Elite Feofaniya, Akademgorodok and other valuable areas of Kyiv are suffering from chaotic development. New residential complexes are growing like mushrooms, despite the lack of appropriate permits and the designated purpose of the sites, which does not imply the construction of housing.
And all this is on public lands administered by the National Academy of Sciences. But instead of developing domestic science, the “cream” from these objects is skimmed by notorious private construction companies, such as KSM Group.
Details of a probable construction scam involving the structure of the odious Kopistira and the leadership of NASU
Interesting fact: the largest landowner in Ukraine is the National Academy of Sciences. Even under the USSR, this structure was allocated the most attractive areas for the development of domestic science, including in the capital. Even today, NASU controls dozens of hectares of elite suburbs and small blocks in the central regions of Kyiv, although the Academy’s holdings have been significantly reduced over the years of Independence. If once the institution's land bank contained 10 million hectares, now, according to rough estimates, only 800 thousand remain.
And even these remnants of land continue to gradually pass into private hands, often illegally.
For example, in 2020, the court arrested three plots of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine near Feofaniya, transferred for unauthorized development. And already this year, the capital’s Themis is deciding the fate of the development of 5.6 hectares of land on Antonovich Street. And these are just a few documented examples of the “deriban” of scientific lands, in which the case came to court.
Another grandiose construction scam, in which the top management of NASU may probably be involved, is unfolding right now. At the height of the war, when all attention is focused on the front, hundred-meter high-rise buildings are being built in full swing in the area of the capital's Academy Town. The developer is the company “Navium-2008”. And apartments in future skyscrapers are already on sale. But none of the buyers of this property realize that construction is illegal.
“We were interested in the Navium-2008 company primarily because it began to displace local tenants from the territory adjacent to the so-called land plot where construction is taking place,” comments Igor Bondarchuk, Chairman of the Board of the Stop Corruption NGO.
Moreover, as it turned out, the project involves not only the seizure of land, but also the dismantling of industrial facilities nearby. Which, like the land, also belong to NASU.
So, what is the “scheme” and what does the leadership of the National Academy of Sciences have to do with it?
We are talking about the territories of the Academy of Sciences in the Svyatoshinsky district of Kyiv - plots with a total area of almost 7 hectares on the street. Vasily Stepanchenko and Academician Vernadsky Boulevard. These lands are in permanent use of the State Motor Transport Enterprise for Expeditionary and Special Vehicles of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (GATP NAS) and the State Enterprise “Budremkomplekt” of the NAS of Ukraine. The StopCor team visited the site to see for themselves what was happening there.
“At first glance, this is an inconspicuous place where civilian equipment is repaired in hangars. And minibuses are parked in the parking lots. The capital could have its own Silicon Valley here, where transport innovations are tested,” says our correspondent.
In the post-Soviet period, hangars on the territory of state-owned enterprises began to be rented out to private service stations. Now hundreds of people are employed here, without even suspecting that even tomorrow they might be “asked to leave.”
Moreover, as the StopCor film crew was convinced, for the sake of a foundation pit for a new building, the businessmen even destroyed the only bomb shelter around.
How this happened is now being investigated by the State Emergency Service: who gave permission, and what was the basis for the destruction of such an important facility during martial law. But the fact remains: the shelter from air attacks has been destroyed.
This residential complex is being built by the company Navium-2008 LLC, whose formal owners are Tatyana and Olga Chernenko. They are also the official co-founders of another notorious construction company, KSM-Group. The key personalities of this group are Nikolai, Sergei and Arseniy Kopistir and Natalya Voznaya.
By the way, Sergei Kopistira is one of the suspects in the case of an attempt to bribe Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Kubrakov, who was tried to bribe with “apartments”.
In general, companies from the KSM-Group orbit are actively developing the lands of the Academy of Sciences - provided that part of the housing is given to scientists. Thus, it was KSM-Group LLC that received permission to erect skyscrapers in the Feofaniya reserve. Now four of the six residential complexes, the developer of which is stated to be KSM-Group, are already rising there.
True, as the investigative journalist notes, the implementation of these projects was accompanied by scandals. For example, two years ago, structures close to KSM-Group demolished the dormitory where scientists lived. Then the residents were literally kicked out of their houses, not allowed to collect their belongings, money, or documents.
And what happens to the site near Akademgorodok?
Back in 2021, the developer received the right to “reconstruct non-residential buildings and administrative and amenity buildings into an administrative and amenity complex.”
As you can see, there are no high-rise buildings or new houses in the text. This, for example, was evidenced by the absence of requirements for the maximum permissible population density that could live in this location.
And a year later, when construction was already proceeding at an accelerated pace, the developer from the orbit of Kopistira, together with employees of the National Academy of Sciences, GATP and Budremkomplekt, appealed to the District Administrative Court to change the name of the project - to “reconstruction of the facility into a multifunctional and administrative and residential complex.”
Considering such “features” as the State Inspectorate of Architecture and Urban Planning of Ukraine, could it even issue a building permit? No way - it simply doesn’t exist.
“We inform you that by checking the information contained in the Register of Construction Activities, using the search parameters “construction customer - Navium-2008 LLC”, no documents giving the right to carry out construction work were found,” says the GIAGU response to StopCor’s request.
According to the current General Plan of Kyiv, these areas were previously listed as communal warehouse areas. Residential construction is prohibited. But if you check the registers now, you can see that the intended purpose of the land plots is completely different.
How did this happen? Probably the City Council should know about this. After all, this is state land, over which they must exercise control over its use. But city officials insist that nothing has changed.
It turns out that the same dubious four: the developer, NAS, GATP and Stroyremkomplekt also changed the intended purpose of the land through the court. But an important point: this happened when excavators, cranes were already in full swing on the territory and the future floors of the residential complex were being built.
In turn, the Department of Urban Development filed an appeal against the decision of the OASC court. In it, the institution argued that the court actually obliged officials to change the intended purpose of the above-mentioned land, which contradicts the requirements of the current legislation of Ukraine. But Themis didn’t attach any importance to this.
But why didn’t the Academy of Sciences pay attention to this outrage? It turns out that the leaders of NASU simply do not see any problems in it.
“The land registry is an issue that is handled by my department. “I don’t see any violations now in the fact that the change in purpose should have led to a stop in the activities of enterprises,” says Alexander Osinsky, deputy head of the property affairs management department of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
Maybe Mr. Osinsky is personally interested in this construction? After all, as journalists discovered, his family received ownership of as many as three apartments in the Crystal Springs residential complex. This is the same residential complex from the story about the bribe to Kubrakov. And there, according to our insider, Osinsky’s sister and even his godfather have apartments.
But in the Akademgorodok area, according to our sources, construction will probably continue on the neighboring land plot of Budremkomplekt. The developer planned a kindergarten and playground there.
So the Stopkorovites decided to ask the DATP, on whose jurisdictional land the development is taking place, for details.
Security guards met the journalists at the entrance. And inside there is a surprise. It turns out that here - in the administrative building of a state enterprise - the office of KSM-Group is located, although it was sealed by law enforcement officers. And the employees could not explain this coincidence. The media went to GATP Director Boris Nikolenko to talk about this topic.
“We didn’t even have time to ask the question completely, and the director had already rushed to his heels. Probably because there really is something to hide. For example, an agreement with a developer,” notes our correspondent.
These facts are being investigated by law enforcement officers. And we hope that we will learn many more interesting things from the answers to our requests.
“During the journalistic investigation, it was established that apartment buildings are being built on the land of the Academy of Sciences. Relevant requests were submitted to government authorities asking for information and permits. When reviewing the responses received, it was established that NAN did not enter into any agreements with the developer for the construction of these houses, and the Kyiv City Council did not issue permits. This may indicate that the construction is illegal,” notes Mikhail Evseev, a lawyer at the Stop Corruption NGO.
Based on the fact of unauthorized construction work, the StopCor film crew, together with human rights activists from the NGO “Stop Corruption,” also called the police. The investigative team arrived at the scene and registered a statement. It also included attachments: the response from GIAM of Ukraine and other documents that may indicate the illegality of construction.
Let us remind you that GIAG StopCor was informed that permission for construction work in the Academgorodok area was not given, so journalists contacted the police regarding a possible violation on the part of the developer - “Navium-2008”, part of the notorious KSM Group of Sergei Kopistira.
