Five-year investigation and missed signals: how a Khmelnytskyi pedophile kept access to schools

The scandal around the Khmelnytskyi EnglishTop center went far beyond routine court reporting, turning into a shocking story of years of systemic abuse. While the founder boasted about unique teaching methods, charisma, and an “American accent,” dozens of female students became victims of grooming and harassment for years. Law enforcement’s inaction, which since 2021 has failed to restrict the suspect’s access to children, exposed the complete vulnerability of teenagers to authoritative adults, notes hromadske.

August 2013. A private English school, EnglishTop, opens in Khmelnytskyi with fanfare. The celebration even invited entertainer Dmytro Kolyadenko.

A city blog publishes a report from the opening.

— What makes this center different from others? — the author asks.

— First, the prices. Second, the teaching method, — replies founder Viktor Snihurov.

After 13 years EnglishTop will again be in the spotlight, but without music and guests. Operatives and investigators will come to the school.

Now Viktor Snihurov is accused in a case of possessing and distributing child pornography. A preparatory hearing was supposed to take place on 4 August, but it was postponed due to the absence of his lawyer. But this case, it turned out, is not the only one.

hromadske received a letter from a number of women and girls who claim they were harassed by Snihurov. Some of them said Viktor sexually assaulted them when they were teenagers. And that it all began 30 years ago.

“He sent a photo of himself lying in his underwear with a bare torso”

At Khmelnytskyi station I get into a taxi and ask the driver if he’s heard of Viktor Snihurov. “Yes, we even have mutual acquaintances,” he replies. In a café I meet with Viktoriia Pivtorak. She wrote the letter to our editorial office. Viktoriia is not a victim; she once worked at EnglishTop. She joined the group of women who reported alleged crimes by Snihurov to support them and help.

EnglishTop school opening in 2013

In 2015 Viktoriia came to an interview with Snihurov after seeing an advertisement seeking English teachers. According to her, he knew how to make an impression: extroverted, flashy, always upbeat. That, she says, is how he won people over.

“Later he added me on VKontakte and asked when I could start working. Literally at the start of our communication he wrote that he was in the hospital because of some injury and sent a photo of himself lying in his underwear with a bare torso. I didn’t know how to react. It stunned me,” Viktoriia recalls.

She still agreed to work. Soon Snihurov began messaging her at night and asking personal questions — where she lived, how things were with her boyfriend, whether she was sure their relationship was serious. According to Pivtorak, at work he could touch her, hug her, or kiss her on the cheek. These displays of attention were sudden and had nothing to do with professional communication. After two months Viktoriia resigned, saying she saw no future there.

Some time later Olena — one of her former students at EnglishTop — contacted Viktoriia. The girl asked if they could continue lessons one-on-one and explained why she had decided to leave the school.

Now Olena is 23 years old. When she studied at EnglishTop she was 13. Olena says Snihurov began messaging her on social media. Once he sent her a video of himself playing guitar shirtless and singing in English. He then asked her to translate the song and retell it at the next lesson.

“He sent me the English lyrics. It was a song with explicit content, 18+. At first I was shocked by the video itself, then by the song’s text. It affected me a lot. But I was scared and didn’t tell my mom. In the chat I made a joke about it,” the girl added.

A week or two later Olena came to class again. According to her, Snihurov approached her and began hugging her. He offered to drive her home. Olena refused, saying she lived nearby, but the man kept insisting.

“I remember walking down the street and his car following me. Luckily I went into one of the courtyards and stayed there about five minutes. When I came out he was gone. It terrified me. At home I told my parents everything, showed my mom the messages and the song text. After that we just left EnglishTop,” Olena says.

Viktor Snihurov

“He pressed me to him and kissed me”

Anna Zelinska is 38 years old. The events she recounts happened 22 years ago. At that time Snihurov’s English school had a different name.

“I really stayed silent for almost 22 years. When a perpetrator grooms, he convinces the victim that she is to blame for what happened. Because of that, girls who experienced this recently may be silent for years until they realize it wasn’t their fault,” the woman says.

Grooming is the gradual establishment by an adult of trusting relationships with a child or teenager to lower their guard, normalize unacceptable behavior, and prepare them for sexual contact, exploitation, or violence. It often includes special attention, gifts, secrets, isolation from close ones, sexualized conversations, and convincing the child to hide the communications.

According to Anna, for decades Snihurov recruited students using a similar scheme: he made deals with general-education school principals, came to classes, and promoted his English school. He is very charismatic, has a way with words, and a good American accent.

“He has very good grooming skills: he would sit on a desk, talk like a buddy, and tell how cool he is and how great his language school is,” Anna recalls.

Anna began studying at Snihurov’s school in 2001. Before her course they promised her a certificate allegedly from an American university. Three years later, when she demanded the promised document, Snihurov offered her an individual lesson — the first in three years — saying he wanted to check if she was ready for the test after which the certificate is issued. Anna was then 16 years old.

“At the very start of the lesson he turned my chair to face him rather than to the side. He spread his legs wide and moved me so that my legs were between his. Then he put his hands on my legs and kept them there for the whole lesson. At 16 years old it was a shock. He was an adult man and I didn’t know what to do. Now I realize he was testing my reaction,” Anna says.

After that lesson the school administrators called Anna and said Viktor wanted to give her another lesson — free, individual. Zelinska recalls:

“I came to the second lesson. As soon as I entered the classroom he said: ‘You know, it’s such a hot day, it’s stuffy in here. Let’s go for coffee.’ The school was downtown, so I thought we’d go to one of the nearby cafés. I didn’t see anything wrong with it: city center, people around.

We left the classroom and passed the administrators’ desk. They always sat there together. He said: ‘We’re going for coffee.’ They replied: ‘Okay.’ So they already knew he takes girls for coffee and didn’t react.

We got in his car and he drove me out of town, to the Ozerny district. He ordered coffee at the café “Three Bears.” I was wary, but again I was a child and in a frozen state. He acted like a friend, as if I interested him, as if he liked me.

We drank coffee and he suggested a walk in the woods. We went a short distance into the woods. He stopped, pressed me to him and kissed me. Then from behind he put his hand into my pants, and his finger into my anus.

I was again in a shocked, frozen state. I don’t remember how long it lasted: one minute or 15 minutes. But I remember it happened. Then he walked me back to the car and drove me back to the school. I went home from there. I think I still took some kind of test and was given a sheet printed on a printer.

But before I stopped going to EnglishTop I once looked for the classroom where my private teacher was supposed to be and accidentally went into the wrong room. I opened the door and saw Snihurov. A girl younger than me was sitting on his lap. She looked very young.

Then I realized it was a whole chain, an endless stream of girls he sexually assaulted. After that I didn’t go there anymore. I no longer had illusions that he loved me, because I saw I wasn’t the only one.

I stopped going there. There was no more contact with him.”

Anna had a bad relationship with her parents and told them nothing. According to her, Snihurov “specifically chooses children who don’t have a father or don’t have good relationships with their parents, who want adult attention because they don’t get it at home.”

I spoke with another woman who wished to remain anonymous for safety reasons. She reported sexual violence she experienced as a teenager.

“I was 16 years old. He would come to school to recruit kids for his English classes. [Once I was studying there], he began writing on social media and asking how I was. He would drive me home from school. But once he didn’t drive me — he forced me! When my parents found out they said they’d go to him. I answered that I’d jump out the window if they exposed it! I think that’s what they count on,” says the woman who attended Snihurov’s classes in 2004.

The women who reported harassment by Snihurov formed a closed community. According to them, they have already collected almost fifty stories from different girls and women. Several girls filed police reports; some are testifying.

The victims let me listen to voice messages that, they say, Snihurov sent them over the past few years. The voice on those recordings resembles Viktor’s voice.

“I have no doubt you’re tight. Want a d*ck, fat one? I’ll f*ck you doggy-style,” Viktor allegedly said to a minor student in 2020.

I also noticed Snihurov’s communication style; today he is 58 years old. In messages he mimics teenage speech: using their slang and trying to talk to girls in the same language. At the same time he convinces them to periodically delete their correspondence with him and says, for example:

“It’s so fun to chat. Let this be between us, okay? Because probably few will understand that we chat so closely. […] Better delete the damn [messages], we’ll start a new one. We’re just chatting, but parents may get worried, probably.”

Viktor Snihurov

So what are law enforcement doing?

At the end of July local social media groups were full of posts about Snihurov’s upcoming trial in the pornography case and about the accusations brought against him by women.

On 25 July the police reported they were checking information about alleged unlawful actions by Snihurov.

However, hromadske learned from the court decisions register that Khmelnytskyi police have been investigating a criminal proceeding under part 3 of article 156-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine — child solicitation for sexual purposes — since 2021.

Court rulings state that the regional police investigative department received materials from the cyber police. They indicate that Snihurov corresponded with minors on intimate topics, offered to meet them, invited them to his place, and exchanged intimate photos and videos with them.

Only in March 2024 did an investigator apply to the court to obtain Snihurov’s Instagram correspondence. But the court refused, explaining that the investigator had incorrectly drafted the request and did not explain the legal basis for obtaining data from the United States.

In April 2025 the court allowed police to search the premises Snihurov rented in Gymnasium No. 20. The next month authorities asked permission to search his apartment, but the court denied it.

Only in June 2026 did police search EnglishTop’s main premises and Snihurov’s residence, seizing laptops and phones.

Thus, despite an open criminal proceeding, Snihurov continued to come to general-education schools for another five years (as eyewitnesses confirmed to us), advertised his courses there, and rented premises in those institutions.

hromadske knows of at least two alleged harassment incidents that occurred after 2021 — that is, after a criminal proceeding was opened against Snihurov. One of the police reports concerned an alleged crime committed in 2024.

Alona Hruzina, head of communications and advocacy at Gender in Detail, notes that the law does not provide that a person automatically loses access to schools after a criminal proceeding is opened.

“That does not absolve those who continued to invite this person to work with children. If school administrations or education authorities knew about numerous complaints and still gave access to pupils, society has the right to ask whether they did everything possible to protect the children,” Hruzina says.

She adds that a ban on access (a restrictive injunction) is possible only when a judge applies it as part of a preventive measure or when other legally provided grounds exist.

For example, a court can impose certain procedural duties on a suspect if the prosecutor petitions for it and relevant risks are present. So in this case the key question is not that proceedings were opened, but whether the prosecutor requested appropriate restrictions.

Spoiler — no.

What do the schools say?

When I asked why, despite information about Snihurov’s alleged illegal actions, parents still sent their children to his school, the women I interviewed answered: the reputation of a good teacher proved much stronger. Some simply didn’t want to believe he was capable of such acts, while others knew nothing about the accusations.

EnglishTop’s main premises are now closed, and the phone numbers on the sign are turned off.

The EnglishTop branch in Gymnasium No. 20 is also not operating. The janitor led me to the rooms the learning center used. Only papers remained on the desks.

EnglishTop administrator Iryna told me by phone that because of “this situation” there will be no classes at least until September. She said she was shocked by what is happening and had already decided to resign.

I also spoke with Yan Earl-Ruzytskyi, who taught at EnglishTop for several years and resigned in 2023. He claims Snihurov’s school operated without proper registration or tax payment, and teachers were paid unofficially.

“He uses that and blackmails people with their salaries,” Yan says.

Yan says he learned about Snihurov’s alleged illegal behavior from a student he began tutoring individually after leaving EnglishTop. He also notes he heard certain rumors earlier while working at the school.

Acting principal of Lyceum No. 11 Nataliia Osetiuk told hromadske the institution is in the process of terminating its rental agreement with EnglishTop.

“As for teaching English — he really is a specialist. He conducts classes very creatively and interactively. When he holds or advertises classes, the children are delighted. What I read online was a shock to me,” Osetiuk shares.

She said that since the opening of the criminal proceeding regarding the alleged harassment, the school had not received any warnings from the police related to Snihurov or his presence in the institution.

Lyceum No. 11 / Denys Bulavin / hromadske

In Gymnasium No. 20 I was told by phone that the administration is currently on vacation. Whether they will terminate the rental agreement with Snihurov will be known in August.

The Department of Education and Science of the Khmelnytskyi City Council stated that it has no authority to intervene in this situation. Its director Pavlo Yurkovskyi explained that EnglishTop is a private institution and not subordinate to the department, and municipal educational institutions independently decide on renting out premises. He said the department also had not received notifications from the police about an investigation into alleged harassment.

hromadske sent an informational request to the police. We specifically asked what circumstances explained the long interval between the start of the investigation and the investigative actions.

At the time of publication we had not received a response. Meanwhile the victims told the editorial office that law enforcement is now taking their testimony.

I tried to contact Snihurov; he did not answer calls. He deleted his social media pages. He didn’t open his apartment door, though someone could be heard inside.

Snihurov’s apartment Denys Bulavin / hromadske

A neighbor said she hadn’t seen Viktor for about a week but had seen his girlfriend. Locals suspect that at the start of her relationship with Snihurov she may have been underage.

Why can victims of grooming stay silent for years?

The head of communications and advocacy at Gender in Detail explains that a person who grooms does not begin with violence. They gradually build a special relationship with the child: giving more attention than to others, complimenting them, giving gifts, offering rides, sending direct messages, and may gradually accustom them to touches that at first seem entirely innocent. This is how the abuser tests where the child’s boundaries lie and whether any adult will intervene.

“This is one reason many victims stay silent for years. First, the child often doesn’t even have the words to describe what’s happening, doesn’t know how to name the process. If it’s a beloved teacher, coach, or another authoritative adult, they may not understand for a long time that what happened was violence.

Second, children are very afraid they won’t be believed. Especially when everyone around says: ‘He’s a wonderful educator, he can’t do that.’ In such a situation the child begins to doubt even their own experience, let alone the appropriateness of coming forward,” Hruzina says.

She adds that people often dare to speak only when someone else speaks first. When one story appears, dozens often follow. When there’s a feeling of ‘They will believe me, I’m not alone,’ it becomes easier to talk. That’s a very typical scenario in sexual violence cases.

On the morning of 4 August the Office of the Prosecutor General announced suspicions of corrupting minors and underage pupils (part 1, part 2 of article 156 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

Snihurov’s detention Police of Khmelnytskyi region

According to law enforcement, the alleged illegal actions against one of the victims continued for 2018–2020 years, and against another — in 2023–2025.

Now Snihurov is to be presented with a preventive measure.