“Jewelry” worth a million, the Yanukovych Jr. case and a loan to his wife: what is known about the head of the Chernivtsi Regional Military Administration Osypenko?

Luxury during wartime? In May of this year the Chernivtsi RMA announced a tender for “Souvenir watches” with an expected cost of more than 730 thousand hryvnias, and overall in half a year of the new leadership “jewelry items” from the budget amounted to 1,28 million. To whom is the administration led by Ruslan Osypenko handing out valuables against the backdrop of a difficult economic situation in the country that has been repelling the Russian invasion for the fifth year? What is known about the police general who this year took the helm of Bukovyna’s rear? And what kind of relationship has Osypenko developed with Chernivtsi’s mayor Roman Klichuk?

Since 8 January 2026, the Chernivtsi Regional Military Administration has been headed by Police General of the Third Rank Ruslan Osypenko, appointed by a presidential decree.

Before coming to Bukovyna, Osypenko led the Donetsk police for more than four years, where he, among other things, coordinated evacuations by the “White Angel” units, and in 2024 he received the Order of Danylo Halytsky. However, the new regional head’s biography also contains episodes that, in our view, deserve attention.

Police career during the Yanukovych era

In 2011–2014 Osypenko was the first deputy head of the Shevchenkivskyi District Police Department of Kyiv — head of the criminal police — and later headed that department (this is stated, among other sources, in Ruslan Osypenko’s dossier on the BukMedia portal).

It was during that period, as Vitaliy Shabunin, head of the Anti-Corruption Center, wrote in a blog on Ukrainska Pravda, that an investigator from that department closed a criminal case regarding the All-Ukrainian Development Bank, which was linked to Viktor Yanukovych’s son Oleksandr — citing lack of corpus delicti. Shabunin sharply criticized that decision.

In 2015 the Civil Lustration Committee included Osypenko on a list of 50 officials whom activists believed should be dismissed, and in 2016 his name again appeared in an informal list of the “not-lustrated” published by the media outlet Antikor.

We emphasize: these are subjective assessments of certain civil activists and media, not an official court or state authority decision. At the same time, such mentions raise questions about the official’s reputation.

A loan of nearly half a million: the wife and business

In 2017 the outlet Prestupnosti.NET analyzed Osypenko’s then annual declaration (note that currently the declarations of the head of the Chernivtsi RMA are not publicly available on the NAPC website).

It showed that in 2016 his wife received a loan of 450 thousand hryvnias (at the then exchange rate — more than 16 thousand dollars) from Kyiv resident Vyacheslav Bohachyk.

According to YouControl, Bohachyk is an entrepreneur engaged in the trade of food products.

Notably, Bohachyk later participated in a tender to place a temporary facility precisely in the Shevchenkivskyi district where Osypenko had earlier headed the police.

Additionally, a person with the same full name was listed as a representative of the civic organization “Civic Corps” in the Shevchenkivskyi district of Kyiv and in 2014 ran for Kyiv City Council from the Afghanistan Veterans party.

Coincidence? Is there some connection between Bohachyk and Osypenko? The question remains open.

Watches worth over 700 thousand during the war

According to the Clarity Project service, from the moment Osypenko was appointed until the beginning of October 2026 the regional administration conducted 22 successful procurements totaling 7,09 million hryvnias. Among notable expense items were “jewelry and related goods” totaling 1,28 million hryvnias.

In particular, a single procurement “Souvenir watches,” announced in May, had an expected cost of 732,75 thousand hryvnias. Award products are common practice for authorities. But to whom and for what merits were these watches awarded in a region that hosts internally displaced persons and sustains the rear? That is a question the RMA should answer publicly.

Land, forest and communities

Since the beginning of the year regional media regularly write about land conflicts involving the RMA. BukInfo reported a threat to 169 private plots in the Seliatyn community due to land redistribution in favor of the forestry enterprise.

The Kamianets community, according to the same outlet, appealed to NABU, the State Bureau of Investigation and the Office of the Prosecutor General regarding possible offenses by officials of SE “Lisy Ukrainy” (Forests of Ukraine), the RMA and the prosecutor’s office.

At the same time, as Dzerkalo Tyzhnia noted, some of these conflicts began even before Osypenko’s appointment, so what his role in them is remains an open question.

Meanwhile, the new regional head appears to have quickly “clicked” with the Chernivtsi city authorities. Just a month after the appointment, Mayor Roman Klichuk publicly praised Osypenko: according to Klichuk, communication between the city council and the RMA “has noticeably improved, and the new head reacts quickly to problems.”

Although previously Ruslan Osypenko repeatedly sharply criticized the region’s management issues. In particular, he openly criticized the terrible condition of roads, unfinished construction projects, the readiness level of hospitals, as well as problems with power outages in the city.

In March, at a meeting with communities, Roman Klichuk complained of “unfounded pressure” by law enforcement on the city authorities — suspicions, searches, seizures of property. Osypenko replied that nothing happens without reason, but asked community heads to report to him cases they consider unfair and promised to review each such episode.

How exactly the RMA plans to “review” criminal cases against local government officials — and whether this will not turn into a pretext for pressuring law enforcement — remains to be seen.

The question is interesting. After all, Mayor Klichuk has repeatedly fallen under the scrutiny of Stop Corruption TV — in particular, in an investigation into a long-standing conflict between the city hall and a tenant of a municipal premises in central Chernivtsi, through which, according to our data, the budget lost more than 2 million hryvnias, and about the mayor’s family business. A journalistic investigation is currently ongoing.

Know more? Tell us

Do you work at the RMA, the city council or a company that cooperates with the regional authorities and have information about procurements, land decisions or personnel appointments? Write to us on social media or in the chat bot. We carefully verify every message and do not disclose our sources.

The editorial office is ready to give Ruslan Osypenko and the Chernivtsi RMA a platform to express their position regarding the facts presented in the piece.