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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
If domestic startups are looking for the most effective business model of our time, they should study not Silicon Valleys but the declarations of Mykolaiv officials for 2025 year.
Here an unfailing law of nature applies: once a modest official gets a post as a fisheries inspector or heads the road service, his wife instantly demonstrates entrepreneurial talent of global scale, multiplying the family’s income many times over. While Mykolaiv region suffers from strikes and blackouts, the local nomenklatura builds its own financial oasis, where budget billions from contracts smoothly flow into stacks of cash in home mattresses, away from the prying eyes of financial monitoring.
After the exit from the “big game” of the heavyweight players of past years, the landscape of the wealthiest declarants has shifted somewhat. However, the trends remain unchanged: strong rear lines in the form of successful wives, million-level dividends from budget contracts, and the habit of keeping cash “under the mattress.” Journalists at Nikcenter investigated what Mykolaiv officials, judges, law enforcement officers, and deputies hid in their declarations based on the results of 2025 year.
Strong rear lines of modest powerholders
Five people who were in last year’s equivalent ranking appeared again in the top ten Mykolaiv declarants by income for 2025 year. They are a quartet of deputy-businesspeople — Serhiy Shulhach, Tetiana Dombrovska, Serhiy Kantor, and Anatoliy Hasyuk — and customs officer Volodymyr Luuk. Five other participants in this year’s TOP-10 are officials. Interestingly, for seven of the ten, the lion’s share of income is provided by the entrepreneurial talents of their close relatives, husbands or wives. In Serhiy Kantor’s case, it is his daughter, Marharyta.
Overall, the incomes of the families from the top ten rose over another year of war from 100 to 114 million hryvnias, despite the exclusion of the region’s wealthiest deputy from the calculations.
The TOP-10 this year does not include the long-time leader of income and asset rankings, the largest Mykolaiv latifundist, owner of PAEK company and a number of other agricultural enterprises, Yuriy Kormyshkin. He resigned his mandate as a regional council deputy in 2024 year. The authority of his wife, former People’s Deputy Iryna Kormyshkina, was terminated in February 2025 year. But the ex‑MP changed her registration to Odesa region. So the wealthiest family among Mykolaiv elected officials did not make the ranking.
We also note that we did not include in the ranking persons who received payments from the Ministry of Defense — one-time financial assistance for relatives killed while defending the state.
How the families of Mykolaiv’s elite make millions during the war
In the absence of Yuriy Kormyshkin, the richest officials of the region are headed by Serhiy Shulhach — a deputy of the Mykolaiv regional council elected from the Proposition party, chaired by Mykolaiv’s mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych, and one of the largest contractors of the Mykolaiv budget.
The Shulhach family’s income doubled over the year to 21 million hryvnias. That’s a rather modest result, since the main enterprise of the Shulhach group, PP “Mykolaivmahystral,” reported half a billion in revenue last year while the total value of contracts won in tenders was 600 million UAH. The firm is owned equally by Serhiy Shulhach and his wife Oksana. This year the Shulhach firm has already signed contracts with local budgets in the region worth a billion hryvnias.
Second place — Tetiana Dombrovska, a deputy of Mykolaiv city council from the Servant of the People party, who until 2025 year headed the SN faction in the city council and has since joined a new deputy group “Sanation.” The bulk of her income of 13,5 million UAH consists of dividends from her own LLC “Business Invest Group” and LLC “SMART FINEKSPERT.” Over the year the deputy’s income increased by 5 million.
In third place is another deputy, Serhiy Kantor. He entered the Mykolaiv city council of the 8 convocation with the Our Land party but later also joined the deputy group “Sanation.” Serhiy Kantor is the principal shareholder of JSC “Plant ‘Ekvator’” and a number of other Mykolaiv companies. Formally his income decreased by 5 million over the year. In fact, of the declared 12 million UAH income for the past year, more than 9 million hryvnias is entrepreneurial income of his daughter Marharyta.
Nina Samchyshyna and Nataliya Tyshchuk, judges of the Mykolaiv Court of Appeal, each received over 2 million hryvnias in salary for the year. But fourth and fifth places in the judges’ families were brought by the entrepreneurial achievements of their husbands.
Even more surprising is the inclusion in the ranking of those receiving the largest incomes among Mykolaiv officials Serhiy Atroshchenko with a result of 9,9 million UAH. The modest chief specialist of the Department of Bioresources of the State Eco-Inspection of the South-Western District received 350 thousand UAH in salary and 200 thousand UAH in pension for the year. But his wife, sole proprietor Olena Atroshchenko, earned over 9 million UAH. By the way, the entrepreneur’s income rose by 3 million UAH after her husband obtained the position of fisheries inspector.
Mykolaiv mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych (9,7 million UAH) and head of the regional Service for Restoration and Infrastructure Development Oleksandr Antoshchuk (9,6 million UAH) made the top ten thanks to their wives’ businesses.
Kateryna Sienkevych last year purchased an apartment and a garage in Poland, where her firm “Charne Mozhe LLC” has been operating for two years, but the main share of the mayor’s family income comes from his wife’s Mykolaiv companies.
The income of the family of the region’s chief road official, Oleksandr Antoshchuk, increased fivefold over the year to 9,6 million UAH. This happened thanks to entrepreneurial income of his wife, Tetiana Kondratiuk. In last year’s declaration her income was not present.
We note that currently in the YouControl analytical system there is mention of only one sole proprietor Tetiana Kondratiuk from Mykolaiv. Her main activities are other professional, scientific, and technical activities, and other finishing works for construction.
Eighth place in the ranking was taken by deputy of the Veselynivka settlement council, head of the Agrarian Party of Ukraine, Anatoliy Hasyuk. The income of the owner of LLC “Porichchia” and other agricultural enterprises decreased almost twofold over the year to 8,2 million UAH.
Tenth was the deputy head of the Mykolaiv customs office Volodymyr Luuk (7,7 million UAH). As last year, the main contribution to the family budget was made by his wife Anastasiia, who is a successful lawyer in the field of customs law.
Highest salaries: heads of state enterprises, judges, and prosecutors
Nikcenter selected 25 declarations of officials and heads of state enterprises with the highest incomes received from their main places of work. While the official inflation rate in Ukraine for 2025 year hovered around 8%, the combined incomes of the leaders of the largest official salaries in Mykolaiv rose immediately by 12,8%. Overall, in just one year 25 top officials from our list additionally received over 7 million UAH from budgets at various levels.
Note: military servicemembers were excluded from the declarants’ salary ranking for Mykolaiv region.
The top of the ranking is headed by heads of state enterprises and appellate court judges.
Annual salaries rose the most for the heads of SE NVKG “Zorya‑Mashproekt” Vyacheslav Anishchenko and Oleksiy Tsymbal — by 2,4 million UAH and 1,4 million UAH respectively.
Added to the directors of the “defense industry” are the heads of the two largest heat suppliers: Mykola Lohvinov (OKP “Mykolaivoblteploenerho”) with a salary of 2,8 million UAH and Dmytro Myroshnychenko (Mykolaiv CHPP) — 2,7 million UAH.
Recall that earlier Nikcenter analyzed the declarations of heads of communal enterprises in Mykolaiv region and found that managers’ salaries were rising faster than wages at the enterprises.
Table ¹2. TOP-10 largest official salaries in Mykolaiv region in 2025 year
According to the NAZK Declaration Register, section “11. Income, including gifts.” Selected data on income from the main place of work.
Overall, the list of 25 largest annual salaries of Mykolaiv officials includes six directors of state enterprises, 13 judges led by the chairman of the Mykolaiv Court of Appeal Ihor Livinsky, and four prosecutors headed by regional prosecutor Ihor Domushchey.
The dense ranks of judges and prosecutors are slightly diluted by the head of the Mykolaiv OVA (currently former) Vitaliy Kim (2,1 million UAH) and the head of the Mykolaiv Regional Hospital for War Veterans Olena Kuzmina (1,6 million UAH).
Fellow regionals by declarations
During the check of declarations for 2025 year, Nikcenter journalists found many people registered in Mykolaiv region who actually work and live far outside the region. Although they did not enter our annual ranking, the size of their income and official registration force us to mention such fellow regionals.
The largest income among them was declared by Valeriy Yanyshevskyi, a prosecutor in a department of the Office of the Prosecutor General: 12,4 million UAH. Last year his wife inherited several land plots in Mykolaiv and an apartment. The prosecutor’s family also very profitably acquired a couple of Teslas: a TESLA MODEL X 2020 year of manufacture and a TESLA MODEL 3 2024 year for 650 and 670 thousand UAH respectively. On the market, such cars in Ukraine now cost from a million hryvnias.
Second place — Ihor Safronenko, head of the Narcotics Crime Department of the National Police in Kyiv. He reported 8,8 million UAH in income, of which eight million were earned by his wife from entrepreneurial activity.
Third among “Mykolaivites” by income was the head of Donetsk OVA Vadym Filashkin. Although his wife and son actually live in an apartment in Odesa, the whole family is registered in someone else’s Mykolaiv apartment. Vadym Filashkin and his wife own a boarding house in Koblevo and several land plots at the resort. The family’s annual income is 8,8 million UAH.
Also in the top five by income among “fellow regionals” were the head of the UKR department of the National Police in Poltava region Artem Artemenko (7,4 million UAH) and member of the High Council of Justice Tetiana Bondarenko (5,6 million UAH). Interestingly, Artem Artemenko listed Mykolaiv as his place of registration. But his declaration contains only one mention of real estate — an apartment of unknown area in Poltava listed as his actual place of residence, with no mention of property rights.
Top ten wealthiest
Among the ten wealthiest declarants in Mykolaiv region are seven local council deputies, whose accumulations are easily explained by existing or former business. Joining the cohort of entrepreneurs with a mandate were an MP, the then head of OVA, and the region’s chief road official — but thanks to the money of their wives.
Overall, the cash assets of the TOP-10 deputies and officials amount to 536,5 million UAH when converted to the national currency. However, the bulk of the funds are kept in US dollars and euros. For calculations, journalists converted them into hryvnias at the NBU exchange rate on the day the declarations were filed. Over the year the “wallets” of the top ten increased by 20 million UAH.
Interestingly, officials and elected representatives prefer to keep money in cash rather than in bank accounts: almost 60% of funds are “on hand.” Keeping millions “under the mattress” may indicate either distrust of the national currency and the banking system among Mykolaiv’s elite, or the fact that cash protects from undue attention of financial monitoring. Of all TOP-10 wealthiest participants, the only one who does not favor cash for storing money is the now-former head of the Mykolaiv OVA Vitaliy Kim.
Table ¹3 TOP-10 declarants of Mykolaiv region by size of cash assets in 2025 year
According to the NAZK Declaration Register, section “Cash assets.” Foreign currencies are converted into hryvnias at the NBU rate.
Serhiy Kantor, owner of JSC “Plant ‘Ekvator’” and a number of other Mykolaiv companies, appears near the top of both rankings by income and cash assets. But while the declared incomes of the Kantor family are provided by his daughter’s entrepreneurial activity, a large size of assets is “compensated” by record debts. According to the declaration, in 2025 year Serhiy Kantor’s financial liabilities amounted to about 140 million UAH in hryvnia equivalent, while assets were 172 million UAH.
The opposite situation 1 applies to his city council colleague Mykola Kapatsyna. Almost half of Kapatsyna’s cash assets, about 30 of the 70 million, are financial obligations owed to him by legal and natural persons. The number of foreign companies, real estate, and accounts in foreign banks is increasing in Mykolaiv officials’ declarations each year. But Mykola Kapatsyna is perhaps the most notable representative of the “new wave”: he prefers to place funds in banks in Switzerland, Austria, and Poland, and to lend them to citizens of Cyprus and the UK.
The family of the head of the regional infrastructure restoration service combines both approaches to storing money. Antoshchuk himself reported 345 thousand dollars and 270 thousand euros kept in cash for more than one year. And his wife again indicated 200 thousand dollars and 150 thousand euros that she lent to a person whose data are not disclosed in the declaration.
Serhiy Shulhach and his wife, who ranked fourth in Mykolaiv by size of cash assets among declarants (almost 50 million UAH), stand out among colleagues in that most of their funds are kept in hryvnias. It is in the national currency that debts of the Shulhach family’s own enterprises to their owners are recorded: 29 million. Remaining balances are held in cash dollars and euros.
Meanwhile deputy of the Mykolaiv district council Vladyslav Biełava went without subtleties: practically all his and his wife Olha’s assets are kept in cash. The deputy’s declaration contains a certain contradiction: according to the “Cash assets” section, they have no funds in bank accounts at all. It is rather difficult to imagine economically active modern Ukrainians without bank cards. Moreover, in the previous “Income” section, interest from PrivatBank is mentioned, where the deputy couple apparently hold accounts.
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Analysis of declarations of Mykolaiv’s elite for 2025 year once again confirms a persistent trend: the formal status of a civil servant or local council deputy in Ukraine rarely correlates with the real standard of living. While rank‑and‑file officials survive on official salaries, others demonstrate economic growth miracles mostly thanks to the entrepreneurial success of their closest relatives.
Despite wartime, the regional nomenklatura continues to accumulate assets, preferring cash currency and avoiding transparent banking instruments. At the same time, the highest incomes clearly correlate with where the largest budget flows circulate or where “levers” of access to resources exist. However, whether law enforcement agencies will pay attention to sharp jumps in wealth in the midst of war is a question to which new declarations for now leave only rhetorical answers.
Author: Andriy Popov
Source: Nikcenter
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