City council scheme: In Kyiv, officials allegedly illegally acquired land valued at 11.6 million hryvnias.

Ukrainian law enforcement has uncovered a corruption scheme within the Kyiv City Council. Officials are suspected of illegally acquiring land valued at 11.6 million hryvnias.

This was reported by RBK-Ukraine citing the press service of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine.

As noted by NABU, among the suspects are:

• a former deputy of the Kyiv City Council, the leader of a criminal organization;
• the deputy head of the Kyiv City State Administration;
• the head and a member of the permanent commission of the Kyiv City Council on architecture, urban planning, and land relations, current deputies of the Kyiv City Council;
• the first deputy and deputy director of municipal enterprises;
• four other individuals.

Law enforcement officials have not disclosed the name of the deputy head of the KCSA suspected of involvement in the scheme, but according to sources from RBK-Ukraine, it is about Petro Olenych.

NABU claims that members of the criminal organization identified promising land plots and registered ownership rights for constructions that never existed on those plots under controlled individuals. They subsequently submitted requests to the city council to grant them ownership rights to the plots, citing the need to service "structures."

Photo: arrest of suspects (nabu.gov.ua)

Following this, deputies of the Kyiv City Council and officials from the KCSA ensured the approval of decisions to grant land rights to the scheme participants. For such "assistance," they received bribes in the form of money or real estate.

Law enforcement has determined that the leader of the criminal organization had significant influence over processes within the Kyiv City Council and KCSA, including the appointment of loyal individuals to high positions and the allocation of budget funds in the interests of the wrongdoers, among other activities.

"The decision-making center, particularly in the land sector, has moved from Khreshchatyk, 36 (the address of KCSA) to another building, where issues were 'resolved' with the involvement of city officials and other influential persons," NABU writes.

According to law enforcement, to conceal their activities, members of the criminal organization employed special mobile communication terminals, pseudonyms, counter-surveillance, and other methods.

"As a result of the criminal organization's activities, between 2023 and 2024, land valued at 11.6 million hryvnias was illegally removed from the ownership of the territorial community of Kyiv, causing damage of that amount," NABU emphasized.

At the same time, Ukrainian law enforcement prevented the wrongdoers from seizing an additional six plots in Kyiv valued at 83.7 million hryvnias.

Detectives also uncovered an offer of a bribe amounting to 100,000 dollars to a member of the land commission and a deputy of the Kyiv City Council for abuse of power.

Seven members of the organization have been detained. Charges have already been brought against 10 individuals.

Main Figures in the Case

According to sources from RBK-Ukraine, the main figures in the case are:

• former deputy of the Kyiv City Council Denys Komarnytskyi, who is the organizer of the scheme;
• deputy head of the KCSA Petro Olenych;
• deputies of the Kyiv City Council, particularly the head of the land relations commission Mykhailo Terentyev and commission member Yelena Marchenko.

Recall that just this morning, NABU and SAP conducted an operation in the Kyiv City Council to expose a criminal organization suspected of land corruption.