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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Big political stories sometimes begin with very concrete things — a plot of land, a bulldozer, and a road that wasn’t there yesterday. Near Poltava, the road to future gas wells became a point where private business, the executive branch, and the law enforcement system converged. And that point, where the efforts of this triumvirate joined, became a tool of pressure on the local community.
The gas production company LLC MND Zhukivske tries to present this story as ordinary miscommunication with the community, supposedly a “commercial dispute.” It argues that the company has a special permit and a government resolution, and that the dissenting land user should go to court. But on the ground things look different. Heavy equipment is building a road across community land that another enterprise holds under a state-certified deed of permanent use. The works are accompanied by security police and, according to community representatives, allegedly young men hired to intimidate. This looks nothing like an equal commercial dispute.
One could again mock the “local kulaks” supposedly obstructing the state from extracting gas during the war. But the composition of the other side destroys that picture and gives cause for reflection: the business of Zenovii Kozytskyi, the father of the head of the Lviv OVA, and Karel Komarek, long a partner of Gazprom, the support of city authorities and, according to my sources, possible interference by regional prosecutor Yevhen Hladiy. When officials, the prosecutorial vertical, and force resources join private business, a land “dispute” turns into a dangerous confrontation with the community. Vradiivka once showed how quickly local lawlessness, multiplied by impunity of law enforcement, can cause conflict far beyond a single district.
And then a very different strategic picture emerges — rather sad and at times disgraceful, but real. Let’s try to unpack it, because this case is important, illustrative, and, I would say, symptomatic not only for Poltava but for all of Ukraine.
The community: first the equipment, then the questions
So, as I already said, MND Zhukivske began work on someone else’s plot — simply by the right of the stronger. The company showed a special permit and a Cabinet resolution, which in fact do not provide exhaustive explanations for its actions. A special permit to use subsoil is not the right to enter any parcel of land. Articles 97 and 98 of the Land Code require agreement with the land user or the formal establishment of a land easement.
Paragraph 6 of government resolution No. 1320 allows companies that suffered destruction of material and extraction assets as a result of Russian attacks to avoid re-obtaining permits for resuming extraction, to avoid producing projects, and to avoid obtaining approvals.
On 8 July 2026 year, Poltava city council secretary Kateryna Yamshchykova signed a memorandum with the director of MND Zhukivske. The city government promised the company coordination during design and construction and advisory support. About two months later, equipment was already working on community land that another enterprise holds under a state-certified deed of permanent use.
If anyone is unaware, memoranda do not create land rights. And the task of local authorities is to protect the interests of the community, not to create an administrative corridor for the “right” investors. Yamshchykova should have shown people that the city council had checked the owners, funding, route, land and environmental documents, and had held public hearings. But why bother: the formula worked faster — there’s a team from above, we carry out orders, and people should endure.
The region: when family business becomes a partner of the authorities
According to registry data, 93,75% of MND Zhukivske belongs to the Czech MND Ukraine, 6,25% to the Cypriot IVENA Limited. The ultimate beneficiaries are listed as Karel Komarek and Zenovii Kozytskyi — the father of the head of the Lviv OVA, Maksym Kozytskyi.
Komarek’s MND co-owned Moravia Gas Storage with Gazprom for more than ten years and became sole owner only on 26 June 2024 year. In 2011 year Komarek’s group purchased the Russian oil terminal Samara, the operator of which later worked with Rosneft and RN-Bunker. The details of Komarek’s exit from that asset in 2022 year remain shrouded in deep darkness. I analyzed this gentleman’s biography two years ago, when there was a first attempt by Karel Komarek and the Kozytskyis to enter Poltava lands. In my view, investors with such a background should not be allowed access to Ukraine’s subsoil. In fact, the SBU itself wrote in a letter to the State Service of Geology and Subsoil (mentioned in court ruling No. 640/3734/19) that the said terminal supplied fuel to the illegal armed formations “LNR/DNR.”
In Lviv region these are no longer isolated coincidences but at least three episodes that could create a system in which Maksym Kozytskyi’s powers intersect with his father’s business. On 19 February 2026 year he personally signed a memorandum of the Lviv OVA with MND a.s. and the gas production company LLC MND Tynivske, among whose beneficiaries are listed Zenovii Kozytskyi and Karel Komarek. The document provides expert support, working groups, promotion of investments and public-private partnership. Thus, the regional head on behalf of the authorities agreed to support a business that includes his father’s private interest.
The second episode — the road on Hirska Street in Skhidnytsia, for which 2023 year Maksym Kozytskyi allocated 25 million hryvnias of regional subvention by decree. According to NABU’s version set out in a ruling of the Appeals Chamber of the High Anti-Corruption Court, it became effectively the sole access road to the Panorama Skhidnytsia resort of the Kozytskyi family, built by the company Normaz Plaza, and the project received 25,8% of the respective annual road funding. In 11 May 2023 year the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine allowed Zenovii Kozytskyi to acquire control in Vest Energy, through which he later held 50% of Normaz Plaza.
The third episode — that same year the road management department of the Lviv OVA concluded a contract for 195,07 million hryvnias for major repairs of the Zymivky–Ulychne road. It leads, among other things, to Oriv wind farm — a joint project of MND and the Eco-Optima group of companies associated with the Kozytskyi family. This is a sequence of decisions that the National Agency on Corruption Prevention must review holistically: whether Maksym Kozytskyi disclosed a private interest of a close person, whether he recused himself from preparing and approving decisions, and whether projects related to his family received advantages due to his position.
So Poltava region did not just get a new subsoil user. It appears an already tested model is being transferred here: family business enters partnership with authorities, and public powers begin to operate alongside private interest.
Ukraine: who guards the guardians
The last barrier should have been the prosecutor’s office. According to my sources, local police and the district prosecutor’s office initially registered complaints about MND Zhukivske’s works and began an investigation. Then, as my sources claim, allegedly after intervention by the head of the Poltava regional prosecutor’s office Yevhen Hladiy, active procedural actions ceased and the equipment continued to operate.
This can be verified through the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations, procedural decisions, etc.
From the example of the “Carthage” case, during which the “protection” of fraudulent call centers was uncovered, we saw the state of the body that must now assess the legality of MND’s actions.
According to my information, dozens of such “offices” operate in Poltava. And I know nothing about a systemic fight by the regional prosecutor’s office against this industry. Instead there is a documented result of a single proceeding. After a search on 29 August 2025 year on Myru Avenue, 26 law enforcement officers seized over 200 units of computer equipment. The court ruling records that the prosecutor of the OGP department did not attend the appeal hearing, did not file objections and did not provide information about the seizure of property. As a result the equipment was returned. What motivated that prosecutor and who gave instructions to the executing prosecutor? Detectives in the “Carthage” case must check this.
After all, regional prosecutor’s offices are not autonomous principalities. The Law on the Prosecutor’s Office defines a single system in which the OGP is a higher-level body relative to regional and district prosecutor’s offices. Thus, the version about dozens of offices that could have operated for years only due to local “oversight failure,” rather than as part of the vertical, is probably somewhat laughable.
So the investigation cannot end with Hladiy’s name. NABU and the SAP must establish whether Poltava proceedings fell into the sphere of Kropyva’s influence, who appointed the prosecutors, what instructions came from the center, who Hladiy contacted, and whether funds moved.
What am I getting at? That if the prosecutor’s office deals with such matters, will it refuse top officials who ask to “assist” in the “entry” of the “right” investors onto Poltava lands? Especially when they are as close as possible to Bankova.
Maksym Kozytskyi is not an elected regional leader but a presidential appointee. Article 118 of the Constitution establishes the accountability of heads of administrations to the president and the Cabinet. Therefore a potential link between the head of the OVA’s family business and state affairs is also a matter of staffing responsibility for Bankova. When elections are postponed because of the war, the answer should be strengthened control over appointees, not less accountability.
But is Bankova capable of demanding accountability from its appointees? On NABU tapes in the “Dynasty” case we heard about “Vova” as the owner of one of the houses. In my view this should be investigated by NABU and VAKS, and martial law should not and does not grant Zelensky indefinite immunity from investigation, and my corresponding complaint is before the Constitutional Court and assigned to a reporting judge.
Back to the community
However, returning to our situation. In the spot near Poltava all these levels converge: the business of the OVA head’s father, administrative support from the city government, reports of possible intervention by the regional prosecutor, and a nationwide crisis of the prosecutorial vertical. Martial-law exception can become a convenient instrument for a private project precisely because the institutions that should control its use either aid the business or remain silent.
In light of the above, the NACP should examine Maksym Kozytskyi’s actions regarding companies with his father’s private interest, including MND Zhukivske. The National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office — possible intervention in the Poltava land proceeding. The Office of the Prosecutor General — to check and publish the chronology of actions by the regional prosecutor’s office regarding possible blocking of investigation into MND Zhukivske’s actions in Poltava region. And the SBU — to respond regarding national security threats given the background of one of the investors.
Ukraine needs its own gas. But it doesn’t need a system in which family business gets a prosecutorial “roof,” communities get offshore investors, landowners get seized plots, and the country gets another case of corrupt disgrace.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Слід «Газпрому» веде на Полтавщину: хто прокладає дорогу до українського газу". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: ZN.ua.
