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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
The state corporation is selling apartments built for ATO veterans
The corporation “Ukrbud” is openly selling apartments in the Kyiv residential complex “Verkhovyna,” on land that the Kyiv City Council allocated for housing for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, including for ATO fighters. This is reported in Alina Stryzhak’s segment for the program “Nashi Hroshi” (ZIK).
The grounds for allocating the land are clearly stated in the transcript of the Kyiv City Council session for 20 November 2014. The city police chief, then headed by Oleksandr Tereshchuk, wrote a letter of guarantee to the deputies in which he undertook to give all the apartments to law enforcement, including ATO veterans.
“The commission received letters from the client promising to use the constructed residential space exclusively to provide housing to personnel (MIA - ed.), including those who take part in the ATO,” said Volodymyr Prokopiv, chair of the land commission, at the meeting, noting that the guarantee letter: “does not specify some percentage to be transferred, but guarantees a 100% transfer of these residential premises that will be built for personnel, as well as for participants in the anti-terrorist operation.”
Deputies proposed to record this clause in the draft resolution on land allocation, but Prokopiv refused, arguing that by law this cannot be done. Prokopiv also reiterated: “We have a guarantee letter from the client. The client — the Ministry of Internal Affairs — is building departmental housing for its employees who are currently taking part there.”
The contractor selected by the MIA was LLC “Ukrbud Development,” which is part of the state corporation “Ukrbud.” And as journalists from “Nashi Hroshi” (ZIK) discovered: not a single apartment in the complex taken for “ATO veterans” and the police will go to ATO veterans. “Ukrbud” is already selling apartments in the “Verkhovyna” complex at a price of 1–2 million hryvnias.
“There is currently no act in this building that the apartments will be handed over to ATO soldiers,” sales department staff at Ukrbud told journalists.
Journalists posed as buyers and asked to comment on reports that all the apartments would go to ATO fighters.
Sales department employee Nadiya Rybakova, at our request, clarified the details: “I spoke with the manager. There is no official letter about transfers in this building. … we tried to find this letter, there is no such letter. It was just information for the record. And nothing more. There is currently no act in this building that the apartments will be handed over to ATO soldiers.”
IMPORTANT: If you have information about land or apartments that were supposed to be given to ATO fighters but were not — write to [email protected].
Kyiv City Council deputy Oleksandr Vovchenko notes that the situation with selling apartments in buildings that were supposed to be “departmental” is widespread.
“Hundreds of hectares of land were transferred to the Ministry of Defense, the Prosecutor General’s Office, the SBU supposedly for construction for employees as departmental apartments, but perhaps a couple of apartments may be given to someone, while the profits end up in the pockets of the heads of these agencies, generals, and ordinary employees remain on waiting lists and get nothing,” says O. Vovchenko.
The city police chief Oleksandr Tereshchuk did not provide a comment regarding the allocation of apartments to MIA employees. Recall that according to the investigation by the program “Nashi Hroshi” (ZIK), Tereshchuk himself lives in a three-story cottage built on seized land.
Another residential complex — “Peremozhets,” on Voskresenska, 2-A in Kyiv — Ukrbud is building on land with a self-changed designated use. Previously the construction site was the production base of the Specialized Contracting Repair and Construction Department No. 3 of Kyivzelenbud. The land’s designated purpose was “for servicing the production base.” Moreover, there is a body of water nearby, and the land is constantly waterlogged.
Kyiv City Council has not changed the land’s designated purpose and does not intend to. On the contrary, a decision is being prepared to refuse the change of the designated purpose for this plot.
“On this very issue in this convocation of the Kyiv City Council a draft resolution has been prepared to refuse this company’s request to change the designated purpose. I think such a decision will be adopted soon,” Volodymyr Prokopiv, the current secretary of the City Council and former chair of the land commission, told “Nashi Hroshi” (ZIK).
Accordingly, Ukrbud began construction of the residential complex when the land’s designated purpose had not been changed. However, in the register of property rights for real estate some information appeared from somewhere that the land’s designated purpose had been changed. And here the question goes to law enforcement: how could this have happened, since the Kyiv City Council did not do it.
At the same time, the land department and the Kyiv City Council’s land commission simply failed to notice the construction for a long time. Activists repeatedly appealed to the department asking to check who was building on the site of the production base. The department sent form responses that the commission had arrived but did not see any construction. Then — that it saw construction and summoned the owners of the tenant company for an interview. In September 2015 the City Council commission on urban planning, architecture, and land use scheduled the issue of changing the land’s designated purpose on Voskresenska. But deputies and activists began drawing press attention to this scheme, and the issue was not considered. All this time Ukrbud continued construction at full speed.
The corporation “Ukrbud” is a structure that includes dozens of companies. The head — Maksym Mykytas — entered the Kyiv City Council in the previous convocation on the “UDAR” party list with number 21.
It is declared that “Ukrbud” is a state corporation. But the state’s share there is actually negligible. The main companies that act as developers, investors, and builders are private. For example, LLC “Investment Company Ukrbud Invest” has ultimate owners Kristu Panayiota (Cyprus), Giancarlo Espejo (Belize), Jorge Castillo (Belize). These people were also registered as owners of up to a hundred other companies.
Another company, LLC “Ukrbud Development,” has the same ultimate owners Giancarlo Espejo and Jorge Castillo from Belize.
Also present in Ukrbud’s structure are people and entities associated with Anatoliy Voytsekhovskyi. In particular, co-owner and signatory of LLC “Investment Company Ukrbud Invest” is Anatoliy Mahalich. He was also listed as director of Anatoliy Voytsekhovskyi’s “Ukoinvestbud.” Voytsekhovskyi is known for his propensity for not entirely lawful construction. Courts have either halted, prohibited, or even ordered the demolition of a number of residential complexes associated with Voytsekhovskyi’s “Ukogroup.”
The company “Ukrbud Development” was previously owned by LLC “Olimpbud,” co-owners of which included Anatoliy and Oleksandr Voytsekhovskyi.
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Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Державна корпорація продає квартири, збудовані для АТОшників". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: ANTIKOR.
