Photo: Depositphotos
On 13 March, the head of the Kyiv City State Administration, Vitali Klitschko, announced large-scale personnel changes in the city government. Officials and deputies involved in corruption cases, including the case of illegal alienation of land plots in the capital, lost their positions.
Who was fired?
Klitschko said that he had been dismissed from his posts in the Kyiv City State Administration:
– Petro Olenych is the Deputy Head of the Kyiv City State Administration;
– Oleksiy Mushta is the deputy head of Kyivblagoustrii;
– Yuriy Leonov – Deputy Director of SpetsZhitlofond (the dismissal will take effect on 14 March);
– Igor Dolynskyi is the Director of the Kyiv Institute of Land Relations;
– Volodymyr Shariy is the director of Spetszhilofond;
– Viktor Pogrebnoy is the director of Zhitloinvest Financial Company;
– Valentyna Svyatina is Deputy Director of the Department of Urban Planning and Architecture.
In addition, there will be personnel changes at Kyivzelenstroy. People will be deprived of their positions:
– Yuriy Bakhmat is the CEO of Kyivzelenstroy;
– Alexey Lukash is First Deputy CEO;
– Alexander Gora is Deputy Head of Capital Investments.
Political consequences: UDAR withdraws Kyiv City Council deputy
Separately, Klitschko said that Mykhailo Terentyev, a member of the Kyiv City Council and chairman of the land commission, had written a letter of resignation from his position as director of the Engineering Centre.
The UDAR party faction withdraws Terentyev from the Kyiv City Council after his name appeared among those involved in a corruption case.
What happened?
On 6 February, the NABU and the SAPO conducted a large-scale anti-corruption operation called “Clean City”, exposing an organised criminal group involved in the illegal alienation of land plots in Kyiv.
The investigation established that the group had illegally seized land in the centre of the capital worth UAH 11.6 million and planned to seize additional plots worth UAH 83.7 million.
We were suspected:
– Petro Olenych is the Deputy Head of the Kyiv City State Administration;
– Mykhailo Terentyev is the head of the Kyiv City Council’s Commission on Land Relations;
– Olena Marchenko is a deputy of the Kyiv City Council and a member of the Land Commission;
– Denis Komarnitsky is a former Kyiv City Council deputy whom the investigation considers to be the organiser of the scheme.
Judgements and search warrants
The court imposed preventive measures on seven suspects:
– Six were taken into custody, but with the possibility of bail ranging from UAH 4.5 to 50 million;
– One defendant, who cooperated with the investigation, was released on his own recognizance.
The NABU also put on the wanted list Denys Komarnytskyi, who, according to the investigation, played a key role in the schemes.
What’s next?
Klitschko stressed that the investigation was ongoing and that the dismissals in the city government were not the last.
“Inspections in the departments are ongoing, and these are not the last personnel decisions to clean up the city government,” he said.
Whether there will be further resignations in the Kyiv City Council will depend on the results of the investigation. But it is already clear that this case has become one of the largest anti-corruption operations in Kyiv in recent years.
