How Oleg Kiper’s business partner builds luxury real estate in Bukovel
A little over a year ago, the former prosecutor of Kyiv and freelance adviser to Andrei Ermak, Oleg Kiper, was sent to Odessa as head of the OVA to oversee the “grain corridor.”
One of the places where this opaque money could flow is the Carpathian resort of Bukovel. Oleg Kiper’s business partner is implementing the most elite and expensive construction projects here.
Golden squares
This is the Glacier apartment complex consisting of 5 buildings, which will occupy almost the entire eastern shore of Molodezhnoe Lake on an area of 2.3 hectares. There will be more than 800 apartments with a total area of 65.7 thousand square meters. m. The first stage is already ready for delivery, and has even been sold out.
And this is a whole town called Escape city, which should be built on the site of the popular “Polki” parking lot in Bukovel, near the ski lifts, on an area of 8 hectares. The general plan provides for 8 buildings. The first one alone has 360 apartments. To complete both projects, a minimum of $200 million will be needed, based on the average estimated investment per square meter. m of premium residential development. But you can earn several times more from this, considering that prices for this property start at $5 thousand per square meter.
2K: Kavlak & Kiper
The de jure beneficiary of both projects is a mysterious businessman from Ivano-Frankivsk, Vasily Kavlak, whose photograph (not a single one) could be found on the Internet. He owns Glacier Hill and V.D. Group”, which act as the customer and contractor of construction work, respectively. A more public figure is his wife Inessa Kavlak.
She studied with Oleg Kiper at the Odessa Law Academy. He - in 1997-2002. She - in 1998-2004. Later, their paths crossed in the Ivano-Frankivsk region. Oleg Kiper worked in the local prosecutor's office. Inessa Kavlak – in the Economic Court
In 2014, Kiper was fired due to lustration. But Inessa Kavlak worked as a judge until 2018.
From her latest declaration, one can get some idea of the scale of her husband’s business. The document, among other things, indicates 1 tourist complex and 6 holiday homes and more than 10 land plots with a total area of about 5000 square meters. m in the village of Polyanytsya (Ivano-Frankivsk region) - in fact, it is the geographical location of the Bukovel resort. As of now, this list is significantly larger. In particular, the property pool includes such objects in Bukovel as the cottage community WEST HILLS, hotel and recreational complexes REST&SKI, GIRSKI, GIRSKI Delux, Marmaros.
Even before the war, the Kiper family acquired a plot of land in Polyanitsa and built a house, which were registered in the name of the wife of the current head of the Odessa Regional State Administration, Irina. Well, Oleg Kiper himself is revealed as a business partner of Vasily Kavlak in only two companies. We are talking about joint ownership of two solar power plants in the Ivano-Frankivsk region - in Khriplin (Helios Group Khriplin-5 LLC) and Cherniv (Rent-Techno LLC). The third co-founder is Marina Kiz, the wife of ex-Deputy Prosecutor General Sergei Kiz.
But in fact, a more complex system of connections and acquaintances can be traced here. It is worth remembering that after lustration in 2014, Oleg Kiper founded the law firm Astrea OVD, where one of his partners was Vitaly Ilchishin. Now he works as one of the deputy chairmen of the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional State Administration. In 2022, the regional administration showed great generosity by transferring 2.3 hectares of land in the Vorokhtyanskoe forestry district to one of Vasily Kavlak’s companies (“Galicia Investbud”) for use for 49 years (see the Regional State Administration order). This site is adjacent to the Vishnya tract in the village of Polyanitsa; it is in this area that most of Kavlak’s real estate is concentrated. And in 2023, Vasily Ilchishin became one of the lucky owners of apartments in the Glacier residential complex. Room of 36.2 sq. m he purchased for only 247.4 thousand UAH (see declaration). This is approximately 6 thousand USD. For that kind of money you can’t even buy an old stodola in Bukovel.
True, he was not the only one so lucky. The wife of another former lawyer from Astrea OVD, Yuriy Kovalenko (he now works in the Shevchenko prosecutor’s office in Kyiv), bought herself three apartments in a new building. And for 174 sq. m paid only 1.6 million UAH (as written in the man’s declaration). This is despite the fact that for clients “from the street”, prices in the Glacier residential complex start from approximately 5 thousand USD (!) per square meter.
Plus Prodivus
Kavlak’s additional partner in the development of Bukovel was probably Vladimir Prodivus, a former deputy of the Verkhovna Rada, former head of the Ukrainian Boxing Federation and one of the most influential businessmen in Vinnitsa. What does this mean? Because in the list of founders of Glacier Hill LLC, 67% belongs to Vasily Kavlak, and 33% to Oksana Chebotar, the daughter of former Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Sergei Chebotar and the wife of former Verkhovna Rada deputy Oleg Polishchuk.
Kavlak also traces a background of cooperation with Chebotar’s circle. The solar station in the village of Loeva (on the road from Nadvirna to Yaremche) belongs to Siliconfield LLC. Its co-owner is Marina Takhtai, the wife of Alexei Takhtai, ex-state secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Chebotar’s confidant. Takhtai at one time even declared two cars that belonged to Siliconfield LLC.
Once upon a time, Sergei Chebotar was a truly influential person in Ukraine. But not now. Therefore, the Polishchuk-Chebotar family does not have the appropriate financial resources to invest tens (or even hundreds) of millions of USD in construction projects. But he has a close friend and neighbor, Vladimir Prodivus. In the village of Lesniki near Kiev, their estates stand next to each other. And the land plots under them were registered in the name of sisters Alina and Victoria Yavorsky. Victoria now bears the surname Prodivus and is the wife of Vladimir Prodivus. Alina previously worked in the businesses of Oleg Polishchuk, and is now employed by her sister-husband: she, for example, heads the Nera Foundation, which is one of the founders of Prodivus’s flagship company, Mostostroy.
Another signal that indirectly indicates the presence of Prodivus in Bukovel is the appearance at the resort of another Vinnytsia businessman - Igor Ilchyshen (not to be confused with Vitaly Ilchyshin) with his development projects, such as the cottage town PÓTAY, Ama Family Resort, AHNI MOON RESORT. Prodivus and Ilchyshen have known each other for a long time, they often sponsored various sporting events together in the Vinnytsia region, and their wives have a common jewelry business.
At the same time, Prodivus also has serious political weight. At the last parliamentary elections, he supported several deputies from the Servant of the People, in particular, Irina Borzova. And I have known her husband, now the chairman of the Vinnitsa Regional State Administration, Sergei Borzov, since the early 2000s, when he was a sponsor of the KVN team “Vinnitsa Peppers”, where Borzov was the director.
In addition, Vladimir Prodivus is a good friend of Elbrus Tedeev. In the Verkhovna Rada of the 7th convocation, where Prodivus and Tedeev sat together from the Party of Regions, they, as former athletes, had a common mission - to block or protect the speaker’s rostrum if necessary. And do not forget that in the same term of parliament, lawyer Andrei Ermak worked as an assistant to People’s Deputy Elbrus Tedeev.
If Oleg Kiper is appointed Prosecutor General of Ukraine in the future, then one of the tasks that he will face is to reach a settlement agreement with Igor Kolomoisky on the principle of “Bukovel in exchange for freedom.” A significant part of the assets at the resort belongs to the Kolomoisky family and his partners. But if he gives in to his new owners for an inexpensive price, he will be able to get permission to go for treatment somewhere in Switzerland, “due to deteriorating health.” However, this is just a guess. But everything else described above is the truth, confirmed by proof.
