Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
The city prosecutor’s office won the first round of a legal dispute over the preservation of the building on Saksahanskoho Street, 38, which was once municipally owned and is a newly identified cultural heritage site (it is over one and a half centuries old). Thus LLC “ZV Realty,” which bought the building from the community in 2020, must fulfill the terms of the protection agreement and carry out repair and restoration work on it. Moreover, it should have completed that work two years ago, since the structure was already in far from the best condition. “ZV Realty,” which is linked to controversial billionaire Kostyantyn Zhevago (pictured on the left in the collage) and is undergoing bankruptcy proceedings, tried to convince the court that in 2021 the building transferred to another company—LLC “Timekol.” However, those claims were not confirmed by official documents. In addition, law enforcement earlier established that “Timekol” is also connected to Zhevago.
As KV has learned, recently the Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office won the first round of a lawsuit requiring LLC “ZV Realty” to fulfill the terms of the protection agreement for the building on Saksahanskoho Street, 38 in the Holosiivskyi district of the capital.
This legal dispute is part of the bankruptcy case of the above-mentioned company, which has been ongoing for several years. At the same time, “ZV Realty” still has the right to appeal the court’s losing decision regarding the building at the above address.
What’s happening with this building
As early as 10 June 2011, the Main Department of Cultural Heritage of the Kyiv City State Administration (Kyiv City State Administration, or KSCA) by its order 10/34-11 added the residential building on Saksahanskoho Street, 38 to the list of newly identified cultural heritage sites. At that time the building was municipal property of the territorial community of Kyiv and on the balance sheet of the municipal enterprise “Kyivzhytlospetsexpluatsiya.” On 11 August 2019 a protection agreement for this site was concluded between that enterprise and what was then the Department for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of the KSCA. According to it, the municipal enterprise undertook to use the structure solely for administrative purposes, keep it in proper condition, prevent construction there, ensure access for representatives of cultural heritage protection authorities, and so on.
And already in the spring of 2020 the city authorities put the building on Saksahanskoho Street, 38 up for sale—the Department of Communal Property of the KSCA was to handle the privatization. The winner of that auction was the aforementioned LLC “ZV Realty.” On 23 June 2020 a purchase-and-sale agreement for the building on Saksahanskoho Street, 38 was signed between the city’s Department of Communal Property and that company for 16,5 million hryvnias, of which 2,7 million was value-added tax.
On 7 March 2023 a protection agreement for the building at the above address was signed between LLC “ZV Realty,” as the new owner of the structure, and the Department for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of the KSCA.
This agreement resembled the “previous” one, and among other things stipulated that the company should complete repair and restoration work in the building within 2023–2024 years. This was necessary because, according to the technical condition report for the newly identified cultural heritage site dated 6 January 2023 (which is part of the protection agreement), the overall condition of the interior architectural-structural and decorative elements of part of this newly identified cultural heritage site is unsatisfactory. The report also stated that most of the decor has been destroyed, some floors were seriously damaged during a fire, floor coverings are missing and filled with debris, some windows are broken, and the interior decorative finishes, paintings, and applied art objects have suffered significant losses.
This year, on 26 February, the Department for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of the KSCA issued an order requiring LLC “ZV Realty” to submit to officials the scientific-project documentation for the works to be carried out on Saksahanskoho Street, 38. The reason was failure to comply with heritage protection legislation and the terms of the protection agreement.
And in May 2026 the city prosecutor’s office filed the aforementioned lawsuit against LLC “ZV Realty” to enforce the terms of the protection agreement. The basis was that the company did nothing to remedy violations of heritage protection law.
LLC “ZV Realty” objected to the law enforcement demands. The company stated that it is no longer the owner of the non-residential premises in the building on Saksahanskoho Street, 38. Allegedly in April 2021 “ZV Realty” sold the building to LLC “Timekol” for 12,9 million hryvnias as part of enforcement proceedings that were opened in the first half of 2021 on the application of PrJSC “Rosava” (to which LLC “ZV Realty” owed funds it could not pay—the original amount in question was 348,7 million hryvnias). In addition, “ZV Realty” argued that since it is already under a sanation procedure (measures to restore solvency), the company is unable to carry out repair work in the building because funding for such work is not provided for in the sanation plan.
However, as noted above, the representatives of LLC “ZV Realty” failed to convince the court. Judge Denys Mandichev found that on the state enterprise “Setam” website, through which the sale of the building on Saksahanskoho Street, 38, was carried out, there is no information about the actual transfer of the property to LLC “Timekol” or confirmation that the indicated funds were paid. In addition, according to the State Register of Property Rights to Real Estate (both at the time the lawsuit was filed and as of June 2026) ownership of the non-residential premises with an area of 187,7 sq. m. on Saksahanskoho Street, 38 was registered to LLC “ZV Realty.” The register contains no other data on a change of ownership for the property at that address.
“The court reached a reasoned conclusion that the claims of the suit were proven and that there are legal grounds to oblige LLC ‘ZV Realty’ to bring the non-residential premises in the residential building on Saksahanskoho Street, 38, to proper condition by carrying out repair and restoration works in accordance with scientific-project documentation developed and agreed upon in the manner prescribed by law. At the same time, the court took into account LLC ‘ZV Realty’s’ arguments that it is already under a sanation procedure, and therefore deprived of the possibility to carry out repair work in the building because funding for such works is not provided for by the sanation plan. However, being in bankruptcy, including at the stage of the sanation procedure, is not a legal basis for release from fulfilling obligations provided for by contract and law. Moreover, according to the Code of Ukraine on Insolvency Proceedings, the sanation plan may be amended in the manner established for its approval,” the court decision states.
About the figures involved
According to the analytics system YouControl, LLC “ZV Realty” was registered in July 2017, and since September 2023, as noted above, the company has been in bankruptcy. Its director is listed as Serhii Liubchenko, and the founder and owner is Kyiv resident Oleksii Shalaiev. LLC “Timekol” was registered in October 2020. Its director is listed as Viktor Breus, and the founder and ultimate beneficiary is Kyiv resident Oksana Zakharova.
YouControl indicates that “ZV Realty” is connected to the corporate group of Kostyantyn Zhevago. That group unites just under two hundred business entities active in metallurgy, transportation, pharmaceuticals (the Arteriium corporation), and energy. The main asset of the group is the Swiss company Ferrexpo AG, which is one of the world’s largest producers and exporters of iron ore pellets for blast-furnace production. The key figure of this group is billionaire Kostyantyn Zhevago (he was a member of the Ukrainian parliament from the 3rd to the 8th convocations). In September 2019 the State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) notified him in absentia of suspicion in Ukraine in the case of embezzlement and misappropriation of 2,5 billion hryvnias from the bank “Finance and Credit,” which belonged to Zhevago. In addition, in May 2024 the SBI notified this businessman of a new suspicion, this time in France, over the possible withdrawal of another 519 million hryvnias from the same bank.
At the same time, LLC “Timekol” also appears to be connected to this businessman’s circle. In particular, the above-mentioned Viktor Breus was director of LLC “Industrial Construction” from October 2011 to March 2016, which, according to YouControl, is also related to Kostyantyn Zhevago’s corporate group. Moreover—in the course of the above criminal case on the second suspicion—law enforcement established that the ultimate beneficiary of LLC “Timekol” is one of the persons through whom Kostyantyn Zhevago “carries out targeted measures to purchase real estate, assets, and property rights.” Investigators also have preliminary data that Timekol’s purchase of the building on Saksahanskoho Street, 38, was made with funds from the aforementioned oligarch.
As KV has repeatedly reported, city authorities in recent decades have clearly failed at protecting Kyiv’s historic buildings and structures. KSCA officials and Kyiv City Council deputies regularly promise to work on preserving them and stress that such sites should not be demolished and replaced by yet another residential or commercial high-rise. However, for the most part such statements have no practical implementation.
For example, in August 2021 the Kyiv City Council at the KSCA’s initiative “introduced a moratorium” on construction and reconstruction in Kyiv that could affect 119 historic buildings of Kyiv. The city authorities presented this decision as revolutionary. However, experts called the moratorium ordinary populism and an attempt to hide the capital’s failed policy in protecting valuable historic development and the assignment of newly identified cultural heritage status to historical objects. Instead of practical mechanisms for preserving historic buildings, the city authorities merely recommended that their owners refrain from carrying out construction work and advised officials to take the relevant provisions into account.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Хто відповість за руйнацію? Прокуратура виграла суд щодо історичного будинку на вул. Саксаганського". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: KyivVlada.