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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Businessman Vasyl Astion, who appeared on the tapes of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, could receive the seized assets of the IDS Ukraine group, which owns the Morshynska and Myrgorodska mineral water plants. The National Agency for the Detection, Search and Management of Assets Obtained from Corruption and Other Crimes has been searching for a manager for these enterprises for the third year in a row. Previously they belonged to the sanctioned Russian businessman Mikhail Fridman and were transferred to state control in 2022. The most recent tender took place in early September of this year. And although ARMA rejected the winning bidder’s proposal, who is directly connected to Astion, the next participant is also linked to him.
This is reported by the Antikor portal
IDS Ukraine is a producer of bottled water. Its assets include the Morshynska and Myrgorodska plants, as well as the Alaska and Aqua Life brands. The official market value of the assets is 5 055 507 002 hryvnias.
The group was controlled by Russian businessman Mikhail Fridman, who also owned Alfa-Bank. Like the bank, the mineral assets were seized in favor of the state. Now his former financial institution, which has changed its name to Sense Bank, is in the spotlight for what may be the largest corruption scheme since the start of the full-scale war. A criminal group headed by fugitive businessman Tymur Mindich placed a controlled supervisory board in Sense Bank, routed unclear cash through it, and even raised bail for the arrested former minister Herman Halushchenko.
It is on recordings featuring the voices of former Deputy Head of the President’s Office Iryna Mudra, MP Vadym Stolar and the former owner of the Ukrbud corporation Maksym Mykytas that a certain “Vasya” appears, who, according to the investigation’s materials, has been identified as Dnipro businessman Vasyl Astion. Accomplices were developing a scheme to raise money for Halushchenko’s bail and to run it through the controlled Sense Bank.
Analysis of documents and the course of the tender for managing the mineral assets revealed that Astion may be interested in obtaining IDS Ukraine.
Five companies participated in the tender. It was held in three rounds. The winner was to be the company that offered the lowest percentage of earnings from IDS Ukraine’s revenue. By coincidence, the lowest percentages were offered by firms connected to Vasyl Astion.
Asset management company Ukrkapital Asset Management attempted to persuade ARMA that it was ready to manage one of Ukraine’s largest mineral water market players for only 0,01%. The law firm Prioritas allegedly offered to do it for 0,90%.
The Ukrainian Capital group of companies belongs to Poltava businessman and local council deputy Serhiy Bielashov. He also owns a bank of the same name, of which Vasyl Astion was a shareholder.
Bielashov has repeatedly come under the attention of law enforcement. In 2023 he was arrested in a case concerning the sale of gas to Ukrzaliznytsia at inflated prices. Yulia Tymoshenko personally came to vouch for the businessman, calling the case political.
Almost 20 years earlier, investigators suspected Bielashov and his accomplices of purchasing gas and petroleum products that had been imported into Ukraine with a 0% duty rate, and then selling them to consumers with a markup of 20%.
In 2025 the bank Ukrainian Capital was suspected of participating in a scheme related to a bribe for the opportunity to develop lands of the Ministry of Defense in Kyiv. According to the investigation, the illicit payment was planned to be transferred through safety deposit boxes at Ukrainian Capital bank in three tranches. Separately, investigators examined the possible involvement of employees of Bielashov-Astion’s bank in the bribery scheme.
Some of Bielashov’s group assets are registered to his wife, Liliana Bielashova. These include gas companies that were mentioned in criminal proceedings. In February 2026 the businessman filed for divorce after 35 years of marriage. Bielashov argued to the court that his wife had long been living in Spain and that he no longer lived with her. Liliana Bielashova did not agree with her husband’s suit, but in August 2026 the court divorced them. However, she remains a participant in a large number of companies allegedly associated with her former husband.
The Bielashovs own a large house and a plot of land in Spain. According to the Poltava deputy, this property appeared in their possession as early as 2016.
According to Spanish registers, since April 2024 Liliana Bielashova has been the owner of the firm Nali 1833 Sl with a line of business listed as restaurant operations. At the company’s registered address in Barcelona there is a café, El moli, which may belong to Bielashova.
ARMA rejected the proposal of Ukrkapital Asset Management, which won the tender to manage the IDS Ukraine group’s assets, due to an abnormally low offer of only 0,01%. At the same time, in the first round Bielashov’s firm offered 40%, which was not even the lowest offer.
The second-largest bid in the asset management tender was submitted by the law firm Prioritas, which has a charter capital of only 1000 hryvnias. The company is allegedly ready to manage IDS Ukraine’s assets for 0,90% of revenue.
According to the registries, the firm is registered to Zhanna Yefremova, who works as a lawyer. She also heads a similarly named firm – Prioritas Legal Company – with a more substantial charter capital of 1 million hryvnias.
Another co-founder of Prioritas is Olena Ivanova. A woman with the same surname, name and patronymic previously worked in the enforcement service departments of the Dnipropetrovsk Justice Department. She also likely served as an arbitration court judge at the Vesna-Pravozakhyst Association and was deputy head of the Association of Lawyers of the Leninskyi District of Dnipropetrovsk city.
Recall that anti-corruption agencies suspect Vasyl Astion of using informal connections and influence within the judicial system to obtain favorable decisions. Astion may also be involved in raiding and money laundering in the Midas case. He is from Dnipro, where his main assets are located and where he served as a regional council deputy. Like the Prioritas co-founder, who worked in justice structures.
Astion’s connection to the law firm Prioritas is confirmed by court documents in which the firm is a party in proceedings involving the Agromars group. In particular, Prioritas is mentioned in a court ruling regarding the imposition of an arrest in the context of searches. The companies are linked by court case No. 757/19486/17-k.
The Agromars group owns what was once one of the largest poultry farms – Havrylivski Kurchata. Its former owner was the well-known businessman Yevhen Sihal. After the scandal in 2017 when buried poultry were found near the farm in the Kyiv region, which could have caused an environmental catastrophe, Sihal and his wife were arrested.
In 2025 the Agromars group came under the control of Vasyl Astion. In political circles he is now called the main sponsor of the Batkivshchyna party, whose deputy is the founder of Ukrkapital AMC, Serhiy Bielashov.
At the first stage of the IDS Ukraine asset tender, the lowest management percentage bids were offered by Jubilee Meat Processing Plant LLC. It is part of Universal Holding, owned by former ATB co-owner Serhiy Tarasiuk. The holding’s main activity is concentrated in construction. Tarasiuk was responsible for the same area at ATB.
On the NABU recordings where Vasyl Astion is identified, two well-known developers are also present – Vadym Stolar and Maksym Mykytas.
Jubilee initially proposed to manage Fridman’s former mineral assets for a percentage of 30%, and by the third round the offer was reduced to 10%. Meanwhile, Ukrkapital AMC and the law firm Prioritas, which are connected to Astion, began with 40% and 31% respectively. As a result, by the third round their offers sharply dropped to 0,01% and 0,90%. Such actions could be part of a collusion to ensure that at least one of the affiliated companies eventually obtains the asset, which is valued at more than 5 billion hryvnias.
Two other firms that bid for Morshynska were Alliance-D, linked to the owners of Varus and Eva stores, and AMC Redi-Invest, which is associated with the distributor Global Foods.
If ARMA recognizes the law firm Prioritas as the winner of the tender to appoint the manager of IDS Ukraine, it could mean that Astion and his accomplices in the Midas case would gain control of the second Fridman asset after the formally state-owned Sense Bank. Recently it was Tymur Mindich’s birthday; investigators consider him the head of the criminal organization. Journalist Mykhailo Tkach jokingly wrote on his Telegram channel that in the published photo he and Servant of the People faction head Davyd Arakhamia are discussing whether to give Mindich a bank or a plant as a gift.
Since Vasyl Astion turned out to be a probable member of Mindich’s “gang,” might the journalist be hinting at the Morshynska plant, which through Astion would operate to enrich the former friend of the President?
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Фігуранту плівок Міндича Астіону можуть віддати мільярдні активи «Моршинської» за безцінь". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: HAB Media.
