Billions on the Roads and Holyk's Disappearance: Why Reznychenko Faced Trial Without His Ally

So, the criminal case against Valentina Rezničenko, the long-time head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration, has been submitted to court. According to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), he, along with several accomplices, is accused of embezzling almost 400 billion hryvnias during road repairs under the presidential “Great Construction” program.

This, of course, is good, though the trial’s outcome inevitably evokes familiar skepticism. But there is a more interesting question – why didn’t Rezničenko’s longtime closest aide, Yuriy Holyk, sit on the defendant’s bench with him, given that he moved from the position of advisor to Rezničenko to the adviser to Prime Minister Honcharuk, from which he rapidly vaulted into the role of supervisor of the “Great Construction”?

Such a career lift has in no way severed the old ties between Valentina Rezničenko and Yuriy Holyk. On the contrary, the unofficial post of supervising the “Great Construction” gave an opportunity to direct significant funds to the Dnipropetrovsk region, funds that are now the subject of Rezničenko’s trial for embezzlement. But Holyk, for some reason, stayed away.

A check of court registries shows that Yuriy Holyk’s surname last surfaced in a criminal context back in September 2024 year – when the former supervisor of the “Great Construction” attempted to appeal the seizure of property imposed within criminal case ¹ 52024000000000227.

Admittedly, the appeal of the seizure was unsuccessful – the court denied Yuriy Holyk’s lawyer’s request. However, it is not certain that the property remains seized – court registries are filled extremely carelessly, so to claim that there were no new appeals from Holyk and that they were not granted cannot be asserted. But a more interesting question is Holyk’s status – not an accused or even a suspect. He is a “third party.” That is, a completely accidental person who somehow ended up among the case’s defendants.

Be that as it may – with or without seizure of property, Yuriy Holyk is now abroad and is not involved in the criminal case against his former boss Valentina Rezničenko at all. Rezničenko is being tried for stealing one and a half billion hryvnias allocated for road repairs in 2022 year.

Why Holyk is absent from the case is a mystery. Although it is worth recalling that disgraced “Servant of the People” Geo Lerosi (Geo Ler) in 2023 year, when NABU exposed the Holyk–Rezničenko scheme, stated: “Despite the publicity about the scandalous corrupt asphalt contract worth 1,5 billion UAH with Rezničenko’s and Holyk’s fitness trainer, which came to light in November 2022 year, the Zelensky administration continued to generously disburse budget funds to the company ‘BudInvest Engineering,’ which it owns. Dozens of millions of hryvnias have been siphoned from the budget, even more, new contracts were signed!”.

The case’s core was that LLC “BudInvest Engineering,” which was absorbing billions for roads, was registered in the name of Valentina Rezničenko’s roommate, Jana Khlanta, who was actually a fitness trainer.

Although at first glance it seems Yuriy Holyk is not connected to Jana Khlanta or LLC “BudInvest Engineering,” two things should be recalled. First – in 2022 year, when “BudInvest Engineering” surged to the top in leveraging budget funds for road repairs, Yuriy Holyk was a key person in the presidential program “Great Construction.” Although he did not officially hold a position, it was no secret that he oversaw the program and that budget flows depended on him.

Nevertheless, Yuriy Holyk did not end up on the defendant’s bench with Valentina Rezničenko. Although the prerequisites were clearly there and presumably very serious. After NABU expressed interest in BudInvest Engineering, Yuriy Holyk promptly requalified as a driver and fled Ukraine.

This is no joke – 20 April 2023, the head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration, Volodymyr Orlov, issued order No. 139/0/527-23 “On leaving the country by drivers.” Among those listed was the driver of the Charitable Organization “Songs Born in ATO,” Yuriy Yuriyovych Holyk.

Holyk did not delay in taking the opportunity and safely left outside of Ukraine, where he disappeared. His reasons were more than serious: in addition to the criminal case that surfaced Valentina Rezničenko and began to raise questions about why Yana Khlanta’s company was receiving billions, there was also a no less scandalous statement by former Finance Minister Ihor Umanets (Umansky) about a cartel that monopolized road construction.

Then Umanets claimed that this cartel monopolized road construction and that tender bids were rewritten so that other bidders simply could not win a contract.

Umanets’s words caused a scandal; the press began examining the issue, and among the program’s schemers the name Yuriy Holyk appeared not least. Indeed, the scandal was muted then because a large war began, but when it became clear that the blitzkrieg by the Russians had failed, questions about redirecting defense funds to road construction began to arise.

And then it turned out that the scale of embezzlement of these funds reached 30-40%. And in total, the program “Great Construction” saw between 230 and 250 billion hryvnias allocated. What that money translated to in dollars was exactly 10 billion.

And the distribution of funds was overseen by none other than Yuriy Holyk. Therefore, the reasons to urgently requalify as a driver-bayanist were very serious.

Almost three years have passed since the disappearance of the “Great Construction” supervisor Yuriy Holyk in an unknown direction. No efforts have been made to locate him or extradite him to Ukraine. The criminal case in which his property was seized has stalled in the vaults of the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC). But it is not being adjudicated on the merits – the court is considering various petitions from defense lawyers of the defendants, who are clearly doing everything to overturn it. Judging by the course of events, these efforts are likely to succeed. Yet Holyk himself is of little concern to all this – he, recall, is listed in the case as a “third party.”

In this context, the position of Valentyn Rezničenko, whose case has gone to court, is interesting. For some reason, he removed his longtime associate Yuriy Holyk from under attack. Although it is quite obvious that without Yuriy Holyk’s influence, companies under Rezničenko could not have obtained not just one and a half billion budget funds, but not a single kopeck.

But Valentyn Rezničenko decided not to hand Holyk over. The question — why? Is it because Yuriy Holyk retained his influence and Rezničenko hopes for his help in obtaining a lenient sentence or even an acquittal?

Well, this is a chance we will have to see in the near future. If the court, of course, does not drag on for many years. At the same time, it will become clear whether Yuriy Holyk has retained his influence in Ukraine or not.