Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Yuriy Holyk, former advisor to the head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration and coordinator of the presidential “Great Construction” program, is once again at the center of a scandal. According to media reports, he may be connected to a large-scale state program to establish veteran centers. At the same time, Holyk is said to be trying to have publications about him removed from search engines. This raises further questions about what information he wants to hide from the public.
This was reported by Comments.ua.
From “Great Construction” coordinator to political émigré with ongoing investigations
Yuriy Holyk, 1977 born in Luhansk, initially tried his hand in media and advertising. 2015 then he began working with Valentyn Reznichenko at the Dnipropetrovsk regional state administration. Soon he was responsible for the most complex and “lucrative” area: maintenance and development of infrastructure. 2019 he took over the leadership of the large-scale presidential program “Great Construction,” which included the construction and renovation of roads and infrastructure projects. The total volume amounted to more than 100 billion Hryvnias at pre-war prices.
Scandals and allegations of inflated construction costs soon accumulated around the coordinator. “Comments” reported extensively on the matter. During the investigations, Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) eventually found that Yana, the girlfriend of Dnipropetrovsk region governor Valentyn Reznichenko, who worked as a fitness trainer, was the owner of the construction company “Budinvest Engineering.” According to investigators, parts of the budget funds were embezzled through inflated prices.
Yuriy Holyk was even listed as a suspect in this case. In June 2024, however, the coordinator of the “Great Construction” left Ukraine and reportedly traveled to Austria. He then kept a low profile for almost two years. Now the situation has changed.
Google in the crosshairs: Why Holyk wants publications about him removed
From the end of June 2026, some Ukrainian news portals reported a wave of complaints to Google about alleged copyright violations in numerous publications. Most of the contested pieces related to journalistic investigations that mentioned Yuriy Holyk.
As the portal “UkrRudProm” reported, all articles have been affected since 2022. This procedure allows pages to be quickly removed from search results without contesting the facts contained in them on their merits. According to another portal, “StopKor,” the disputed articles do not contain third-party content that would violate others’ rights. They are entirely independent editorial texts.
The editorial board believes this could indicate an attempt to remove unwanted content from the web en masse under the pretext of alleged “copyright protection.” An instrument that has recently been increasingly used to pressure independent media.
At the same time, since 2024 Yuriy Holyk, through his lawyers, has been trying to initiate criminal proceedings against NABU investigators under Article 387 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code for “disclosure of data from operative investigative measures.” However, the Appeals Chamber of the High Anti-Corruption Court repeatedly rejected this.
Why, exactly two years after his “flight” from Ukraine, is Holyk suddenly concerned about his image? One possible answer comes from an investigation by the portal “Nashi Hroshi. Lviv,” published this spring.
12 billion Hryvnias for veterans
In April, NGL Media published an investigation into a large-scale state program to establish veteran centers. 2025 the Ministry of Veterans Affairs launched a program to build new centers according to a unified concept: a single-story building with a total area of about 1.500 square meters, consisting of two sections. One was to include a sports hall, the other rooms for counseling and psychological support, conference halls, and a small café.
Funding for the construction of 22 such centers has already been allocated from the budget in the amount of 1,546 billion Hryvnias. That corresponds to about 75 million Hryvnias per building. For the planned 160 facilities, total costs could amount to around 12 billion Hryvnias.
Journalists also found that lobbying for the project was so intense that the land for construction in Lutsk had already been allocated on 28 May 2025 – three weeks before the relevant government decree was adopted.
Two organizations handled the review of the adapted building designs: LLC “UK Expertise” and LLC “Nova-Expert.” They needed less than a month for each facility. The tenders were also conducted under time pressure. For all seven projects that were 2025 tendered, only one contractor participated in each procedure and was awarded the contract. The tender conditions effectively made it difficult for other companies to participate.
In Kryvyi Rih, for example, bidders had to prove an annual income equal to the expected contract value – more than 130 million Hryvnias – and confirm a site visit by the customer. In Uzhhorod, optional quality certificates were added in addition to the site visit. The companies that ultimately received the contracts were either newly established or had comparatively little experience.
The contractor in Kremenchuk had previously done work worth two million Hryvnias but now received a contract for 132 million Hryvnias.
Construction of seven veteran centers began in the fall of 2025. It turned out that the material prices listed in the estimates were significantly inflated: in Kremenchuk by about two million Hryvnias, in Kryvyi Rih by about 2,6 million, and in Uzhhorod by more than seven million Hryvnias.
Some items in the estimates were deliberately vaguely worded and contained no concrete specifications. This made comparison with market prices impossible.
It is also known that the preparation of the documents was commissioned by the charitable foundation “Pisni, narodzhheni v ATO” from an individual entrepreneur from Transcarpathia named Yuriy Erdeli.
The foundation’s founder, Volodymyr Yurchenko, however, could not explain why a charitable organization ordered construction documents for a state program. Foundation director Yuriy Shulyka referred to calls from certain persons in the ministry, but gave no further details.
As NGL Media emphasized, the choice of the foundation “Pisni, narodzhheni v ATO” apparently owed much to its founder Volodymyr Yurchenko. During Valentyn Reznichenko’s term, Yurchenko was his deputy.
The deputy minister responsible for the program in the Ministry of Veterans Affairs is Viktor Baydachnyi. According to his official biography on the ministry’s website, he worked at the Dnipropetrovsk regional administration from 2018 to 2022.
He worked in the veterans policy department, which at the time was headed by Nataliya Shulyka. Her husband, Yuriy Shulyka, is director of the charitable foundation “Pisni, narodzhheni v ATO.”
There are also connections to Yuriy Holyk: He once called the festivals organized by the foundation of the same name, “Pisni, narodzhheni v ATO,” “ours.” Holyk also confirmed his link to the festival to NGL-Media journalists.
In the public procurement system Prozorro there are hundreds of tenders and auctions for the construction and equipping of veteran centers. The preparation of project documentation for such a center, for example, can cost between one and 1,5 million Hryvnias. The basic renovation of the premises intended for this can be similarly expensive or even more costly. Added to that are furnishing works. The program is funded 40 percent from state and municipal budgets.
Criminal cases against the patron and the decline of Ukrainian companies: What does Yuriy Holyk live on?
The former coordinator of the “Great Construction,” who is now abroad, appears to need money. At least publicly available data suggest that his companies in Ukraine are increasingly running into trouble.
Holyk owned a 25 percent stake in LLC “Creative Country.” The company specialized in business consulting and management and had an authorized capital of only 1.000 Hryvnias. It operated several coworking spaces.
Despite power problems after Russian attacks, the company recorded a remarkable revenue surge of 2023: from 1,8 million Hryvnias in 2022 to almost 39 million Hryvnias. Net profit was 10,2 million Hryvnias.
However, for 2025 the company no longer showed profitability. Net profit fell twentyfold to 588.000 Hryvnias.
The situation is likely worse: LLC “Creative Staff Gulliver,” in which Holyk is ten percent involved through “Creative Country,” is in insolvency proceedings. One of Gulliver’s co-owners is even suing other partners over a debt of 10,4 million Hryvnias to one of his companies.
These financial difficulties could be connected to Holyk’s interest in a billion-hryvnia program to establish veteran centers. The shift from the coworking business for freelancers to building veteran centers with billions from public budgets appears in this context quite logical.
All this points to significant financial problems for the former coordinator of the “Great Construction.” It is hard to believe that he once literally had billions at his disposal.
On the construction of a water pipeline in Kryvyi Rih, initiated after the destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric plant and costing 7,7 billion Hryvnias, expenses could have been inflated by three billion Hryvnias alone.
Investigators also found that participants in the alleged scheme legalized inventories worth 187 million Hryvnias and understated VAT payments by a further 20,5 million Hryvnias.
Yuriy Holyk, known as the public coordinator of the “Great Construction,” was named as one of the key figures. He had previously been mentioned in connection with the leak of NABU investigation data.
Holyk’s biggest problem, however, is the case against LLC “Budinvest Engineering,” whose business is road and highway construction and whose authorized capital is 1,05 million Hryvnias.
According to the investigation, officials of the Dnipropetrovsk regional administration awarded the company 2022 contracts for the construction and repair of highways worth 1,5 billion Hryvnias. Part of the money was then siphoned off under the pretext of ordering goods and services – presumably to accounts of shell companies.
The former head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional administration, Valentyn Reznichenko, is directly listed as a suspect in this case.
Court records show that “Budinvest” transferred 3,75 million Hryvnias to LLC “Sevent Consulting Group” within just under two years. At that time Oleksandr Reznichenko, the governor’s son, was the company’s director. Valentyn Reznichenko, in turn, is its owner. That presented an obvious conflict of interest.
Since 2024 Yuriy Holyk has also appeared in this case. In addition to the case over the leaking of information from anti-corruption agencies, this was another reason that prompted his departure from Ukraine.
Recently, after a long pause, former “sky dwellers” have been appearing more often again in the Ukrainian information space. One example is Viktor Medvedchuk, who is allegedly being helped by Oleksandr Spektor.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Yuriy Holyk zielt auf 12 Milliarden Hrywnja für Veteranenzentren und lässt belastende Informationen bei Google löschen". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: HAB Media.