Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Businessman Vasyl Astion, who appeared on recordings of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, could receive the seized assets of the IDS Ukraine group, which owns the Morshynska and Myrhorodska mineral water plants. For the third year in a row, the National Agency for the Detection, Tracing and Management of Assets Obtained from Corruption and Other Crimes has been searching for a manager for these enterprises. Previously they belonged to the sanctioned Russian businessman Mikhail Fridman and came under state control in 2022. The most recent tender took place in early September of this year. Although ARMA rejected the winner’s proposal, which is directly linked to Astion, the next participant is also connected to him.
This is reported by the Antikor portal
IDS Ukraine is a bottled water producer. Its assets include the Morshynska and Myrhorodska 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. His former financial institution, which changed its name to Sense Bank, is now widely discussed in connection with possibly the largest corruption scheme since the start of the full-scale war. A criminal group led by fugitive businessman Tymur Mindich installed a compliant supervisory board at Sense Bank, routed unclear cash through it, and even collected bail for detained former minister Herman Halushchenko.
It is on recordings featuring the voices of the former deputy head of the Office of the President Iryna Mudra, MP Vadym Stolar, and the former owner of the Ukrbud corporation Maksym Mykytas that a person called “Vasya,” identified in the investigation as Dnipro businessman Vasyl Astion, appears. The accomplices devised a scheme to collect money for Halushchenko’s bail and 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 acquiring IDS Ukraine.
Five companies participated in the tender. It was held in three rounds. The winner was to be the company that proposed the lowest percentage fee from IDS Ukraine’s income. Coincidentally, the lowest percentages were offered by firms linked to Vasyl Astion.
CUA Ukrcapital tried to convince ARMA that it was ready to manage one of the largest mineral water market participants in Ukraine for just 0,01%. The law firm Prioritas was reportedly ready 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. Yuliya Tymoshenko herself came to vouch for the businessman, calling the case political.
Nearly 20 years earlier, the investigation suspected Bielashov and accomplices of purchasing gas and petroleum products that entered Ukraine’s customs territory at 0% duty, then selling them to consumers with a markup of 20%.
In 2025 the bank Ukrainian Capital was suspected of involvement in a scheme related to a bribe for the opportunity to develop lands of the Ministry of Defense in Kyiv. According to the case materials, the illicit payment was to be transferred through safe-deposit boxes at Ukrainian Capital bank in three tranches. The investigation also examined the possible involvement of Bielashov-Astion bank employees in the bribery scheme.
Some of Bielashov’s group assets are registered to his wife, Liliana Bielashova. These include gas companies that featured in criminal proceedings. In February 2026 the businessman filed for divorce after 35 years of marriage. Bielashov told the court that his wife had lived in Spain for a long time and that they no longer lived together as a married couple. Liliana Bielashova disagreed with her husband’s suit, but in August 2026 the court divorced them. She nevertheless remains a participant in a large number of companies allegedly associated with her former husband.
The Bielashovs have a large house and a plot of land in Spain. According to the Poltava deputy, this property appeared in 2016.
According to Spanish registries, since April 2024 Liliana Bielashova has been the owner of the company Nali 1833 SL with an activity listed as restaurant business. At the company’s registered address in Barcelona there is a café, El Moli, which may belong to Bielashova.
ARMA rejected the proposal of CUA Ukrcapital, which had won the tender to manage IDS Ukraine’s assets, due to an abnormally low offer of just 0,01%. In the first round Bielashov’s firm offered 40%, which was not even the lowest offer.
The second-largest bid in the tender to manage the assets came from the law firm Prioritas, which has a charter capital of only 1000 hryvnias. The company was reportedly ready to manage IDS Ukraine’s assets for 0,90% of income.
Registry data show the firm is registered to Zhanna Yefremova, who works as a lawyer. She also runs a similarly named firm—Legal Company Prioritas—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 enforcement units of the Dnipropetrovsk Justice Department. She also likely served as a judge of the arbitration court at the Vesna-Pravozakhyst Association and was deputy head of the Association of Lawyers of the Leninskyi District of Dnipropetrovsk.
Recall that anti-corruption authorities suspect Vasyl Astion of using informal connections and influence in the judicial system to obtain favorable rulings. Astion may also be involved in raiding and money laundering in the Midas case. He is originally from Dnipro, where his main assets are located and where he served as a regional council deputy. The co-founder of Prioritas also worked in justice structures.
Astion’s connection to the law firm Prioritas is confirmed by court documents in which the firm is a participant in proceedings related to the Agromars group. In particular, Prioritas is mentioned in a court ruling imposing an arrest in the context of searches. The companies are linked by court case No. 757/19486/17-k.
The Agromars group once owned one of the largest poultry farms—Havrylivski Kurchata. The former owner was the well-known businessman Yevhen Sihal. After the scandal in 2017, when hidden poultry carcasses were found near the farm in Kyiv region, which could have caused an environmental disaster, 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 MP is the founder of CUA Ukrcapital, Serhiy Bielashov.
In the first stage of the tender for IDS Ukraine’s assets, the lowest management percentage offers were made by Yuvileiny Meat Processing Plant LLC. It is part of Universal Holding, owned by former ATB co-owner Serhiy Tarasiuk. The holding’s main activities are concentrated in construction. Tarasiuk was responsible for that direction at ATB as well.
On the NABU recordings that identified Vasyl Astion, two well-known developers—Vadym Stolar and Maksym Mykytas—are also present.
Yuvileiny initially offered to manage Fridman’s former mineral assets for a fee of 30%, and by the third round the offer was reduced to 10%. Meanwhile CUA Ukrcapital and the law firm Prioritas, which have ties to Astion, began with 40% and 31% respectively. By the third round their offers had sharply fallen to 0,01% and 0,90%. Such actions may be part of a collusion scheme so that eventually at least one of the affiliated companies obtains an asset valued at more than 5 billion hryvnias.
Two other firms that vied for Morshynska were Alyans-D, from the orbit of Varus and Eva store owners, and CUA Ready-Invest, which is linked to the distribution company Global Foods.
If ARMA recognizes the law firm Prioritas as the winner of the tender to appoint a manager for IDS Ukraine, it could mean that Astion and his accomplices in the Midas case would gain control of a 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 wittily joked on his Telegram channel that in a published photo Mindich and Servant of the People faction head Davy Arahamia were deciding whether to gift Mindich a bank or a factory.
Since Vasyl Astion turned out to be a probable member of Mindich’s “gang,” was the journalist hinting at the Morshynska plant, which through Astion would operate for the benefit of the former friend of the President?
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