Kremenchuk Landing in Dnipro: How Budget Millions for PR and Offices in a Luxury Residential Complex United Arestovych and Filatov

Kremenchuk Landing in Dnipro: How Budget Millions for PR and Offices in a Luxury Residential Complex United Arestovych and Filatov

Oleksiy Arestovych and Dnipro mayor Borys Filatov cannot stand each other. However, both have a trusted person who helps them more effectively deliver messages to target audiences. That is Mykola Feldman — a well-known TV host who gives Arestovych his platform on YouTube and previously received money from the Dnipro budget to support his channel.

In 2019 both Oleksiy Arestovych and Borys Filatov supported Petro Poroshenko in the presidential election. But he did not win. Although there are things more interesting than such banalities.

In October 2020 a YouTube channel called “Center” appeared, criticizing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the Servant of the People party. That October 2020 local elections were held in Ukraine. The broadcast was filmed from a studio in Dnipro. In December 2020 a company LLC TRK “Center” was registered, sole owner of which is journalist from Kremenchuk Mykola Feldman. The YouTube channel now has 101 thousand subscribers.

The registration address is Dnipro, 40B Starokozatska St. (the channel is still recorded there). Now this YouTube channel mainly spreads clips of Mykola Feldman’s broadcasts with Oleksiy Arestovych, which is why “Center” recently failed to obtain a cable broadcasting license.

The “Center” channel appeared on a list of outlets that were financed by the Dnipro mayor’s office and received budget funds for “covering activities” for 4 years. It even appeared in an investigation into embezzlement of budget funds allocated for PR. Mykola Feldman then explained that law enforcement had no complaints against TRK “Center.” The channel took money from the city council for placing information on its site, and the money was transferred by entrepreneurs who won tenders and placed simultaneous orders with various media at the mayor’s office’s direction.

At 40B Starokozatska St. there is also the Holodomor Resistance Museum (subordinate to the Dnipro mayor’s office) and a department of the city council that oversees the “University of the Third Age” project. Also located there is the media outlet “Dnipro Operatyvny,” which is one of the largest recipients of mayoral funds for covering the city council, officials, and deputies. By the way, the director of “Dnipro Operatyvny” is also from Kremenchuk. In the same building the company LLC “Afito-Dnipro” is registered, which belongs to the sons of the head of the public council under Dnipro’s mayor, Hennadiy Korban.

In 2020 the party “Propozytsiya” was created in Ukraine as a kind of mayors’ party. Dnipro mayor Borys Filatov took part in creating the party, ran as its candidate, and is the most popular of its leaders. Meanwhile, according to the analytical platform YouControl, the Poltava regional organization of the “Propozytsiya” party was headed by Mykola Feldman in 2021–2024, which at that time was located in Kremenchuk and is now — for some reason — registered in Dnipro at 40B Starokozatska St., 58, where there are also city structures subordinate to the mayor’s office (a CNAP, the Department of Administrative Services and Permitting Procedures, the municipal channel Dnipro TV, the municipal enterprise “eDnipro”).

Dnipro, Starokozatska St., 58 — here the Poltava regional organization of the “Propozytsiya” party is registered

For some time Yevhenia Hamza worked at Dnipro TV as a journalist and producer. Feldman worked with her earlier at the newspaper Visnyk Kremenchuka (she was editor-in-chief there after Feldman), and later she was a host on his Dnipro channel “Center.” Since November 2024 Dnipro TV has been headed by Ivan Khovrak from Kremenchuk; earlier this media figure helped Feldman sell branded products to viewers. Sources claim that Feldman, Hamza, and Khovrak allegedly helped Borys Filatov during his mayoral election campaign in 2020.

In February 2023 Mykola Feldman founded the company LLC “Alpha Media Development.” Before that he launched his YouTube channel Alpha Media, where he hosts conversations with various experts, including Oleksiy Arestovych. The company’s registration address is Kyiv, Antonovycha St., 44 (Chicago Central House residential complex). Shortly afterward at the same address Mykola Feldman and former Presidential Office adviser Oleksiy Arestovych registered the public organization “Arestovych Strategic Initiatives Fund” (in November 2023 the Fund was re-registered at a different address), which Feldman chairs.

It is noteworthy that the premises where “Alpha Media Development” and the Arestovych Fund were registered in Chicago Central House belong to the Dnipro company LLC “Budinvest Capital.” This company owns 3 office premises in that residential complex. Until 2024 the enterprise belonged to Hlib and Stanislava Yasko (the Yasko family were former partners of Hennadiy Korban). Now “Budinvest Capital” belongs to two sons of Hennadiy Korban and to Oleksiy Filatov, whose car the Dnipro mayor lets him use. Hennadiy Korban also owns 10 apartments and 6 garages in that building. Most likely Mykola Feldman uses that space for free.

What Borys Filatov said about Oleksiy Arestovych

In 13 July 2022 Arestovych told Yuliya Latynina in an interview that Dnipro mayor Borys Filatov had turned the US congresswoman of Ukrainian descent Victoria Spartz against Presidential Office head Andriy Yermak. Spartz responded to these allegations that people who had nothing to do with the matter should not be made scapegoats.

In 14 January 2023 a Russian Kh-22 missile struck a building in the Peremoga residential neighborhood in Dnipro. As a result 46 people died and 79 were wounded. Such a missile is not highly accurate and was designed for use against aircraft carriers. In one of his broadcasts at the time then-Presidential Office adviser Oleksiy Arestovych for some reason said that his friend in Dnipro’s air defense heard 2 explosions, therefore a Ukrainian air defense missile could not shoot down the Russian missile and deflected it off course. Arestovych’s words had to be refuted by the Air Force commander Lieutenant General Mykola Oleshchuk.

These “revelations” cost Arestovych his public career and popularity among Ukrainians. After that he left his post and later traveled abroad to the United States, and later began criticizing the Ukrainian authorities.

Filatov then called Arestovych a “war criminal.” Before that he noted that “Oleksiy is a highly educated, talented, informed, and charismatic person. And precisely for that reason he is evil. A charming Woland. From people like him come either brilliant swindlers, or splendid peddlers, or preachers.” The mayor added that the Presidential Office adviser had “got carried away.”

Back in 2014, when Filatov worked in the regional administration, Arestovych (who at that time was either a military instructor or a special forces operative in the ATO zone) suggested to him to “create a battalion of Wahhabis” (a radical current in Islam) and “destroy the German-French space program.” At that time the future mayor of Dnipro advised everyone not to get involved with Oleksiy. In July 2024 Filatov recalled this and wrote the following about Arestovych:

“Memories show that already 10 years ago, as always, I had good judgment and was not mistaken either about people or about forecasts. I feel scoundrels with my skin… Unlike the powerful and the mob.”

A couple of months after that Arestovych accused Filatov of corruption and lying. In particular, the former film actor accused Dnipro authorities of not having sufficient fortifications along the border with Donetsk region, according to former prosecutor general Yuriy Lutsenko. Despite this, since 2022 officials in Dnipro promoted the message about “3 lines of defense that the enemy will in no case break through.”

As we can see, despite the animosity between Oleksiy Arestovych and Borys Filatov toward each other, they are united by their information partner Mykola Feldman. He finds common ground with both “camps” and helps both present their information to a wide audience.

Dnipropetrovsk mayor’s office PR during the war

According to analysts at Dozorro, in just 2024 year the Dnipro mayor’s office spent over 49 million UAH on advertising — the largest amount among all Ukrainian cities. In October 2024 the SBU and National Police conducted searches at the Dnipro mayor’s office: according to the investigation, up to 34 million UAH out of 123 million UAH allocated for PR over several years may have been stolen.

After this scandal, deputy mayor Oleksandr Sydorenko, who was responsible for information activities, resigned. Interestingly, after working at the mayor’s office he took a job as a meat sales manager and began earning one million hryvnias per month.