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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
From the “forest Mowgli” to a shipping adviser: how former Luhansk head Yuriy Harbuz accumulated wealth and scandals
Besides the mentioned director of LLC “DSK ‘Chornomorske Morske Paroplavstvo’” Yuriy Berezhny (a resident of Luhansk, party “Rus’”), his former boss — former head of the Luhansk Regional State Administration Yuriy Harbuz — also works as an adviser at the company. What advice can this person give a maritime company? In essence, none.
He is a farmer from Milove, a member of parliament, head of the regional military-civil administration, a hunter and the author of a story about three years of living in the forest. In October–November 2018 he was dismissed. Declarations with “surprises,” hunting photos and questions about coal remained.
Since August 1990 he worked as a shop and history teacher at a school. He obtained higher education only at age 35. In 2006 he graduated from Luhansk National Agrarian University with a degree in organizational management.
Harbuz’s most high-profile personal story was an interview with Gordon in 2018. After the army, he said, he couldn’t “find himself” in the new Ukraine among the “guys in maroon jackets” near the mines. So he went into the forest and lived in an earth-house without electricity for three years.
According to his account, a she-wolf lived nearby. The conflict ended with Harbuz killing her. He then found wolf pups that were almost starving and nursed them back — “a cross for killing the mother.” He kept the strongest one for himself. Because of these stories, people online called him a “hermit” and “Mowgli.”
However, his biography shows something else: from 1992 he founded the farm “Harbuz Yu. H.,” in 1993 — the association FG “Nadiya.” At age 28 he created a horse theater and later became director of the “Cossack Horse Theater.”
A pathological passion — hunting: boar, roe deer, deer, fox, wolf. Married. Wife — Olga Mykolaivna, a Russian citizen. Children: daughter Yana, sons Dmytro and Yehor, and a godson Mykyta.
Career
2005–2006 — head of Markivka District State Administration.
Then — head of Markivka district council.
2011–2012 — registered at the employment center.
January–April 2014 — head of Milove District State Administration.
2014–2016 — member of parliament. He joined the BPP faction, deputy chair of the Verkhovna Rada committee on anti-corruption. “Slovo i dilo” recorded him as a frequent absentee from meetings.
29 April 2016 — Poroshenko’s decree: head of the Luhansk RSA.
22 November 2018 — dismissed.
According to media, among the reasons were his refusal to lead Poroshenko’s regional headquarters, a conflict with deputy Serhiy Shakhov and scandals around illegal excavations.
The ‘Olymp’ base, coal and hunting
He lived 25 km from Sievierodonetsk — at the sports base “Olymp,” restored with budget funds. Poroshenko came to the opening. One and a half months later the base was purchased by deputy governor Yuriy Klymenko. On Prozorro the figure of 7 million UAH appeared. Nearby, elite cottages were being built in a pine forest.
A separate plot concerns illegal coal mining. Local media wrote about trucks with “black gold” passing checkpoints and about an increase in the number of illegal pits on territory controlled by Ukraine. Harbuz insisted he knew nothing and that the “coal business is not his.”
Another scandal — hunting photos: Harbuz with his son against the backdrop of killed animals. He said it was a setup by Klymenko, that he “was not posing and did not shoot,” and that the frame was cropped.
What “surfaced” in the declarations
Year 2013: total income 79 thousand UAH (under “alienation of property”). On the account — 962 UAH.
2015: his wife (a Russian citizen) acquired a plot in Russia of 624 thousand m², date of title — 2008.
Harbuz himself had over 20 ha in Milove (1,5 ha and 19,7 ha), title from 2011 — previously not declared.
2017: another plot of 3560 m².
House 141,2 m² and an outbuilding 246,7 m².
His wife — a house of 98,9 m² in Milove (title from 2010, previously undeclared) and an apartment in Lviv of 45,6 m² (since 2016).
The community “Harbuz konfuz” published a photo of an elite Swiss watch during a trip to the village Katerynivka (resident 291), where people were starving.
What happened to the business after 2022
FG “Harbuz Yu. H.” and “Agro Grant” are located on territory occupied in the summer of 2022 (Milove, Mykilske). In July 2022 Harbuz withdrew from the founders. The enterprises were re-registered to his sister. Harbuz himself lives in the Kyiv region.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Від «лісового Мауглі» до радника пароплавства: як ексочільник Луганщини Юрій Гарбуз обріс статками та скандалами". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: ANTIKOR.
