Bihus.Info showed participants in a years-long Kyiv land grab

Bihus.Info obtained declassified wiretaps of Kyiv City Council deputies, KMDA officials, and other participants in an informal group that handled land issues and was oriented around the so-called “watcher for Kyiv,” Denys Komarnytskyi. On the recordings Komarnytskyi, who legally has no formal connection to Kyiv’s authorities (during Leonid Chernovetskyi’s mayoralty Komarnytskyi was a Kyiv City Council deputy — ed.), gives instructions to officials and deputies, “resolves issues” through them, and implements joint land schemes with them.

These materials surfaced thanks to the work of NABU, which in February released the results of its operation “Clean City.” For several years law enforcement wiretapped Komarnytskyi himself and his closest associates among Kyiv authorities. As a result, investigators established that in the 2023-24 years a group led by Komarnytskyi illegally seized a land plot in central Kyiv valued at 11 million hryvnias, and attempted to appropriate another 6 land plots worth more than 83 million hryvnias.

According to the investigation, this group obtained plots using a “toilet scheme,” where ownership of some minor property is registered to straw persons, and then plots are acquired under that property.

A month ago Komarnytskyi himself and employees of his office were charged as members of an organized criminal group. Also charged were Klitschko’s deputy Petro Olenych, who oversees key land departments of the capital, the head of the Kyiv City Council land commission Mykhailo Terentiev, commission member deputy Olena Marchenko, deputy director of the municipal enterprise Kyivblagoustrii Oleksii Mushta, and deputy director of the municipal enterprise Spetszhytlofond Yurii Leonov.

However, the declassified wiretaps indicate that Komarnytskyi’s network was considerably broader, comprising at least two dozen people in various positions. For example, the recordings include Vitali Klitschko’s deputy and Kyiv City Council secretary Volodymyr Bondarenko, who coordinates with Komarnytskyi which issues need to be voted on at sessions.

Also present is the city’s chief architect, head of the KMDA Department of Urban Development Oleksandr Svystunov. He receives instructions to fire his own deputy Tetiana Zaichenko, who was “once recommended” by Komarnytskyi. Meanwhile another deputy, Valentyna Svyatyna, is called “a person who understands” here.

The recordings include the director of the KMDA Department of Land Resources, Valentyna Pelykh, with whom the aforementioned Petro Olenych speaks directly during a meeting with Komarnytskyi. Klitschko’s deputy asks Pelykh whether it is possible to “offer the client” a land plot.

The director of the municipal enterprise Spetszhytlofond, Volodymyr Sharii, also appears on the recordings. In conversation a manager for Komarnytskyi informs him of a “reward for cooperation.”

Two other deputies of Sharii at Spetszhytlofond, Hennadii Korol and Vadym Shpachuk, are mentioned here as appointees of Komarnytskyi. On the tapes Shpachuk discusses his “promotion” with Komarnytskyi’s manager and agrees to be a “fully controllable person.”

The tapes may also include the acting head of Kyivgenplan, Dmytro Lykov. The man on the recordings reveals the “cost” of detailed plan documentation for a territory in Kyiv.

Among the controlled officials mentioned are the director of the KMDA Department of Transport Infrastructure Ruslan Kandybor, director of the Kyiv Institute of Land Relations Ihor Dolynskyi, deputy director of the municipal enterprise Engineering Center Yaroslav Fedoruk, and director of the municipal financial-construction company Zhytlo-Invest Viktor Pohrebnoi.

Numerous conversations about voting for needed issues at Kyiv City Council sessions indicate Denys Komarnytskyi’s significant influence over deputies. For example, with Volodymyr Slonchak of the Batkivshchyna faction Komarnytskyi discusses the size of bribes for formalizing land plots in Kyiv.

At the same time, in a comment to Bihus.Info Slonchak said that he always votes independently and that he spoke with Komarnytskyi exclusively about personal matters.

Another Slonchak colleague from the faction, Hanna Svyrydenko, is mentioned on the recordings as a “partner on Mitskevych.” According to the investigation, this is one of the land plots the Komarnytskyi group seized. In conversation with Bihus.Info Svyrydenko said she had no joint projects with the “watcher.”

Journalists promise this is only the first part of the investigation. Recall that in 2020 Bihus.Info obtained an archive of documents describing in detail the operation of dozens of companies and people connected to Komarnytskyi. Kyiv municipal workers gave them billions of hryvnias for repair and construction work. The best-known of these projects is the Podilsko-Voskresenskyi Bridge in Kyiv.