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Billion-Hryvnia Tenders and Sting Drones: How Yuri Holyk, Accused of Corruption and Curator of the “Great Construction” Program, Is Once Again Spending Budget Funds
The curator of the “Great Construction” program, Yuri Holyk, has latched onto miltech: drones, government tenders, and related companies.
The name of the former advisor to the head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration, Yuri Holyk, is closely associated with the “Great Construction” project, initiated by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy even before the full-scale invasion began. Journalists and anti-corruption bodies investigated collusion in state tenders in which companies close to Holyk’s former boss, Valentyn Reznichenko, won. That case was recently forwarded to court. Meanwhile, Holyk disappeared from journalists’ attention for a while. To their detriment. It turned out that the companies from the “big theft” continue to actively profit from state tenders today, while Holyk himself has begun entering miltech.
In 2024, the year when the scandal over embezzlement in the “Great Construction” erupted, Holyk left Ukraine for Austria as a volunteer for the charity fund “Songs Born in the ATO.” He himself claimed he was not fleeing, but rather on another trip to procure supplies needed for the Armed Forces. He said he had crossed the border many times before and always returned, declaring assistance to the army.
He has many ties to Austria. In particular, businessman Denys Ostrovskyi, who founded the company SK Stroyinvest. That company won a large number of government contracts while Valentyn Reznichenko was serving in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Journalists published correspondence from Yuri Holyk’s phone, in which he effectively consulted with Ostrovskyi regarding tenders.
Denys Ostrovskyi is also the founder of the Austrian company ODM BAU & Investitions, whose activities are conducted by lawyer Serhii Bakharyev. The latter also works at Deverte Holding GmbH.
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Billion-Hryvnia Tenders and Sting Drones: How Yuri Holyk, Accused of Corruption and Curator of the “Great Construction” Program, Is Once Again Spending Budget Funds
That company is listed among the founders of LLC “K.A.N.,” which is part of businessman Oleksandr Spektor’s group.
Billion-Hryvnia Tenders and Sting Drones: How Yuri Holyk, Accused of Corruption and Curator of the “Great Construction” Program, Is Once Again Spending Budget Funds
Until April of 2024, Spektor was a co-owner of the firm “Kreatyvnyi Shtat Senator,” shares of which are owned by Yuri Holyk. That company is part of the group that operates the Creative states creative spaces. One of the large offices is located in Spektor’s Senator business center.
In June of 2026, the SBU conducted searches at Oleksandr Spektor’s premises. The investigation suspects that the businessman, through controlled firms, helped the state traitor Viktor Medvedchuk evade sanctions and move funds out of Ukraine.
Holyk gave several recent interviews in the Creative states spaces. For example, he gave an extensive account of how he and a team of engineers established drone production.
On his Facebook page you can see many posts dedicated to modern solutions in the defense sector. He also posts photos of UAVs that his team produces on order for the military.
Billion-Hryvnia Tenders and Sting Drones: How Yuri Holyk, Accused of Corruption and Curator of the “Great Construction” Program, Is Once Again Spending Budget Funds
From media publications it can be learned that Holyk, in particular, is involved in modernizing the Sting UAV. Officially, these drones are produced by the company “Wild Hornets.” The firm has roots in the charity fund “Community of Wild Hornets,” which was registered in 2023.
Billion-Hryvnia Tenders and Sting Drones: How Yuri Holyk, Accused of Corruption and Curator of the “Great Construction” Program, Is Once Again Spending Budget Funds
Among the founders is the editor-in-chief of Business.Censor, Yurii Vynnichuk. An unnamed person identifiable as Vynnichuk told Defense Express in an interview how the “Wild Hornets” came about: “A small team of people from different fields organized: an IT specialist, a film director, a builder, and two media people.”
The second media person in the “Hornets” is apparently another founder of the charity organization — Viacheslav Kozyr. At least one joint piece prepared by Vynnichuk and Kozyr can be found online.
The head of the “Community of Wild Hornets” is now Ihor Mikushev. In 2023 he gave an interview to Censor as a volunteer of the charity fund “Freedom to Ukraine” from the Kyiv region. A probable co-founder of that fund is former official from Holyk’s native Dnipropetrovsk region, Iryna Polshchan.
In 2026, another journalist joined the “Hornets” — Aleks Roslin, who writes for KyivPost. He is called the coordinator of the “Wild Hornets” project.
In April of 2024 the charity fund “Community of Wild Hornets” was transformed into an official company, LLC “Ukrainian Machines.” Its director is the aforementioned Yurii Vynnichuk. The firm actively wins government tenders to supply Sting UAVs.
Billion-Hryvnia Tenders and Sting Drones: How Yuri Holyk, Accused of Corruption and Curator of the “Great Construction” Program, Is Once Again Spending Budget Funds
For example, in July of 2026, “Ukrainian Machines” won a tender to supply the Sting R4 UAV with a digital thermal-imaging camera to the Defense Work Department of the Zaporizhia Regional State Administration worth 4,4 million hryvnias. In February the firm earned the opportunity to make 2,3 million hryvnias by supplying 24 drones to a military unit in the Lviv region. In the summer of 2026 a tender was won to supply Sting drones to the National Police in the Sumy region. For that order “Ukrainian Machines” will receive nearly 3 million hryvnias from the budget.
On paper, Yuri Holyk’s official business is a stake in the Creative states creative spaces, 25% in sports centers associated with former minister Dmytro Dubilet, Smartass, and a quarter of the winemaking company of former tennis player Serhii Stakhovskyi. The latter was recently demobilized from the Armed Forces.
In July of 2023 reports emerged about test flights of the STING A UAV flight complex, the development and production of which Yuri Holyk launched together with Stakhovskyi.
Informally, Holyk may continue to benefit from the work of his good acquaintance Denys Ostrovskyi at SK Stroyinvest. In 2026 that firm won government tenders worth about 600 million hryvnias. In 2025 it won tenders worth 2 billion hryvnias, and in 2024 — 2,4 billion hryvnias. SK Stroyinvest most often wins state contracts in the Dnipropetrovsk region and in Zaporizhia. But in September of this year the company entered the capital market. Holyk’s friend Ostrovskyi plans to earn 88,5 million hryvnias repairing a park in the Dniprovskyi district.
Billion-Hryvnia Tenders and Sting Drones: How Yuri Holyk, Accused of Corruption and Curator of the “Great Construction” Program, Is Once Again Spending Budget Funds
Coincidentally, this year former Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure Oleksandr Kubrakov, who oversaw the “Great Construction,” returned to the political Olympus. In January he became the president’s advisor on community development. The capital, in particular, is among his advisory responsibilities.
Billion-Hryvnia Tenders and Sting Drones: How Yuri Holyk, Accused of Corruption and Curator of the “Great Construction” Program, Is Once Again Spending Budget Funds
In 2021–2022 years the ex-minister rented 290-square-meter apartments in Kyiv that belong to Holyk’s business partner Olena Komlieva.
Billion-Hryvnia Tenders and Sting Drones: How Yuri Holyk, Accused of Corruption and Curator of the “Great Construction” Program, Is Once Again Spending Budget Funds
The woman is a co-founder of the website Besplatka.ua together with Holyk. Her LinkedIn profile indicates she works as the executive director of Besplatka. Holyk and Komlieva intersect in LLC Mass Media, LLC Media Skhid, LLC Modern Media Technologies, and LLC “77 Online Media.”
Returning to Denys Ostrovskyi, it is worth mentioning another of his companies — “Ukrainian Energy Power.” In 2026 that company won tenders to supply electricity to municipal and state enterprises totaling 72 million hryvnias; in 2025 — 228 million; and in 2024 — 670 million hryvnias.
Billion-Hryvnia Tenders and Sting Drones: How Yuri Holyk, Accused of Corruption and Curator of the “Great Construction” Program, Is Once Again Spending Budget Funds
On his social networks, Yuri Holyk brags a lot about the former successes of the “Reznichenko team” in Dnipro and holds them up as an example for other regions, forgetting to note that his ex-boss is under investigation for alleged embezzlement and promoting his own firms to achieve those successes. He also focuses on defense and drone production. Holyk travels extensively, rides a bicycle in a suit bearing the letters UAE, and thus apparently tries to douse the scandal over the correspondence found on his phone by law enforcement. Yet it is precisely those messages that answer the question: “And where did the money come from?”.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Мільярдні тендери та дрони «Sting»: як звинувачений в корупції куратор «Великого будівництва» Юрій Голик знов освоює бюджетні кошти". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: ANTIKOR.
