12 billions allegedly to support veterans: how fugitive Yuriy Holyk and the Dnipro clan are appropriating a new budgetary source of profit

While international scandals surround stories of Ukrainian businessmen, including Vadym Yermolaiev, who came under scrutiny after the explosion in Monaco, another Dnipro native — former advisor to the head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration and curator of the “Great Construction” project Yuriy Holyk — continues to profit in Ukraine.

From curator of the “Great Construction” to political emigrant under investigation

Yuriy Holyk, who was born in Luhansk in 1977, tried his hand in media and advertising before, in 2015, joining the Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration alongside Valentyn Reznichenko. Soon he was already responsible for the most complex and “lucrative” direction — maintaining and developing infrastructure.

In 2019 he was appointed to oversee the large presidential program “Great Construction” — road repairs and construction, infrastructure projects — totaling over 100 billion pre-war hryvnias. Soon numerous scandals and accusations of inflated work prices erupted around the curator.

Eventually, NABU during its investigation determined that the governor of Dnipropetrovsk’s friend, fitness trainer Yana, simultaneously turned out to be the owner of the construction company Budinvest Engineering. Part of the budget funds were, the investigation believes, stolen through price inflation. Yuriy Holyk was even listed as a suspect in this case, but ultimately, in June 2024, the curator of “Great Construction” left Ukraine and reportedly went to Austria.

For almost 2 years after that, Yuriy Holyk “behaved quietly,” but now the situation has changed.

Google under attack because of Yuriy Holyk

Starting at the end of June 2026, some Ukrainian news sites began reporting a wave of complaints to Google alleging copyright violations for a number of publications. Most of the challenged materials are linked to journalistic investigations mentioning Yuriy Holyk.

As one of those sites, Ukrrudprom, claims, all articles dating back to 2022 were targeted. This mechanism allows pages to be quickly removed from search without disputing the facts they contain, essentially.

According to another site, StopKor, none of the materials that received complaints contains borrowed content that would violate anyone’s rights — all texts are original editorial material. The outlet believes this may indicate an attempt at mass removal of unwanted content under the pretext of alleged “copyright protection” — a tool increasingly used lately to pressure independent media.

Meanwhile, since 2024 Yuriy Holyk, through his lawyers, has been trying to have a criminal case opened against NABU detectives under Article 387 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, “Disclosure of data on operational-search measures.” However, the Appeals Chamber of the High Anti-Corruption Court has repeatedly denied this.

But why, 2 years after his “flight” from Ukraine, did Yuriy Holyk suddenly become concerned about his image? One likely answer is an investigation by NashiHroshiLviv published in the spring of this year.

12 billion hryvnias for veterans

In April NGLMedia published an investigation concerning a large state program to create spaces for veterans. In 2025, the Ministry for Veterans launched a program to build new spaces based on a single design — a one-story building of about 1500 sq. m, consisting of two blocks: a gym and a separate area with rooms for consultations, psychological support, conference halls and a small café.

To create 22 such spaces, the budget has already allocated 1 billion 546 million hryvnias, i.e., about 75 million hryvnias per building, which for 160 such facilities could cost around 12 billion hryvnias. Journalists note that lobbying for this initiative was so powerful that the plot for construction in Lutsk was allocated on 28 May 2025 — three weeks before the government adopted the corresponding resolution.

Two organizations conducted the expert review of the adapted designs: LLC UK Ekspertyza and LLC Nova-Expert, taking less than a month per object. They rushed the tenders too — in all seven projects in 2025 only one contractor participated in the auctions and received the orders, while the tender conditions effectively made other participation impossible. For example, in Kryvyi Rih they required confirmation of annual revenue at the level of the expected contract value (over 130 million hryvnias) — and a personal site inspection signed by the procuring entity. In Uzhhorod, in addition to an inspection, they added nonmandatory quality certificates. The companies that ultimately received the contracts were either newly created or had negligible experience. The contractor in Kremenchuk had experience performing work for 2 million hryvnias but then consecutively received contracts for 132 million hryvnias.

Construction of seven veterans’ spaces began in the fall of 2025. It then emerged that material costs in the estimates were significantly inflated. In Kremenchuk — about 2 million hryvnias, in Kryvyi Rih — about 2,6 million, in Uzhhorod — over 7 million. Some line items in the estimates were deliberately formulated vaguely, without specific characteristics, making comparison with market prices impossible.

It is known that the documentation was commissioned by the charity fund Songs Born in the ATO from a private entrepreneur from Zakarpattia, Yuriy Erdeli. But the fund’s founder, Volodymyr Yurchenko, could not explain why a charitable organization was ordering construction documentation for a state program. The fund’s director, Yuriy Shulyka, cited a call from some people at the ministry but did not reveal further details.

NGLMedia emphasized that they turned specifically to the charity fund Songs Born in the ATO because of its founder Volodymyr Yurchenko’s figure. While Valentyn Reznichenko was in office, Yurchenko served as his deputy.

At the same time, the program’s curator at the Ministry for Veterans is Deputy Minister Viktor Baidachny, who, according to his official biography on the ministry’s website, worked at the Dnipropetrovsk RSA from 2018 to 2022. His workplace was the Department for Veteran Policy, then led by Nataliya Shulyka, whose husband Yuriy Shulyka is director of the Songs Born in the ATO charity fund. The latter, incidentally, is also connected to Yuriy Holyk, who once called the Songs Born in the ATO festivals of the namesake fund “ours.” Holyk confirmed his connection to the festival to NGLMedia journalists.

Note that the public procurement system Prozorro contains hundreds of tenders and auctions for the construction and outfitting of veterans’ spaces. For example, the cost of developing project documentation for such a space can range from 1 to 1,5 million hryvnias; capital renovation of premises allocated for it can cost the same or more. Finally, there is also their equipment, which is funded from state and local budgets that finance the program by 40%.

Criminal case of the patron and bankruptcy of Ukrainian businesses — what Yuriy Holyk is living through

Note that the ex-curator of Great Construction, who is abroad, clearly needs money, because according to open data his business in Ukraine is collapsing. Holyk owned a 25% stake in LLC Kreatyvna Krayina (activity — consulting on commercial activity and management, authorized capital — 1000 hryvnias), which organized several coworking spaces. Against the backdrop of electricity problems after Russian strikes, in 2023 the business showed remarkable results — almost 39 million hryvnias. Revenues after 1,8 million hryvnias in 2022, of which 10,2 million hryvnias was net profit. However, by the results of 2025 the company did not show profitability, and net profit fell by 20 times — to 588 thousand hryvnias.

However, the situation is likely even worse: LLC Kreatyvny Shtat Hulyver, in which through Kreatyvna Krayina Yuriy Holyk owns 10%, is actually bankrupt. One of Hulyver’s co-owners is even suing the other founders over a debt to one of his companies of 10,4 million hryvnias. Holyk’s interest in creating billion-hryvnia veterans’ spaces is likely related to these financial problems. The shift from a coworking for freelancers to creating veterans’ spaces funded by billions of budget hryvnias seems quite logical.

All this points to serious financial troubles for the ex-curator of “Great Construction.” It’s hard to believe that he once literally returned billions. For example, just the 1 project — construction of a water supply for Kryvyi Rih, initiated after the destruction of the Kakhovka HPP at 7,7 billion hryvnias — could have been inflated by 3 billion. In addition, the investigation found that scheme participants legalized goods and materials worth 187 million hryvnias and underreported VAT payments by another 20,5 million hryvnias. One of the key figures named is Yuriy Holyk, known as the public coordinator of “Great Construction.” He was previously mentioned in the case concerning disclosure of pretrial investigation data by NABU.

But Holyk’s real problem is the case of LLC Budinvest Engineering (activity — road and highway construction, authorized capital — 1 million 50 thousand hryvnias). According to the investigation, Dnipropetrovsk RSA officials in 2022 awarded the company contracts for road construction and repair totaling 1,5 billion hryvnias. Part of these funds was later funneled out under the guise of procurement of goods and services, most likely to accounts of fictitious companies.

Valentyn Reznichenko, twice the ex-head of the Dnipropetrovsk RSA, is directly listed as a suspect in this case. As the case materials state, over nearly 2 years Budinvest made payments of 3,75 million hryvnias to LLC Seventh Consulting Group when its director was Oleksandr Reznichenko, the governor’s son. At the same time, Valentyn Reznichenko is listed as the company’s owner, indicating an obvious conflict of interest. Since 2024 Holyk has also appeared in this case, in addition to the matter about “leaks” from anti-corruption agencies, which prompted him to leave Ukraine. Note that lately, after a long hiatus, shadows of former “high-flyers” have increasingly reappeared in Ukraine’s information space. For example, Viktor Medvedchuk, who is allegedly aided by Oleksandr Spektor.