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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
A person with a conviction for document forgery and a NABU case closed “in exchange for cooperation” publicly speaks in support of the largest private supplier of weapons for domestic defense.
This is reported by the publication StopCor.
Against the backdrop of the Midas operation, when the founder of Fire Point, Denys Stiler-man, is dodging media questions about possible links to the sanctioned Timur Mindich, a company with a similar name is emerging in Kyiv — Fire Energy. Who is Viktor Kurtev, who heads this startup, what does he have in common with Stiler-man, and what ambitions might this potential duo have in Ukraine’s energy sector?
8 April 2026 in Kyiv registered LLC Fire Energy — a company whose name resembles the brand of one of Ukraine’s largest defense industry players, the maker of the Flamingo missile and FP-1 drone — Fire Point (LLC “Fire Point”). Legally, however, there is no obvious kinship: different EDPRPO (state registry codes), different addresses, different beneficiaries and different main activities.
Notably, shortly before this, in the midst of the so‑called Mindichgate, open data about the defense firm LLC Fire Point disappeared from search platforms that pull information from state registries, including YouControl, OpenDataBot and Clarity Project. As reported by Glavkom citing a comment from YouControl, 12 December 2025 year allegedly a Ministry of Defense demand was received to remove information about the enterprise.
And then — an even more interesting chronology: already the following month after the startup’s registration, in May 2026, director of Fire Energy Viktor Kurtev, according to journalist Yuriy Kasianov, allegedly wrote a “huge text” in support of Fire Point.
Which exactly huge text did Kasianov have in mind? We can assume it referred to a fragment of a conversation between Viktor Kurtev and Natalya Moseichuk, published on her YouTube channel at the end of April, where Kurtev stated that the disclosure of Mindich’s recordings allegedly caused irreparable damage to the European defense shield “Freya,” which Danes were going to finance. According to Kurtev, the cooperation agreement was not signed precisely because of the scandal around Fire Point.
A few months later, in July, Kurtev and co‑founder of Fire Point Denys Stilerman together handed cash prizes to Ukrainian schoolchildren-physicists. The initiative was named Physics for the Future, covered by the publication Hvylya.
And a few weeks later, 11 August, Viktor Kurtev told the same resource Hvylya insider information about the readiness timelines for FP-9 missiles manufactured by Fire Point.
A coincidence? Where does an “energy expert” get such knowledge of Ukrainian long‑range ballistic schedules? Is it appropriate to publicly voice such sensitive information?
Character with a backstory
Viktor Kurtev is no stranger to the focus of our media. Back in 2023, we reported that the former deputy director of the prospect development service of Ukrenergo, then director of Metropolis LLC, Kurtev admitted guilt in forging a document about the absence of tax debt and received a verdict from Golosiivskyi Court in Kyiv.
Companies connected to him, according to Ukrainian News, allegedly figured in cases of withdrawing funds from regional energy companies, tax evasion of over 4,7 million hryvnias, and cooperation with the pro‑Russian movement “People’s Council of Bessarabia” in Odesa region in 2014 year.
It is worth recalling the subsequent fate of criminal case ¹52019000000000233 regarding the illegal allocation of land under “solar” projects of Kurtev in Odesa — the case was closed in the summer 2025 year because Kurtev agreed to become an undercover agent.
In the autumn of 2025, StopKor drew attention to Viktor Kurtev becoming a regular guest on Nataliya Moseichuk’s programs, where he expressed his assessments of the energy sector: from the safety of Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant to possible winter blackout scenarios.
And this is despite the fact that according to the publication Apostrophe in 2023 year he (accidentally or knowingly) leaked to the network data about the protection of Ukraine’s energy system, as a result the enemy could obtain detailed information.
Meanwhile, Kurtev is not a random guest on talk shows. He was a columnist for Ekonomichna Pravda from 2022 year, gave long interviews to Nataliya Moseichuk, and a profile on Izum describes him as a physicist by education, a participant in postwar reconstruction working groups, and a consultant to the VRU’s Inter‑Security Commission.
That is, even before the appearance of Fire Energy, Kurtev had for years systematically built an image of an independent energy expert.
Fire Energy: what is known about the company and are there points of intersection with Fire Point?
According to OpenDataBot, Fire Energy LLC (EDRPOU 46262716) was registered 8 in April 2026 year with charter capital 100 thousand UAH and main activity type 35.11 “Electricity production.” The head is Viktor Kurtev, the signatory representative is Inna Payun. The formal founder and 100% ultimate beneficiary is Vita Dmitrivna Strukova.
The legal address is Kyiv, Yuliya Zdanovska Street, *** — the same as for LLC Metropolis and the Military-Industrial Company Metropolis (both belong to Kurtev; among the KVEDs of the military-industrial complex are weapons and ammunition production, aircraft, defense R&D), as well as the energy project “Artsyzska Wind Farm-3.”
Inna Payun is mentioned in various sources as the accountant of NTK Metropolis and the financial director of the Metropolis group of companies — thus the administrative contour of the new energy company seems to have been inherited from Kurtev’s existing business.
And here arises a new question: why is the asset, effectively controlled by Kurtev’s team, formally registered to Vita Strukova, who does not appear in open sources as an independent energy expert?
Fire Point, according to DOU, was registered 2021 year, publicly represented by Irina Terekh, Yehor Skalyha, and Denys Stilerman. There is no legal or registration linkage connecting the company to Fire Energy.
Thus, saying that “Fire Energy” somehow cooperates with Fire Point is unfounded. However, that Viktor Kurtev likely has a stable public contact with Fire Point’s leadership, publicly defended the company during a corruption scandal, and together with Stilerman sponsored a school olympiad — a hypothesis now supported by facts.
CEO of Metropolis on the Danube stage
Meanwhile Viktor Kurtev appears to be steadily embedded in the official architecture of postwar reconstruction. 29 May 2026 year in Odesa took place the Ukrainian Danube Conference 2026, organized with participation of Ukraine Rebuilding Alliance.
Among the panelists, according to the alliance’s official announcement, Viktor Kurtev, CEO of the Metropolis group of companies, was listed with a view of the project “Danube Hydrogen Valley” — alongside the head of the State Agency for Restoration, Serhiy Sukhomlyn, representatives of the Ministry of Regional Development and other senior officials, and even US State Department Special Representative Kurt Volker.
And although there has been no official decision or appointment making Kurtev “the head of postwar energy rebuilding,” he already speaks on the same platform with ministers and American diplomats as a representative of a large private player in the future energy sector of the South.
Against this backdrop, the April registration of a company with the telling name Fire Energy looks not accidental but part of a consciously constructed stance.
The main question remains rhetorical: why would Fire Point — which has been fending off accusations of hidden influence by Timur Mindich for months — need such a public “ally” with a controversial reputation? And are Danish partners aware of such a possible alliance, where Fire Point plans to build a large plant for solid rocket fuel and missile components?
In April, Ukrainska Pravda published part of the Mindich pIevok — recordings of the Midas case’s figure with then Minister of Defense Rustem Umerov, where, according to the outlet, it concerned budget financing of Fire Point purchases.
It was precisely during April–May 2026 that a conversation between Kurtev and Moseichuk appeared with theses in support of Fire Point, and later the company Fire Energy. The coincidence in time alone does not prove anything, but it allows raising the following question: does Denys Stilerman or Fire Point have energy business interests — the same where through Fire Energy and the public image of an “expert” Kurtev methodically enters?
To verify and clarify this information, the StopKor editorial team sent information requests to:
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Віктор Куртєв, Fire Point та «Файєр Енерджі»: яким чином фігурант кримінальних проваджень і колишній посадовець «Укренерго» перетворився на експерта з...". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: Rozsliduvach.
