The Case of $21 Million, Tenders and Thousands of Plots: StopCor Continues Investigation into Kiyanovskyi's Agro-Empire

A civil servant or an agrarian magnate? Viktor Kyianovsky, a deputy of the Chernihiv regional council who chairs the regional council’s land committee, simultaneously controls a large agricultural business, and his companies and relatives appear in registries of thousands of land plots, court orders, and public procurements.

This is described in the journalistic investigation by Anastasia Vasilenko for the online media “Stop Corruption TV” and in StopKor's material.

Kyianovsky has been active in local politics since 2010 year. In the previous term he led the specialized land committee of the regional council and remains its chairman now. At the same time, according to registries, his wife Olha Kyianovska owns more than 340 real estate objects, of which more than 300 are land plots. LLC “Ichnian” (Ichnian), headed by the deputy himself, manages more than 4,6 thousand plots — this refers specifically to the number of individual land acts, not hectares.

The city mayor of Ichnia, Olena Buturlim, told journalists that the deputy constantly files land-use requests, and, according to her, has provided no assistance to the community. LLC “Ichnian” has already figured in proceedings regarding possible unlawful occupation of municipal land: as the court ruling shows, investigators found fields cultivated near leased plots of the enterprise and asked to seize the harvest.

The most high-profile episode is a criminal case of fraud amounting to 21 million dollars within the Grain Trading project. According to the investigation, in favor of the group “Rostok-Holding,” 30% of which, journalists say, belonged to Kyianovsky, more than 21,2 million dollars were directed. In 2018 year the court seized the holding’s corporate rights.

Journalists also found that the man connected to the deputy, “Ichnia Dairy Plant and Butter,” in 2015 year exported products to Russia, and the peasant farm “PSP Ichniane” already after the start of the war in the east purchased Lada cars. Among the historical co-founders of Kyianovsky’s companies is Serhiy Rybachok, who in 2022 year received a suspicion of collaboration from the Security Service of Ukraine.

Separately, family-linked contracts. The enterprise “Ichnian Concrete,” associated with the deputy’s son-in-law Serhiy Yasenivka, reportedly won 15 tenders totaling almost 9 million hryvnias, including for customers in the forestry sector.

Note that during a shoot at the deputy’s enterprise, security obstructed the crew, and later journalists were stopped by police twice. Viktor Kyianovsky did not answer a phone call, so questions were sent to him in writing. The editorial office is prepared to publish the deputy’s position and the positions of other persons mentioned in the material.

We are continuing the investigation. StopKor urges anyone who may have been harmed by land-related schemes and who possibly was cheated by people from Kyianovsky’s circle—landowners, lessees, residents of communities—to contact the editors on social networks or through StopKor’s chat-bot. We guarantee confidentiality!