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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
When in February 2026 of the year, Mykhailo Poplavskyi officially left the position of rector of KNUKiM, the healthy part of the university exhaled with relief. Thirty-three years of mayo-clips, forced likes, plausible escort “practices” and “dead souls” — it seemed this was finally the end. But the Ministry of Education did not do what was long expected of it: it did not clear out the system. It simply changed the mask, appointing Ihor Komarnytsky. After all, as it became known from sources in law enforcement, recently Komarnytsky allegedly had searches conducted in relation to a probable criminal proceeding under Art. 149 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine — “Trafficking in persons.”
Operation “Clear Conscience”: the clan replaced the head Official title of Komarnytsky — acting president of KNUKiM, a sort of “professor of the Department of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourist Business.” If it seems to you that these words sound solid — you are right, that’s how this university is organized. Komarnytsky is not exactly a scientist. He is a personal aide to Poplavsky with more than twenty years of service. He began, as far as we know, as Poplavsky’s personal driver (served for 4 years) and although nominally appointed as the personal assistant to Poplavsky, a member of parliament from 2002 (data YouControl), he practically continued to be the rector’s driver. Then he worked as an assistant to the rector of KNUKiM in 2007–2009 years. Next — dean of the Faculty of Hotel and Restaurant Business, where allegedly for years he arranged calculations for the department at salaries 0,25 and 0,5 — i.e., even on paper, not really pretending to be a scholar. Now — acting rector of the national university of culture. In some users Komarnytsky is signed as “manager of restaurant business.” This is not a career. It seems to be a clan’s organizational structure, but with academic titles. Both are from the same village in Kirovohrad region. In the KNUKiM system, this has always meant more than any academic degree. What is happening at the university right now While readers get acquainted with the “new face” of KNUKiM, the following is unfolding in parallel: 27 of March 2026 — the SBU allegedly came with searches to Poplavsky as part of a probable investigation into the embezzlement of university budget funds. 7 of May 2026 — possible investigative actions directly in KNUKiM and related structures. According to the investigation, officials of the university together with Ministry of Education officials allegedly organized a scheme in which the budget program “Training of personnel” received forged data about students and staff schedules to obtain millions of state hryvnias. Suspected qualification — embezzlement in particularly large amounts. The defendants face up to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property. Who was the dean of the faculty through whose subdivision these suspected schemes might have passed? Correct — Ihor Komarnytsky. And it is precisely this person the Ministry of Education appointed to the rector’s chair in the heat of the likely investigation. Not at the end, not after an inspection, not through a competition — but immediately, by order from 10 February. Either this is gross incompetence, or something much worse. Interesting fact. In the acting rector Ihor Olegovych Komarnytsky’s 5 August 2026 year the term of the order of appointment expired. However, on his last day in office the former head of the Ministry of Education extended that order for 6 more months. In this way, the former leadership of the Ministry apparently deliberately blocked the launch of an open competition and “replaced” the state interest with the conservation of the probable “corruption clan” of Poplavsky. Suspected sex crimes: a case to bury? This is a separate and crucial probable part. In February 2025, former KNUKiM student Vladyslava Korenna described publicly what happened to her within the movement “NeMovchi.” According to her, on the third year, at nine in the evening, the security guard asked her to turn off her phone — “so they wouldn’t search for us” — and drove her away from Kyiv. There they took her to a room with a bathrobe on her shoulder, poured Hennessy and explained “the rules.” The woman named the person she said stood behind this — Poplavsky.
The Shevchenkivskyi district police department of Kyiv, as far as we know, opened a criminal proceeding under Art. 153 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine — sexual violence. The proceeding appears to be active. The case seems alive. And there are likely grounds to assume that it was Komarnytsky, as a person within the system, who was supposed to be placed in the rector’s chair so that this case does not reach court. Destroying documents, intimidating witnesses, blocking investigators from university infrastructure — for this, probably a “trusted person” in the rector’s office is needed? He is. A restaurant manager, a “pimp” and a dean? At the university, it is openly said — and these words are likely corroborated by witnesses — that the dormitories of KNUKiM during Komarnytsky’s tenure allegedly functioned as a kind of “staff reservoir for escort services.” Female students allegedly were recruited to work under the cover of “practices” in Poplavsky’s establishments — notably in the road-side restaurant chain “Kropyva” on the Kyiv–Odesa highway, which Komarnytsky allegedly controlled. He himself, apparently, was responsible for this direction. It was through him, probably, that the link between the university and the chef’s restaurant “business” was built. People who survived this — they exist. They speak. The investigation should hear them. For those who still do not understand: this is not about “abuse” in the process of industrial practice. It is about probable institutional pimping — a system where the university administration could act as an intermediary between students and escort clients. Money, land and the chef’s sons If anyone still needs documentary confirmation that Komarnytsky is not an independent figure, but a probable part of Poplavsky’s property structure, here are figures from open registries. The mother and Komarnytsky together control over 172 thousand square meters of agricultural land. The mother’s plot was acquired 31 October 2022 of the year — in the height of the full-scale invasion. All these hectares are leased to LLC “Yatran.” The probable ultimate owner of “Yatran” is Poplavsky Oleksandr Mykhailovych, the biological son of the former rector. That is, the acting rector of a state university literally leases his land to the son of his patron. This is not a “conflict of interest” in the academic sense. It appears to be a legally documented financial dependence. Add to this the salary Komarnytsky officially received at the private Kyiv University of Culture — a private duplicator of KNUKiM, where funds from contractors were reportedly channeled for years — and the picture becomes complete. The party in which subordinates “voluntarily” donate money A further note: Komarnytsky headed the Kyiv city organization of the Agrarian Party of Ukraine — the same party for which Poplavsky ran for the Verkhovna Rada in 2019 year. In 2020, journalists from Bihus.info documented how subordinates of Komarnytsky allegedly “voluntarily” transferred 29 400 hryvnias — in identical sums, on the same day, in groups. The dean-portfolio holder allegedly added 4 825 hryvnias. The mechanism of alleged coercion for budget workers is well known to law enforcement, prosecutors, and the Ministry of Education. Repressions inside: who already paid for honesty Since Komarnytsky’s appointment at the university, unofficial information says pressure and persecution have begun against those who refuse to play by the old rules. Teachers who publicly spoke out or tried to defend students allegedly receive threats, are fired, or face administrative pressure. This does not seem like incidental incidents. It is likely a strategy. The university administration appears to systematically purge people who can testify or obstruct the investigation. “Loyalty” in this system seems to always mean one thing — silence. Questions to former minister Oksen Lysovyi The simple and concrete question: as a person whose department is likely under investigation by the SBU in a case of alleged embezzlement of budget funds in particularly large amounts, how can this person hold the post of rector of a state university? Or did the Ministry not know — and this is not incompetence in itself that requires an answer. Or did they know — and then we are talking about something much more serious. Poplavsky left gracefully: waved to the camera, gave a few farewell interviews, and left behind a presumably obedient executor. The “clan” apparently did not disintegrate — it simply changed the nameplate on the rector’s door. KNUKiM is a national university. With state funding, state diplomas, and thousands of students who came to study culture — not to service the roadside business with “special services.” While Komarnytsky sits in the rector’s chair, documents allegedly disappear, witnesses probably stay silent, and probable criminal cases seem to stall — no official who allows this can consider themselves beyond suspicion. The article was prepared based on: data from the EDBO, YouControl and State Register of Property Rights; asset declarations from the NACP; material from Bihus.info, RBC-Ukraine, Espreso TV, Hromadske, Detector.media; public testimonies of former female students within the #НеМовчи movement; and communications from the SBU and the Office of the Prosecutor General.
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Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Ректор з придорожнього «борделю»: Міносвіти поставило на чолі КНУКіМ Ігора Комарніцького, якого розшукує слідство?". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: Fraza.
