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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Millions for Lawyers: Kharkiv Municipalities, After a Pause, Again Signed Contracts with Attorney Oleksiy Meniv from Terekhov’s Circle
The Kharkiv Anti-Corruption Center reported that Kharkiv municipal enterprises continue to spend money on an attorney from the circle of Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov.
At the end of August into early September, three municipal enterprises of the Kharkiv City Council signed contracts for legal assistance and advocacy services with a total value of 1,32 million UAH. All of them were with the law firm “Meniv Oleksiy”.
On 31 August, without tenders, Meniv’s firm immediately received three contracts: for 500 thousand UAH with KP “Kharkiv Heating Networks,” for 320 thousand UAH with KP “Municipal Waste Management Company,” and another for 500 thousand UAH with KP “Kharkivvodokanal.”
Oleksiy Meniv was or is an advisor to Ihor Terekhov. The city council and he personally refused to confirm or deny this. According to journalists, Meniv may be the unofficial curator of the city council’s legal direction. He comes from the law association “Shkrebetz and Partners,” and in 2025 he became known due to a possible connection to the Mindich case.
Meniv is an old acquaintance of Andriy Synyuk, who was the first deputy head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office. Ukrainska Pravda published information about a series of secret meetings between Meniv and Synyuk. In turn, Meniv’s family lives in Kyiv in the same building as Tymur Mindich. The article states that Synyuk could have had an indirect influence on the course of the investigation of the businessman and friend of the president, Mindich.
It was during Meniv’s tenure that budget contracts for legal services systematically began to go to his law firm, the association “Shkrebetz and Partners,” or people originating from that association. In effect, a monopoly on legal support formed within the Kharkiv City Council, where key contracts have circulated for years among the same people.
In 16 July, searches were conducted at the law association “Shkrebetz and Partners” and at the lawyers of that association, including Oleksiy Meniv. At that time the association said they were facing pressure and called the searches illegal, claiming they took place without a ruling, a petition from the Prosecutor General, or his deputy. During the searches, lawyers’ mobile phones, laptops, and documents were seized.
After HACC’s inquiries about whether Meniv is an advisor to Ihor Terekhov, the municipal enterprises of the city council stopped signing contracts with Meniv’s law firm and with the lawyers of the association “Shkrebetz and Partners” altogether. But the city council’s “restraint” lasted literally only a couple of months.
In July HACC and Gvara released an investigation about how the Kharkiv City Council ended up on a retainer with the law association “Shkrebetz and Partners,” costing the city nearly 100 million hryvnias just during the full-scale war.
Author: Hanna Kislyakova, Nashi Hroshi
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Мільйони на юристів: харківські комунальники після паузи знову уклали договори з адвокатом Олексієм Менівим з оточення Терехова". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: ANTIKOR.
