A villa on the Cote d'Azur worth 20 million euros, climbing Everest for 150 thousand dollars and traveling abroad with a certificate of disability are not all that the ex-head of Kievgorstroy can boast of.
His family allegedly owns companies registered in Cyprus, Lithuania, the Virgin Islands and associated with sanctioned entities. Such a “beautiful” life and the sources of its financing could not but interest journalists.
In 2023, the giant of the real estate market in the capital of Ukraine, Kievgorstroy, got into a loud scandal, and with it its leader Igor Kushnir.
Why is there so much attention to this particular enterprise and its leader, since this is not just one urban planning organization? And all because this is the largest construction holding, 80% of the shares of which belong to the Kyiv community.
In the summer of 2023, the supervisory board and the board of Kievgorstroy decided to audit the company with the involvement of one of the leading international auditing firms, and Igor Kushnir was suspended from work, and later he submitted his resignation and wrote about it on his Facebook page.
“The Kiev City Council adopted the report of the temporary control commission on issues of auditing the activities of Kievgorstroy. I consider this the final dot above the “i”, which removes any questions about the legality of management’s activities and the situation in the company as a whole...”
...I headed Kievgorstroy exactly 12 years ago. And today, in order to avoid manipulation and misunderstandings, I have decided to resign from the position of Chairman of the Board - President of Kievgorstroy, to whom I devoted a significant part of my life,” the message said.
Traveling abroad with a certificate of disability
Despite the checks and searches, Igor Kushnir freely traveled abroad back in May 2023, because he has a certificate of disability. So, while the police there were looking for wasted funds allocated to finance the program “Economic and Social Development of the City of Kyiv 2021-2023”, the excavator operator was resting and climbing Everest.
Which was also reported on Facebook. “You shouldn’t feel sorry for me, but I never thought that I would have to talk about my diagnoses in an apologetic tone. Yes, I have cancer, I am disabled, and with him I climbed Everest. I also went abroad legally. I’ll leave this to the conscience of the high-flyers: take care of yourself and may you never have to find out what cancer is,” he said.
However, Kushnir did not report the amount he spent on the climb. And this is neither more nor less – 75 thousand US dollars per person. That is, while ordinary Ukrainians were collecting funds for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Igor Kushnir and his wife Oksana were having fun for 150 thousand US dollars.
By the way, today his Facebook page is unavailable for some reason. He is not among the friends of his son Ilya even on social networks.
But this was not the first time Kushnir crossed the border. While still in the position of head of the board of Kievgorstroy, he visited Europe more than once. According to research by fellow journalists from Bihus, on February 27, 2022, Kushnir left Ukraine for Hungary through the Vilok checkpoint. And this is three days after the start of a full-scale invasion. Mr. Igor remained abroad until mid-April.
However, upon returning to Ukraine a week and a half later, he went abroad again. He later also left Ukraine in May, June and July. In total, since the Russian invasion began in February 2022, Kushnir has been abroad for 240 days, which is 8 months in total.
That is, in 2022, when everyone was working for the army, and patriotic slogans about help were written on the official page of “Kievgorstroy”, the head of the organization was abroad for most of the year and not on volunteer business.
As for his condition, Kushnir claims that for many years he was engaged in business, which, after his arrival at Kievgorstroy, he transferred to his wife. This is precisely what coincided with the time when his wife, Oksana, became the owner of an extensive network of construction companies. But for some reason, companies are predominantly registered in Cyprus, Lithuania and the British Virgin Islands.
It is interesting that the business partners of many of them include people with close ties to the banned “OPZZH”, in particular Viktor Medvedchuk, who is the godfather of the Russian President.
So, let’s figure out what Oksana Kushnir owns and who she is friends with.
Igor Kushnir’s wife Oksana is a Ukrainian citizen with a passport and registration in Cyprus, and acts as the final beneficiary of the Lithuanian company Baltijos Gildija. Although, as you know, Ukrainian legislation does not provide for the possibility of dual citizenship. By the way, according to Article 4 of the Constitution of Ukraine, there is a single citizenship in Ukraine. And paragraph 1 of Article 19 of the Law of Ukraine “On Citizenship of Ukraine”, the voluntary acquisition by a citizen of Ukraine of the citizenship of another state, if at the time of such acquisition he has reached the age of majority, is the basis for the loss of citizenship of Ukraine,” says the official explanation of the State Migration Service of Ukraine.
This company is engaged in commercial real estate and owns the Link and Core business centers in the city of Vilnius. The Link business center was built by the Lithuanian company UAB Baltijos Gildija. The beginning of this project dates back to 2016, when the Lithuanian company UAB Mavlada became the founder of UAB Baltijos Gildija, as indicated in the Lithuanian registry. In 2017, the Cypriot company Koksi Holding Ltd joined the co-founders of Baltijos Gildija. And this is very interesting. Vladimir Kravets is the owner of Mavlada, while Koksi Holding Ltd is owned by Oksana Kushnir, the wife of the head of PJSC HC Kievgorstroy. And already at the end of 2020, Koksi Holding remained the sole founder of the Baltijos Gildija company.
It is also worth noting that Vladimir Kravets is the son of Andrei Kravets, the former head of Mezhyhirya. In 2020, he was elected as a deputy of the Kyiv City Council of the 9th convocation from Medvedchuk’s party “Opposition Platform - During Life.”
The Koksi Holdings LTD company, owned by Oksana Kushnir, is one of the beneficiaries of the Covernot investment fund, together with another investment fund Hunter in 2023, they became co-owners of Capital-Vostok LLC.
As you can see, Oksana Kushnir is the official partner of Pavel Yakubenko, who ran Truskavetskurort and sanatoriums in the Lviv region, which had connections with politician Yuri Boyko. Pavel Yakubenko’s son, Vladimir, worked at NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine under the leadership of Yuriy Boyko, while both Yakubenkos were members of the supervisory board of PJSC Truskavetskurort.
But that is not all. Among the entities that were sanctioned by the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine on February 19, 2021 was Klodius Investments Limited. This company is registered in the British Virgin Islands and is owned by Cypriot citizen Oksana Kushnir.
An interesting fact is that on February 18, just the day before the signing of the sanctions list by the President of Ukraine, the company Klodius Investments Limited withdrew from the shareholders of two construction companies: BUD-PROJECT GROUP LLC
and "INVESTCONSULTING-K".
The new owner of the INVESTCONSULTING-K company is the MEDALION INTERNATIONAL CO company, the ultimate beneficial owner of which is Oksana Kushnir.
As for BUD-PROJECT GROUP LLC, from February 16 to 18, the composition of its owners also underwent sudden changes.
According to Bihus.Info, Oksana Kushnir owns a villa on the Cote d'Azur, which costs almost 20 million euros.
It is located in the town of Villefranche-sur-Mer, near Nice. The villa, called Cayo, has an area of 850 square meters and consists of 6 bedrooms with private bathrooms, a large living room, a wine cellar and a spacious kitchen. The property is located in a closed area of more than 5,000 square meters and is equipped with a swimming pool with panoramic sea views, a large garden and a garage for 8 cars.
The process of acquiring this villa began in 2019, when Oksana Kushnir’s Cypriot company, Koksi Holding, entered into an agreement to purchase the French company SCP Cayo, to which the villa was registered. The final stage of registration took place in the spring of 2020. French realtors estimated the value of the estate at 20 million euros.
Successful children of Igor Kushnir
However, not only Igor Kushnir’s wife owns a construction business. Let’s meet, the picture shows Kushnir’s daughter, Daria, who lives in London and actively travels around the world.
In May, she and her friends spent a holiday in a private villa, but not a family one. But she can afford such luxury. And not because the parents have the means. Daria is one of the ultimate beneficiaries of the British company Alliance 1903 LTD, registered in London at the end of 2022. According to data from the British registry, this company is also involved in real estate development.
Igor Kushnir’s son Ilya now lives in Kyiv. He is a deputy of the Kyiv City Council and ran for UDAR in the Goloseevsky district at numbers 10 and 11 on the general list.
And when the Commissioner for the Rights of People with Disabilities Lesya Petrovskaya drew up a mandate, candidate Ilya Kushnir was next on the list
In the declaration for 2023, the young deputy registers 2 million 400 thousand dollars, 2 million 268 thousand euros, 15 million hryvnia
As open sources write, during the first two “military” meetings of the Kyiv City Council, that is, during attempts to seize the capital, Ilya Kushnir was absent. His presence was first recorded during a roll call vote on April 15. After that, he rarely attended the meeting - out of 17 meetings held between February 24 and December 31, 2022, the deputy appeared only at 8.
True, today Ilya Kushnir shows almost every meeting of the City Council on his Facebook page.
Will it be possible to get answers from the participants in the case?
StopCor analysts turned to Ilya Kushnir on social networks with a request to comment on the situation with his father’s stay abroad and the business connections of related companies and to Igor Kushnir himself. They also additionally sent requests to the State Border Service of Ukraine to find out information about the validity of Kushnir’s border crossing during the war in Ukraine and to the Security Service of Ukraine to clarify information regarding the probable dual citizenship of Kushnir’s wife, Oksana Kushnir.
