How the WOG Network Profits from Drivers and Destroys Kyiv’s Green Zones for Another Development

Since 20 July, Ukraine has experienced another wave of mass fuel price increases, and this is not the end. Experts predict that the cost of 1 L of A-95 will exceed 100 UAH/L. The spike has been blamed on the escalation with Iran and a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. But the real reason is more mundane: the owners of large fuel station chains simply want to make money, because wholesale prices among the biggest suppliers are, as always, identical, and the Antimonopoly Committee — which should intervene — does not prevent profiteering because it is taking a cut.

As far back as 2016, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine officially found that the largest fuel market operators, including LLC “WOG RETAIL,” LLC “ZOLOTYI EKVATOR,” PE “OKKO NAFTOPRODUKT,” LLC “ALLIANCE HOLDING,” PI “AMIK UKRAINE,” LLC “SOCAR PETROLEUM” and LLC “PARALLEL-M LTD,” engaged in anti-competitive coordinated actions. The companies synchronously changed prices for A-95 gasoline and diesel fuel, keeping them effectively at the same level. At the same time, consumers were forced into complex bonus programs and hidden discount mechanisms that made it practically impossible to determine the real fuel price. For these actions, LLC “WOG RETAIL” was fined more than 54 million UAH.

The story of fuel price increases appears to have repeated. In March 2026, after a sharp jump in gasoline and diesel prices due to events in the Middle East, Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine chair Pavlo Kyrylenko loudly announced inspections of the largest fuel station networks, possible anti-competitive collusion, and even forecast a drop in fuel prices. Yet a month later AMCU reported that no signs of collusion among the biggest fuel operators were found, and prices for Ukrainians did not fall.

However, questions about WOG’s activities have arisen not only because of fuel prices.

During the operation of the WOG filling complex in Kropyvnytskyi on Sadova Street, 43 it was established that LLC “VEST PETROL MARKET” (EDRPOU code – 42663493) accepted, stored and sold gasoline, diesel fuel and liquefied gas without a permit for emissions of pollutants into the atmosphere. At the same time, permit No. UA350402100100119355-0025 dated 07.04.2022 the company had only for another facility — the filling complex on Habdrakhmanova Street, 46.

Another issue concerns the location of the filling complex itself. The WOG station sits on a land plot with cadastral number 3510100000:39:338:0144, where the distance to the nearest residential development is about 25 meters, while state sanitary norms require at least 50 meters. Within this same sanitary protection zone there are a car repair shop, a tire service and a store, despite the fact that the complex operates a tank farm, fuel dispensers, fuel transfer and filling systems and other stationary sources of pollutant emissions.

So who stands behind WOG’s multi-billion business, which for years has remained one of the key players in Ukraine’s fuel market? The formal co-owners of the group are People’s Deputy from the parliamentary group “For the Future” Stepan Ivakhiv, Serhiy Lahur and Svitlana Ivakhiv. Above them are WOG Holding B.V. in the Netherlands and W.O.G. Holding Limited in Cyprus, and the share of the deceased co-founder Ihor Yeremeyev is held in a trust in the British Virgin Islands for 360 years. Operational management of the group is carried out by former infrastructure minister Andriy Pyvovarskyi.

One of the group’s most high-profile assets is LLC “PROTASIV YAR” (EDRPOU code – 31238331).

It owns three land plots totaling more than 16,4 ha in the Protasiv Yar tract in the Solomianskyi district of Kyiv. The land was purchased back in 2004–2005 and intended for construction of a residential complex with social, cultural and household facilities. After the initiative in 2021 to create the local landscape reserve “Protasiv Yar,” these very plots were included in the territory planned to be granted protected status.

When the reserve creation project was being approved, LLC “PROTASIV YAR” refused to consent to the inclusion of its lands in the nature reserve fund. Despite this, on 14 July 2022 Kyiv City Council declared the territory a local landscape reserve and obliged the company to ensure protection of the land and to change its designated use to “for the preservation and use of reserves.” It was after this that a years-long court battle began: in March 2026 the appellate court revoked the protected status of part of the territory, but already on 24 June the Supreme Court restored it, effectively casting doubt on the prospects for residential development of this plot.

By the way, we have already filed a complaint with clear demands: to establish the existence of anti-competitive coordinated actions among the largest fuel market operators aimed at synchronously setting and maintaining retail prices for A-95 gasoline and diesel fuel; to provide a legal assessment of the retail price formation mechanism for fuel taking into account the discrepancy found by the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine between the dynamics of purchase and retail prices; and to clarify whether LLC “WOG RETAIL” complied with the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine’s decision of 28.10.2016 No. 480-r regarding the cessation of anti-competitive coordinated actions and the payment of the imposed fine.

The WOG network continues to raise fuel prices and earn billions, despite loud scandals related to the activities of the group’s companies. Meanwhile Ukrainians are forced to pay more and more not only for a liter of gasoline, but also for the inaction of state bodies that for years have been unable to ensure real competition in the fuel market.