Mykola Solskii and Volytsia-Agro: seizure of property and grain worth 63 million UAH

ARMA is preparing a competition to select a manager for the seized assets of Volytsia-Agro LLC, connected with former Minister of Agricultural Policy Mykola Solskii. The case concerns a large real estate complex in the Kyiv region with a elevator with capacity up to 60 thousand tons, land plots, production facilities, transport, and wheat. Transfer of these assets under management is taking place amid a criminal investigation into the alleged fictitious sale of grain worth 63,7 million UAH and a dispute over the rights of a creditor to the mortgaged property.

At the center of the property complex is an elevator on a four-hectare land plot. In addition to the grain storage, the list includes warehouses, workshops, administrative buildings, a scale, a sawmill, a transformer substation, and other production facilities. There are also former cowsheds, pigsties, and a calf house. The assets are located in Bila Tserkva and the villages of Yablunivka and Dmytrivka in Kyiv region, according to media reports. The property list is not limited to real estate. It also lists vehicles such as Renault Duster, Kia Sportage, Lada, MAZ, KAMAZ, and GAZ trucks, as well as wheat stored in elevator bunkers. At the same time, without a full inventory, it is not possible to determine the exact quantity of grain, its owners, and the total value of the assets to be transferred to the manager. ARMA must hold a competition and determine the company that will ensure the preservation and management of the seized property in accordance with the law. However, the appearance of a manager does not automatically resolve questions about the origins of all assets, creditors’ claims, or possible compensation for losses to grain buyers. These are separate legal issues that require independent decisions. The most serious claims about the history of “Volytsia-Agro” relate to the alleged scheme of selling grain that, according to investigators, was not actually present in the declared volumes. Law enforcement authorities reported suspicions against Mykola Solskii and other defendants in regard to fraud on a particularly large scale. According to the investigation materials, a buyer was offered to purchase seven thousand tons of corn of the harvest 2025 year, and to confirm its availability, storage documents and transfer-acceptance acts were provided. The problem, as investigators say, was that the documents certified the existence of the product that the buyer expected to receive after payment, while the actual grain residues did not match the documented volumes. According to the investigation, the company issued storage documents for more than 130 thousand tons of product with a plant capacity of approximately 60 thousand tons. Claimed losses in this case were estimated at 63,7 million UAH. This discrepancy between documentary volumes and the physical capacity of the grain storage became one of the key issues in the case. At the same time, the elevator’s capacity itself does not prove that all the claimed grain volume was simultaneously stored at this facility: to establish the circumstances, it is necessary to study storage documents, product movement, contracts, and actual remaining stock on the relevant dates. The court must give the final assessment of the evidence.

Mykola Solskii chaired the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food from 2022 to 2024, and before his appointment he was a member of parliament. After suspicions emerged in the grain case, his name became central to an investigation that concerns not just a commercial dispute, but possible embezzlement of funds through documents about goods. At the same time, suspicion does not mean guilt, and liability of each defendant must be established in the manner prescribed by law. An additional risk arises from the mortgage. According to available information, the elevator is mortgaged to Sense Bank. The bank sought to lift the arrest from the object, but the court rejected that request. Therefore, the asset that ARMA is preparing to hand over for management has encumbrances that affect possible ways of its further use and realization. For grain owners who consider themselves victims, this is of practical importance. Even if the seized property is sold, proceeds from the sale do not necessarily automatically go to compensate claimed losses. One must consider the rights of the secured creditor, court decisions, the ranking of claims, and the legal status of each asset. Therefore, ARMA’s own competition does not guarantee the return of funds to those who claim grain loss. The Volytsia-Agro story also demonstrates risks for the grain market when storage documents become the basis for a deal worth tens of millions of hryvnias. If goods confirmed by papers do not match actual residues, the buyer risks being left without product and facing a difficult process of recovering losses. In such cases, not only contracts matter but also independent verification of grain availability, tracking of its movement, and confirmation of storage operations. Now ARMA must determine who will manage the seized complex, and the investigation must establish all circumstances of the probable grain scheme and the role of each defendant. Separately, there remains the question whether potential victims can receive compensation considering the Sense Bank mortgage. Until these questions are resolved, the elevator with a capacity of 60 thousand tons remains not only a large industrial asset but also part of a complex story with criminal proceedings, financial claims, and competing property interests.