Treason and Funding the Aggressor: What Deputy Iryna Kostiushko from Zhytomyr Region Should Be Held Accountable For

The activity of Zhytomyr Oblast Council deputy Iryna Kostyushko and the group of companies she controls, Zorya Agro Group, which operates in this region, can be assessed as elements of state treason, aiding the aggressor country, and financing terrorism through cooperation with Russian investors. This is stated in a material by the publication Korotko.Pro. It concerns funds invested in Kostyushko’s agricultural business by Danil Khachaturov, one of the defendants on the Kremlin list, who is likely to move investments out of Ukraine soon, which would be considered direct financing of military aggression.

The publication reminds that reporters have been publishing investigations into Kostyushko’s activities for over a year. During this time it became known that she holds a Russian passport, which presumably led to her being expelled from the Solidarity faction of the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko, and later from the Proposals faction group.

It is also known that Khachaturov invested funds in Zorya from the Russian company Rosgosstrakh. Russian managers, for example Zurab Gelashvili, joined the leadership of the agribusiness; they from Moscow managed the insurance business of the Ukrainian company Provodnaya, which they planned to push out of the insurance market, and the funds to be diverted into the agricultural sector.

“Kostyushko, having Russian roots and citizenship, managed to “sell” her companies from the Zorya Agro Group to Khachaturov and his management. As a result, in 2022-2023 years, already after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, via the Cyprus intermediary Amagere Holdings, Kostyushko was funneled into a number of Ukrainian businesses with about $7 million. Thus the Russians successfully parked their capital here. The connection of Kostyushko to Russian firms was confirmed in fresh de­clarations,” the article states.

In the report of the Cypriot firm, published by Ukrainian investigators, it was explicitly stated that through Amagere there are also investments in other Cypriot “shells” that engage in construction projects for Rosgosstrakh—the company RGS Nedvizhimost—in Sochi, Nizhny Novgorod, Saint Petersburg, Moscow. Even now, when Kostyushko’s and her company’s Russian ties are openly exposed, the director of Amagere remains Demetra Stavrinou. She is a Cypriot lawyer who is also a director in a number of businesses related to the sanctioned Alpha Bank and its owners, on which Ukraine has imposed sanctions. Danil Khachaturov himself is a long-time client of Alpha Bank.

“Now, according to the media, alarmed by numerous criminal cases and asset seizures in a number of Zorya companies, Khachaturov is preparing to withdraw investments from the Zhytomyr agribusiness, which would jeopardize the entire business formally managed by Kostyushko,” the publication adds.

The article notes that “the numerous criminal cases scattered through registries with mentions of companies from the Zorya Agro Group and related businesses indicate that Kostyushko’s entrepreneurial strategy most likely follows the ‘best practices’ from the north, where fraud, tax evasion, and various schemes of laundering property are more common than compliant business conduct.”

“In recent years Kostyushko’s business has become a party to several cases of illegally seizing community lands through fraudulent schemes, involvement in schemes for supplying “black” grain abroad (without paying duties and taxes, under fictitious documents); involvement in schemes of fictitious leasing of land plots to form fake document packages. The ‘revival of kolkhozes’—rehabilitating old organizational forms of collective enterprises to seize local community lands, including the Korsun community; illegal logging in plots obtained through previous schemes. One criminal case mentions possible asset seizures of Zorya group companies exceeding 250 million UAH. Other cases mention bringing to justice for periods from 3 to 12 years of imprisonment,” the publication adds.

“Obviously, further delay in bringing to justice and stopping funding of the aggressor state should serve as a signal to other “zhduns” entrepreneurs who, despite the full-scale invasion started by Russia, continue to trade or otherwise interact with the aggressor. After all, this primarily concerns protecting and strengthening the country’s defense capability by halting funding of the enemy’s economy and exposing traitors of the country,” the publication concludes.