert? In the GetContact app, Seryohova is listed as «assistant of Korf-Ira» and «Iryna press service of Korf».

50-year-old Yevhen Korf is a deputy of the Poltava Regional Council from Kremenchuk. In 2020, he ran for the regional council from OPFL. After the ban of this party, he joined the «For Poltavshchyna» group. He heads the standing commission of the regional council on ecology issues.

Korf owns and manages a number of companies in Ukraine and Poland, most of which manufacture and repair energy equipment. He owns the firm «NVP “Energo-Plus”». Lawyer Tetyana Nenashova in June 2024 obtained an extract from the state register of legal entities, which is needed for participation in tenders.

Already a month later, this extract appeared in the tender proposal of «Star Energy Trade», which the company submitted for the tender of «Poltavavodokanal». In May 2022, Korf founded «BF «Trust and Help»» together with Popenko’s wife Viktoriya.

Alina Bilenska, the wife of the regional council chairman Oleksandr Bilenskyi, received about 150 thousand UAH in 2024 from Korf’s firm LLC «Transformation Equipment». Bilenskyi organized anti-crisis meetings at which Popenko appeared as an «expert».

As a deputy, Korf actively supports the firm’s activities. In September 2025, he personally voted for an appeal to the president and government requesting state subsidies for «Poltavavodokanal». This appeal directly states that the debt to «Star Energy Trade» has reached 33.6 million UAH.

In March 2024, Korf participated in a meeting of the regional council’s working group on tariffs of «Poltavavodokanal» and «Poltavateploenergo», where the difficult financial situation of the enterprises was discussed. Already a month later, «Star Energy Trade» received the first contract from «Poltavavodokanal», and half a year later — from «Poltavateploenergo».

In 2023, Korf became the owner of the Polish company NPP Energo-Plus Europe, later he acquired another Polish one Twerd Energo-Plus. This coincided with the period when «Star Energy Trade» was scaling up contracts with municipal enterprises of the Poltava region. NPP Energo-Plus Europe was featured in investigations of contracts of the state-owned «Ukrhydroenergo» bypassing Prozorro.