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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
The family of the new head of the Ministry for Veterans Affairs, Vitalii Kim, may be using a number of assets not listed in their declarations. These include, in particular, a new apartment and a parking space in the expensive Novopecherski Lypky residential complex, a Porsche, and 18 thousand hectares of hunting grounds in the Cherkasy region.
This is reported in an investigation by Bihus.Info.
Vitalii Kim came into politics from business, including development. In 2019 he worked in the Servant of the People campaign headquarters in Mykolaiv region, and in November of 2020 he became head of the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration. He gained popularity at the start of the full-scale invasion thanks to the defense of Mykolaiv region and daily addresses that began with the well-known phrase “Good evening, we are from Ukraine.” In July of this year Kim became minister for veterans affairs. Journalists therefore decided to check the lifestyle of the new cabinet member.
Vitalii Kim, Minister for Veterans Affairs
Interestingly, the most expensive assets journalists found are missing from the politician’s declaration. For example, back in the summer of 2025 Kim’s wife’s company “Media Group” purchased a large apartment of over one hundred square meters in the Novopecherski Lypky residential complex in Kyiv. The firm also bought a parking space there at the same time. According to journalists’ estimates, the apartment without renovations and the parking spot could at that time have cost about 350 thousand dollars. However, according to the YouControl analytical system, the company’s public financial reporting has for years been zero or entirely absent.
Yuliia and Vitalii Kim
Journalists found that Kim and members of his family may have been using housing in the mentioned complex. At the end of August Bihus.Info noticed a Volkswagen Touareg with covered plates in the Novopecherski Lypky parking lot, similar to the one the minister rents. A few days later the same vehicle left the complex with a man who resembled the head of the Ministry of Veterans Affairs in the passenger seat.
a man resembling Vitalii Kim in a Volkswagen Touareg near Lypky
In addition, on the parking space belonging to Yuliia Kim’s firm in Novopecherski Lypky journalists also noticed a Porsche Macan, a car for which she received a fine back in 2024. The car is absent from Kim’s declarations and is registered to the construction company S-Develop of Roman Serbenov. Journalists previously reported how this developer abandoned construction of residential complexes in Mykolaiv and Zaporizhia and fled to Poland. According to Kim, Serbenov worked as a director in his construction companies in Ukraine. They also jointly headed the Mykolaiv basketball club.
the Porsche Macan used by Yuliia Kim
In a comment to Bihus.Info Kim stated that he does not use either the apartment or the parking space in Novopecherski Lypky. He said the apartment is recorded to his wife’s company, which allegedly took it on credit. In response to journalists’ questions about the company’s “zero” financial reporting and its ability to repay the loan, Kim replied that “the financial reporting is with Yuliia’s sole proprietor status, and the money was also in the declaration.”
At the same time, according to journalists, Kim’s declaration for 2025 shows not a decrease but an increase in savings—by approximately 6,5 million hryvnias compared to 2024. Meanwhile, the official annual family income for 2025 was almost 7 million hryvnias before taxes, which means they managed to save almost the entire annual family income. There is no record of housing purchases in the declaration.
Regarding the car, the official claims his wife rented the vehicle for less than 180 days, so the car would not have had to be listed in the declaration when he left the regional administration. He also added that the car was not in regular use but “used periodically.” At the same time, Serbenov told journalists that his company purchased the Porsche back in 2022 and leased it to Kim’s wife.
“180 days” Kim also explained the appearance near Novopecherski Lypky of another vehicle — a second VW Touareg belonging to Kim’s ex-wife Olha. Previously Kim rented this car from a Mykolaiv firm, and later it passed into the ownership of his former wife. In recent months the Touareg received fines and appeared near the Kyiv complex. The latter can further confirm that the Kims resided in Lypky, at least at the time the car was recorded there. Nevertheless, the official says his former wife is outside Ukraine and that he does not use the car.
the Volkswagen Touareg of Kim’s former wife near Lypky
An interesting situation has also arisen with another asset. It concerns the Kaniv Left-Bank Hunting Enterprise, located in the Cherkasy region, which holds 18 thousand hectares of hunting grounds. Last summer the enterprise gained two new owners who, in journalists’ opinion, may be nominal. The point is that Vitalii Kim has repeatedly said in interviews with various media that hunting is his hobby. And in the summer of 2025 the Kaniv Left-Bank Hunting Enterprise changed owners. In particular, a share was acquired by Oleksandr Stepanov — a long-time business partner of Kim who for years also appeared in joint firms with both the former and the current wife of the new head of the Ministry of Veterans Affairs. Stepanov told journalists he does not like hunting, “hasn’t really been to this hunting base even once,” and does not know his new business partner Andrii Halkin. A person with the same full name served as an assistant to MP Roman Ivanisov.
conversation with Oleksandr Stepanov
At the same time, Kim told Bihus.Info that he met Roman Ivanisov back in 2020 — and that meeting took place while hunting. The official also said he had been to the mentioned hunting base several times for hunting, allegedly “at the invitation of friends.” Stepanov added that Kim might not inform him about his visits to the base, since he might come with people “who they would not want to publicize.” According to journalists, Kim may have been accompanied there by Servants’ parliamentary leader Davyd Arakhamia. Overall, the situation around the hunting enterprise suggests that Stepanov and Halkin may be only nominal owners of an asset acquired in the interests of third parties.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Апартаменти на Печерську, Porsche польського утікача та 18 тисяч гектарів землі: що виявили у міністра Віталія Кіма". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: Rozsliduvach.
