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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
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, owned by Serhiy Kurchenko, acquired one of Ukraine’s largest 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 deal was market-based, but many experts considered it politically motivated and aimed at shaping the information field ahead of the presidential elections in 2015.
After Kurchenko fled to Russia in 2014, UMH assets were seized and transferred to ARMA’s management. Some of them were later sold or re-registered to other owners.
In 2018 the owner of the online publication Comments.UA (formerly a key Kurchenko outlet) became 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 serves as editor-in-chief of part of the former UMH’s information resources and places commissioned 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 “Masavi Publishing House.” Her relatives are also involved in the scheme, according to open-source data.
The history of LLC “Evolution Media” is telling. Kurchenko acquired 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 an investigation, the deal showed signs of formal re-titling: Goldsky exerts factual control over the company. LLC “Evolution Media” is listed 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 stake in the trademark “Kyiv Weekly” — another former UMH asset.
Thus, formally the assets (“Comments.UA,” “Evolution Media,” “Kyiv Weekly”) are distributed among the “family trio” Goldsky–Khoroshaieva–Nazarenko, but according to journalists’ findings, real management is concentrated in Goldsky’s hands. Neither Nina Khoroshaieva nor Yevhen Nazarenko take active part in the operations of these structures. Sherell Limited has previously been recognized by courts as an entity linked to the criminal organization of the Yanukovych era.
A key role in preserving operational control is played by Volodymyr Brechko (a native of Irpin). He remains director of most of the companies that formerly belonged to UMH.
In the GetContact app, his number appears under tags such as “Vova Brechko VETEK,” “Volodya Mediaholding,” “Volodya Brechko Kurchenko,” “Ukrainian media holding,” and similar.
Among the companies where Brechko is a director: PJSC “STUDIO ‘EUROPOSITIVE’,” LLC “UMH-MOBILE,” LLC “KORESPONDENT,” LLC “UKRAINIAN MEDIA HOLDING,” LLC “UMH PUBLISHING HOUSE,” LLC “BIGMIR ONLINE,” and dozens of others (radio groups, publishers, production companies).
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Спадок утікача Курченка й досі функціонує в Україні під контролем родини топменеджера UMH Гольдського". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: Rozsliduvach.
