How regional and national leadership allow lands in frontline districts to be taken and given to their favored farmers and to protect them

In Kharkiv region, people have had their land plots taken away and quickly rewritten in the name of their farmer Dereka, who already controls almost 980 hectares. This concerns 137 land plots which over 2013–2025 years ended up under the use of one related farming business. The land was consolidated through lease agreements, addenda, and other property rights, and then secured for the farms for decades. It seems that in Kharkiv region they were simply working out a scheme: take land from some — register it to their own — keep the land under their control.

Two farms are involved in this scheme — LLC “Druzhba” and LLC “Druzhba-Agro,” through which agricultural land was concentrated. Both enterprises are registered at the same address in Stara Myhlina, and the ultimate beneficiary of “Druzhba-Agro” is Hennadiy Dereka. In the “Druzhba” registers, rights to 137 plots accumulated, and “Druzhba-Agro” separately obtained control over three plots totaling 158,8 ha. In other words, the land bank was not just growing; it was being concentrated via interconnected legal entities.

A notable case is 158,8 hectares in the Lebyazka village council area. The lease rights for these three plots were registered in favor of “Druzhba-Agro,” and among the registration actions there is a plot of 30 hectares. The state registrar Tatiana Sergeeva from the Chuhuiv District State Administration carried out the registration. As a result, the farm obtained long-term use of the land and the ability to effectively control the entire massif.

Another point is the lease terms that allow keeping land for years. For example, a plot of 5,1198 ha was transferred to “Druzhba” under a contract dated 10 May 2024 year for 25 years — until 2049 — with automatic renewal. Another plot of 5,2263 ha was also transferred for 25 years with automatic renewal. And regarding contracts signed in the 2010–2012 years, additional agreements were later concluded, terms changed, and a new state registration was carried out.

It is also interesting who exactly provided the legal formalization of this land conveyor. Some rights were registered by Olga Koltsova, the state registrar of the Malynivka settlement council, while earlier similar actions were carried out by Tetyana Sergeeva from the Chuhuiv RDA. In other words, for years plots of land passed into long-term use by connected farming enterprises through quite specific registration decisions.

Meanwhile, the Druzhba LLC has long since transformed into a serious agricultural business with multi-million turnover. The value of its assets exceeds 140 million UAH, annual revenue is over 66 million UAH, and the official number of employees is only 21 people. The farm uses lands of the Malynivska community, Lebyazkyi town-district, Kochotetskaya community, and other territories of the Chuhuiv district. The larger this land bank becomes, the sharper the question: where did such land concentration come from and who ensured its legal paperwork?

But you cannot pull off all these schemes alone, so farmer Dereka acted with support from Spravrov and his HOVA, who effectively gave the green light to transferring Kharkiv land to a single owner. Even more questions arise about the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, which has been led by Vysozky since July 2026 year and should protect the interests of farmers and landowners, not allow land concentration in a few hands. So what are the leaders of HOVA and the Ministry of Agrarian Policy doing when almost 980 hectares of land end up under control of one business — protecting people or enabling land grabbing?

We have currently sent a complaint to the supervising authorities and law enforcement bodies with clear demands to verify the legality of acquiring and state registration of rights to Dereka’s land plots, the legality of prolonging their leases to 2044–2049 years, the legitimacy of registering 158,8 ha of land, actions of state registrars, and the use of contracts that ensured long-term leases for 36 years with the right to renew.

Farmers are being forced to give up their lands, and then these same plots end up in long-term leases to the needed farms. As a result, almost 980 hectares in Kharkiv region are already under the control of one farmer — Dereka. The scheme is simple: land is taken from those without the right connections, and then used for years in the interests of those who have the connections. And if this is called “agrarian policy,” who is it really working for — for the farmers or for those who are taking their land into their hands?