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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Journalists found an apartment and several cars.
The family of the Minister for Veterans Affairs, former head of the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration Vitaliy Kim, and he himself may be using a number of assets that are not in the declarations. These include a new apartment and a parking space in the Novopecherski Lypky residential complex, a Porsche, and 18 hectares of hunting grounds in Cherkasy region, according to a Bihus.info report. Kim denies using property that is not declared.
Entrepreneur Vitaliy Kim entered politics in 2019. He joined the campaign staff of presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelensky, and later, at the initiative of Dmytro Arahamiya, headed the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration; this summer he became Minister for Veterans.
Journalists found that in July last year Kim’s wife's company, Mediagroup, purchased an apartment in the Pechersk district of Kyiv of over 100 square meters. She also bought a parking space there. Journalists estimate that at that time the value of this real estate without renovation was at least $350 000.
Public financial reporting for Mediagroup for years “either showed zeros or showed nothing,” the journalists noted. At the same time, the Kim family’s savings did not decrease during that period but increased by 6,5 million hryvnias compared to 2024. This amount was reportedly saved on an official income of 7 million before taxes.
In the residential complex parking lot journalists noticed a Porsche, which the official’s wife, Yuliya Kim, was driving when she received a fine a year ago. The car is also registered to a company, but a different one — long-time acquaintance of Vitaliy Kim, developer Roman Serbenov’s S Develope. Serbenov told journalists that his company bought the car and leased it to Kim’s wife Yuliya.
“We bought it and leased it,” he said.
Kim himself said that his wife used the car for less than 6 months, so it did not require mandatory declaration.
“A lease agreement is being drawn up,” the minister said, adding that his wife used the car before as well, but “probably returned it.”
Also in the same residential complex parking lot journalists noticed another car — a Volkswagen with cover plates. That car was seen there several times. A very similar car is leased by Kim himself, according to declarations. In addition, near Lypky another Volkswagen was recorded that belongs to Kim’s ex-wife Olga, who is currently abroad. Previously Kim himself leased a car from the company Monolit. That car has received fines in recent months. Bihus.info suggested this may indicate concealment of ownership rights.
“My relationship with my ex-wife is better than sometimes with some people with my current wife,” the minister commented to journalists.
He denied using the car of his ex-wife, who left the country a year ago. He also denied using the apartment and parking space in the Novopecherski Lypky residential complex.
“There are a lot of friends, meetings, and so on there. The apartment you mention is registered to my wife’s company. It is on credit,” he said.
At the same time he said that the declaration shows they did not lack funds to buy it. They paid 200 000–250 000 dollars for the apartment — less than the market price, because Kim’s wife had rented this apartment from the owner, according to Vitaliy Kim.
Investigators also found that last year the Kaniv Left-Bank Hunting Economy changed owners. Among the new owners was Oleksandr Stepanov, who is a “longtime business partner of Kim” and both of his wives. He is the sole owner of the company Yuzhnoye More, which owns the Mykolaiv establishment Ushuaia, an informal connection to which Vitaliy Kim confirmed.
In Stepanov’s hunting business there is a partner, Andriy Halkin. Until the end of 2020 he worked in the security police, and then became a businessman. As of January 2022 a person with the same name was an assistant to MP Roman Ivanisov.
Kim confirmed that in 2020 he met Ivanisov while hunting in Rivne. Regarding the base in Cherkasy region he said friends own it. He has been there several times.
“They invited me hunting — I ate,” he said, confirming that the company is half-owned by business partner Oleksandr Stepanov.
Stepanov in conversation with journalists could not name the other co-owner — Andriy Halkin.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Bihus.info заявили про таємні активи міністра у справах ветеранів Віталія Кіма. Він заперечив". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: LB.ua.
