Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Legacy of Kurchenko: former media of the traitor-oligarch controlled by family of UMH top manager Goldsky
In the fourth year of the full-scale war in Ukraine, media assets connected to fugitive oligarch Serhiy Kurchenko continue to operate. Formally they are owned by members of Viktor Goldsky’s family and former managers of the holding, but actual control likely remains in a single pair of hands.
In June 2013 the company VETEK of Serhiy Kurchenko acquired one of the largest Ukrainian media holdings — UMH group (Ukrainian Media Holding). According to Kurchenko himself, the deal cost about 340 million dollars. Asset management was carried out by the specially created LLC VETEK-Media. UMH founder Borys Lozhkin claimed the transaction was market-based, but many experts considered it politically motivated and aimed at preparing the information field for the presidential elections of 2015.
After Kurchenko fled to Russia in 2014, UMH assets were seized and transferred to ARMA management. Some of them were later sold or re-registered to other owners.
In 2018 the internet outlet Comments.UA (the former key media of Kurchenko) became owned by Viktor Goldsky. In 2014–2015 he worked at UMH Group as commercial director under Olena Bondarenko — then chair of the holding’s supervisory board and a former MP from the Party of Regions.
Goldsky currently performs the role of editor-in-chief for some of the former UMH information resources and places sponsored publications. He is the official beneficiary of LLC COMMENTS TODAY and the owner of the domain name comments.ua.
Goldsky is married to Olha Khoroshaieva, who owns stakes in assets including LLC To sho nado and LLC Publishing House Masavi. According to open data, her relatives are also involved in the scheme.
A telling case is the history of LLC Evolution Media. Kurchenko purchased the company in 2013 and registered it to the Cypriot Sherell Limited. After his flight the structure was re-registered, and the ultimate owner became Yevhen Nazarenko — Olha Khoroshaieva’s stepfather, i.e., Goldsky’s father-in-law. According to the investigation, the transaction showed signs of formal rewriting: factual control over the company is exercised by Goldsky. LLC Evolution Media appears in the declaration of Nina Khoroshaieva (Olha’s mother and Nazarenko’s wife), who holds the position of head of the Health Care Department of the Brovary City Council. Khoroshaieva also owns a share of the “Kyiv Weekly” trademark — another former UMH asset.
Thus, formally the assets (Comments.UA, Evolution Media, Kyiv Weekly) are distributed among the “family trio” Goldsky–Khoroshaieva–Nazarenko, but journalists conclude that real management is concentrated in Goldsky’s hands. Neither Nina Khoroshaieva nor Yevhen Nazarenko take part in the actual activities of these structures. Sherell Limited was previously recognized by courts as an entity connected to a criminal organization from the Yanukovych era.
A key role in maintaining operational control is played by Volodymyr Brechko (a native of Irpin). He remains director of most companies that were formerly part of UMH.
In the GetContact app his number appears under tags like “Vova Brechko VETEK”, “Volodya Mediaholding”, “Volodya Brechko Kurchenko”, “Ukrainian media holding” and similar.
Among the companies where Brechko is director: PJSC STUDIO “EUROPOSITIV”, LLC UMH-MOBILE, LLC KORESPONDENT, LLC UKRAINIAN MEDIA HOLDING, LLC PUBLISHING HOUSE UMH, LLC BIGMIR ONLINE and dozens more (radio groups, publishers, production companies).
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Спадщина Курченка: колишні медіа зрадника-олігарха контролює родина топменеджера UMH Гольдського". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: ANTIKOR.