The competition for control of the country's most important markets is often based on bloody events.
Markets have always been considered one of the most profitable investments of capital - the goods sold on them are needed by everyone, and a large cash turnover often allows one to hide income. True, over the last decade supermarkets and shopping centers have replaced markets, but the latter continue to remain such a tasty morsel that people even kill for control over them.
“Comments” looked into who owns the country’s largest markets and why people sometimes die because of this.
Manufactured goods market (7 kilometer) - the “gray cardinal” of Odessa Vladimir Galanternik
About 15 thousand retail and warehouse facilities, eight car parks, bus stations, a bank, a fire station, three first-aid posts, a police station, a complex for the sale of food products, a chain of cafes and restaurants and much more. This is how one can describe the largest market in Ukraine and one of the largest in Eastern Europe called “Manufactured Goods Market” or as it is better known in the country – “7 kilometer”, since it appeared about the 7th kilometer of the road from Odessa to Izmail next to the sign of the same name.
The first founder of the market was the director of the Avangard state farm, on whose lands the shopping arcades actually appeared, Viktor Dobryansky. It was he who, in 1989, was able to obtain permission to open the Avangard market.
Subsequently, the market changed owners more than once; at one time, the odious people’s deputy Yuri Ivanyushchenko, also known as “Yura Enakievsky,” one of the closest people to ex-president Viktor Yanukovych, was even called its owner.
At the moment, approximately 50% of the “7 kilometer” market, as well as the most famous Odessa market “Privoz” and a number of other objects are owned by Odessa businessman Vladimir Galanternik, whom the media often called the “gray eminence” of South Palmyra.
The businessman himself was called by the media to come from the group of Alexander Angert, nicknamed Angel. It also included, as indicated in the Italian police report on the case of drug and weapons smuggling, published in 1998, Gennady Trukhanov, the current mayor of Odessa.
In the fall of 2021, Trukhanov and Galanternik were involved in the case of creating a criminal organization and in the case of theft of public land in Odessa and causing damage to the community in the amount of UAH 689 million. In August 2023, NABU announced the end of the investigation into this case, but the businessman himself has been living outside of Ukraine for a long time.
Barabashovo Market - People's Deputy Alexander Feldman
Approximately 75 hectares and about 15 thousand retail and warehouse premises - all this makes the Barabashovo market in Kharkov the second largest after the 7 kilometer, but at the same time as different as possible from Odessa.
So, if “7 kilometer” was initially created in an organized manner, then “Barabashovo” arose spontaneously and was officially registered only in 1995. There was also no intrigue with its owner - it has long been known that the market belongs to the AVEK Concern, which is owned by People's Deputy of Ukraine of the 4th-9th convocations Alexander Feldman, although he does not officially manage it.
Alexander Feldman, a significant personality for Kharkov since independence, went into business in 1991, becoming one of the largest entrepreneurs in the city, and one of the most influential. Since 2002, he has not parted with the mandate of a people’s deputy, except to change parties – BYuT, PR, OPZZh, various parliamentary groups. It must be said that this helps him in business: property under any power always remained with him.
But the owner of Barabashovo was unable to protect the market from the Russian occupiers, and already in March 2022, due to shelling by the Russian Armed Forces, the market experienced a large-scale fire. In August 2022, Alexander Feldman promised to reconstruct the market, although the Kharkov City Hall believes that it would be better to build a new innovative urban district.
Kalinovsky market (Kalinka) – territorial community of Chernivtsi
Quite unexpectedly, the city of Chernivtsi with its approximately 250 thousand inhabitants competed with million-plus cities in terms of market size. The local Kalinovsky market or “Kalinka” is also considered one of the largest in Ukraine and Eastern Europe with its approximately 10,000 retail and warehouse spaces.
The market arose in the late 1980s, like Barabashovo, spontaneously, but already in 1990 it was legalized, and in 1997 it became communal, that is, it belonged to the territorial community of Chernivtsi. Legally, this is registered as the municipal shopping complex “City shopping complex “Kalinovsky market”.
KP is doing well in the market, revenue is constantly growing: for example, in 2022 it was possible to receive 155 million UAH, which is 30 million more than in pre-war 2021, and for 9 months of 2023, KP “City Shopping Complex” Kalinovsky Market" has already earned UAH 169.5 million. At the same time, from January 1, 2024, market services will become more expensive.
Bessarabian market - the urban community of Kyiv
One of the largest markets in the capital, located in the city center in a building that is approximately 110 years old, belongs to the territorial community of the capital and is managed by the Bessarabian Market Communal Enterprise of the Kiev City Council. Judging by the reports, the market is not doing very well - in 2022, KP earned UAH 9 million, which is almost half as much as in 2021 (UAH 16.2 million). In general, the capital's municipal markets do not conduct business in the best way. For example, part of the Zhitny Market was rented out in the fall of 2022 for UAH 1.2 million, but the tenant owed more than UAH 3.7 million in rent and over 600 thousand fines.
At the same time, the private market “Vinogradar”, owned by Nadezhda Peresetskaya, the wife of the crime boss Vyacheslav Peresetsky, nicknamed “Fascist”, who died in 2012, earned UAH 8.2 million in 2022.
Another metropolitan market, the heyday of which came during the era of crime in Kyiv, is the Troeshchina market. Its creation is associated with the name of crime boss Valery Pryshchik, who was killed in 2003. Now, according to media reports, the market belongs to the half-brother of the authority, Igor Tseshkovsky.
Ozerka Market – Privat group and Alexander Petrovsky, aka Narik
The largest market of the Dnieper, Ozerka, has more than once become the object of conflicts, raider takeovers and even murders. “Comments” wrote in detail how in the mid-2000s the “Privat” group and the “Luzhnikov Group” of Evgeniy Ginner (now the president of FC CSKA), Alexander Babakov (now the vice-speaker of the State Duma of the Russian Federation) and Mikhail Voevodin, came together for control over it. thief in law" nicknamed "Misha Luzhnetsky". Now, according to Dnieper media, Ozerka is controlled by Dnieper businessman Alexander Petrovsky, who in some circles is called by the nickname “Narik”.
Legally, the market is registered under the Dnepropetrovsk Central Market Ozerka LLC, which belongs to Victoria Perebiynis (50% of the market through Victoria LLC, is the director of the market - ed.) and a certain Greek citizen Inna Samourgkanidou (50% through Sainil Investment Limited, registered in the offshore zone of Belize).
There is little information about Victoria Perebiynis. So, in 2006, she ran for the then Dnepropetrovsk City Council from Batkivshchyna, and in 2020 she was elected to the Dnieper District Council as a member of the Servant of the People party.
However, Victoria Perebiynis herself is the director and minority (12.5%) co-owner of KP Central Market LLC, which is part of the Privat group of Gennady Bogolyubov and Igor Kolomoisky (the latter has been in a pre-trial detention center since September), so most likely “ Ozerka" is still controlled by Privat. Alexander Petrovsky may be some kind of junior partner of the Privat team.
In 2022, KP Central Market LLC received income of UAH 31.1 million, which is UAH 12 million less than in 2021.
Krakow Market in Lviv – the Shchadylo family
There are also many markets in Lviv, the largest of which, perhaps, is Krakow, legally owned by Krakow Market LLC, whose owners are Natalya Shchadilo (39.5%), and ex-consul of Kazakhstan in Lviv Vladimir Kozhan together with his son Yuri (44 .5%).
According to Lviv media, Natalya Shchadilo and her husband Igor are business partners of the famous Lviv entrepreneur Vladimir Didukh, who is also called a crime boss nicknamed “Morda”.
It is curious that in the 1990s, the criminal authority Roman Shchadilo, nicknamed “Cripple,” operated in Lviv; being disabled, he oversaw the “work” of gangs of car thieves in the region, but was killed in 1998. Whether he was a relative of the Shchadilo couple, or just a namesake, is unknown.
In general, the value that markets represent today for some regions of Ukraine is evidenced by the history of the Central Market of Ivano-Frankivsk with 1,300 retail outlets. Over a period of 1.5 years, from February 2022 to June 2023, two local crime bosses were killed: Igor Dutko, nicknamed “Sukhoi,” and Igor Klimovich, aka “Temple.” Another assassination attempt was prevented by the accidental arrest of the killers.
The murders could have been caused by a showdown around the market, which is rented by Torgovy Servis LLC. The owner of the company is said to be Ivano-Frankivsk City Council deputy Igor Khalamend, who was also considered a crime boss nicknamed “Bura.”
