In the metropolitan area, activists are unsuccessfully trying to resist the construction of a commercial facility at the location of the Zamkova building, built in 1899 at ul. Ivana Franko, 26, beech B. This is a standard story for the capital, where the chances of activists are almost negligible.
It is not very clear how the security monument was removed from the specified object, but it is known that this completely frees the hands of the new owners of the historical building - a company from the orbit of the odious ex-official and businessman Sergei Korovchenko (in the collage in the center), who is called the common-law husband of the famous Kyiv developers Vladislava Molchanova. Currently, the City Council intends to lease the land under the facility to this company. The object itself was owned by the Kyiv community several years ago. But the Department of Municipal Property of the Kyiv City State Administration, on dubious grounds, first leased the building without competition, then abolished the rent on it, and then sold it to the tenant, probably at a reduced price. The investigation within the framework of the relevant criminal proceedings has already been completed, but whether the director and first deputy director of this department of the Kyiv City State Administration will ever receive court convictions is a big question.
As KV has learned, a scandal is flaring up in Kyiv around another potential commercial development on the site of a historical building - the 124-year-old Zamkov House (26 Ivana Franko St., letter B).
So, on December 19, 2023, activists of the Heritage community reported that “last month, work on the building resumed - they are dismantling the authentic wooden floors, placing them directly on the snow, and subsequently taking them out by truck.” At the same time, they clarified that previously this object “had the protected status of a monument, which protected it from destruction,” but as of today this status has been removed (when it was assigned and removed, there is no information in open sources. - KV).
The very next day, December 20, the standing commission of the Kyiv City Council on architecture, urban planning and land relations agreed on the transfer of the land plot under the said building to Rent Management Invest LLC. According to activists of the above-mentioned community, “it is very likely that if [the land is leased], Zamkov’s house will be completely destroyed, and another shopping center will be built in its place.” In order to stop this potential development, activists sent an appeal for unauthorized work to the Kyiv City Prosecutor's Office.
For reference. This two-story building was built in 1899, and until 1911 it belonged to Semyon Zamkov, a lawyer at the District Court. In 1913, the estate was bought by Alexander Kikh, a professor at the KPI, a teacher of construction art, a member of the ambulance society and the head of one of the Kyiv hospitals during the First World War.
How a capital community lost a historic building
In the summer of 2019, the Department of Municipal Property of the Kyiv City State Administration included the building on the street. Ivana Franko, 26, lit. With a total area of 440.6 sq.m., the list of communal facilities that can be leased without holding a competition. Officials immediately announced that the public organization “Association of National Patriotic Education of Children and Adolescents” (OO “ANPVDP”) plans to become the tenant of this premises.
Certain deputies of the Kyiv City Council and several other potential tenants did not agree with this method of using the property of the territorial society. In this regard, during the autumn-winter of 2019, at meetings of the Kyiv City Council commission on property issues, the issue of canceling the inclusion of this object in the list of non-competitive ones and conducting a competitive procedure for its lease was repeatedly considered.
However, already on February 21, 2020, a corresponding lease agreement for the building was concluded between the Department of Communal Property of the Kyiv City State Administration, NGO “ANPVDP” and KP “Kievzhilspetsekspluatatsiya” (balance holder of the specified facility). There are no “initial” data on the term of this lease and the amount of the established monthly rent in open sources. However, it is known that already on October 23, 2020, the Department of Communal Property of the Kyiv City State Administration and the Communist Party of the Communal Housing Authority drew up an act on the exemption of the NGO ANPVDP from rent for the use of premises on the street. Ivana Franko, 26, lit. B.
An act indicating the termination of accrual of rent was sent to the CP KZhSE, which was signed by the first deputy director of the Department of Communal Property of the Kyiv City State Administration Oleg Shmulyar. This is due to the fact that the balance holder tried to recover funds from the tenant for the use of communal property in court. Probably, we were talking about the claim of the KZhSE Communist Party against the NGO ANPVDP regarding the recovery of 75 thousand hryvnia for the use of a land plot under premises leased from the community - while this court case is not being considered.
Later, law enforcement officers became interested in providing these preferences. On March 21, 2021, the Shevchenko Department of the National Police of Kyiv opened criminal proceedings No. 12022100100000601 on this fact. Preliminary legal qualification of the crime committed – Part 2 of Art. 367 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (official negligence leading to grave consequences).
Thus, investigators suggested that officials of the relevant department of the Kyiv City State Administration, by exempting the tenant of this facility from paying rent, caused damage to the capital’s budget. Law enforcement officers also pointed out that the estimated value of the leased property was underestimated, and this, according to investigators, could indicate the possible interest of officials in the further alienation of these premises in favor of the NGO “ANPVDP”. That is, the point was that this organization may have the opportunity to purchase the specified object at a price lower than the estimated price.
On July 15, 2022, investigators received the conclusion of a forensic economic examination on this criminal proceeding, according to which for the period from October 2020 to September 2021, the capital budget did not receive funds from the tenant of the specified premises in the amount of 220 thousand hryvnia - the civil defense should have paid the rent, but did not pay due to “preferences” of the Department of Communal Property of the Kyiv City State Administration.
Almost two weeks after this, on July 25, the Kiev City Prosecutor's Office reported on its Facebook page that as part of this proceeding, the director of the Department of Communal Property Andrey Gudz and his first deputy Oleg Shmulyar received suspicions. According to law enforcement officials, the first was charged with committing a crime under the above-mentioned Part 2 of Art. 367 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (the sanctions of this article provide for punishment in the form of imprisonment for up to 5 years), the second - Part 1 of Art. 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (abuse of power or official position, the most severe punishment under this article is up to 3 years in prison).
Subsequently, on September 30, 2022, the Shevchenkovsky District Court of Kyiv received an indictment under the above-mentioned articles against Andrey Gudz and Oleg Shmulyar. However, for more than a year this case has not been considered, in fact, with a conviction or acquittal.
During the same period, the Department of Communal Property of the Kyiv City State Administration put the said building up for privatization. And already on October 20, 2022, a corresponding purchase and sale agreement was concluded between the above-mentioned department and the NGO “ANPVDP”.
According to this agreement, the cost of the specified facility was 16.7 million hryvnia, while ANPODP had to pay 12.8 million hryvnia to the city budget of Kyiv. The rest - 3.9 million hryvnia - were “credited automatically” to the organization, because, they say, it was for this amount that the Civil Defense carried out essential improvements in this building. That is, the point was that in connection with the organization’s renovation work in Zamkov’s house, it could “pay less” and at the same time not have competition at the privatization auction.
Already in November 2022, this building “turned out to be” owned by Rent Management Invest LLC. There is no information in open sources about how it was transferred to this company and under what conditions.
Land for a new owner
On October 27, 2023, Deputy Chairman of the Kyiv City State Administration Petr Olenich (in the collage on the right) and the Department of Land Resources of the Kyiv City State Administration registered with the capital city council draft decision No. 08/231-1347/PR on the transfer of a land plot on the street. Ivana Franko, 26 for rent to Rent Management Invest LLC - this is exactly the document that was approved by the “land and city planning” commission of the capital city council on December 20. According to it, the area of this plot is 0.06 hectares (cadastral number – 8000000000:88:199:0003), and the company can lease it for 10 years for the operation and maintenance of a non-residential building (purpose type code – 03.07″ for construction and maintenance of commercial buildings.”
The explanatory note to the draft decision clarifies that, according to the General Plan of Kyiv, this site, according to its functional purpose, belongs to the territory of residential mid- and low-rise buildings. The document also notes that this land is located in the Central Historical Area of Kyiv and in the development regulation zone of category I. In this regard, it is planned to impose on the potential land user the obligation to “comply with the requirements of the Law of Ukraine “On the Protection of Cultural Heritage” and fulfill certain requirements set out in letters from the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine and the Department for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of the Kyiv City State Administration (letters dated February 9 and June 16 of this year , but what exact requirements are being discussed is not indicated in the draft decision.
Probably, soon after signing the corresponding lease agreement, the owners of the historical building will receive from the Department of Urban Planning and Architecture of the Kyiv City State Administration urban planning conditions and restrictions on designing its reconstruction for those who want it. After this, permission for this work from DIAM will “close” in legal terms all issues regarding the actual new commercial development in the center of the capital.
About the organizers and participants of the “wonderful scheme”
According to the Youcontrol analytical system, the capital’s NGO “ANPVDP” (ex-tenant and buyer of the building at 26 Ivan Franko Street, letter B) was founded in April 2019. The head of the organization is Vitaly Zhurakhovsky, the founders are residents of Kyiv Anton Kantoriz and Vladimir Saranchuk.
The same GOshka is the founder of Rent Management Invest LLC (registered in Kyiv in August 2021), a company that owns the above-mentioned building and is a potential user of the site underneath it. The “former” and current owner of the Zamkov house are united by one person - from April 2020 to December 2022, the NGO “ANPVDP” was headed by Oleg Podnebenny, who since August 2021 has been the director of Rent Management Invest LLC.
The Youcontrol system classifies the latter company as part of the Sergei Korovchenko family group, which unites about 16 business entities operating primarily in the real estate sector. The key person in this group is entrepreneur Sergei Korovchenko.
The latter is better known to the public as the head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Sergei Korovchenko in 2013-2014. Let us remember that his work in this position became the cause of a loud scandal. In 2019, journalists had at their disposal the so-called. “Glazyev’s tapes” are recordings of conversations between Russian Presidential Assistant Sergei Glazyev and Russian State Duma deputy Konstantin Zatulin from February 2014, where these Russian politicians seemed to discuss the prospect of appointing Korovchenko as Minister of Justice of the annexed Crimea. At the same time, representatives of the occupying country called Sergei Korovchenko Viktor Medvedchuk’s man (now suspected of treason).
Also in Korovchenko’s biography there is a period of cooperation with the notorious Andrei Portnov - in 2006-2010, when he was a people’s deputy from BYuT, Korovchenko worked as his assistant. Let us remember that Portnov was the head of the Main Directorate for Judicial Affairs of the Administration of President Viktor Yanukovych and the deputy head of his Administration, and during his political career he was repeatedly accused by journalists and politicians of pro-Russian views.
It is even more interesting that several years ago the media called Sergei Korovchenko the common-law husband of Vlada Molchanova, one of the financial donors of the capital office of the Batkivshchyna party and co-owner of the development company Stolitsa Group. Let us recall that experts and the public have repeatedly accused this developer of violations of the law during the construction of housing in Kyiv. In addition, Sergei Korovchenko obviously has close acquaintances in the capital's power circles: his sister Yana is the wife of the Kiev City Council deputy from the above-mentioned party Vitaly Nestor.
Since June 29, 2021, the Department of Land Resources of the Kyiv City State Administration has been headed by Valentina Pelikh (served as the head of this structure since April 2, 2021). From July 27, 2018 to April 1, 2021, this department was headed by the above-mentioned Petr Olenich, who since April 2, 2021 has held the position of deputy chairman of the Kyiv City State Administration for the exercise of self-governing powers and oversees land and urban planning issues in Kyiv.
The Department for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of the Kyiv City State Administration has been headed by Marina Solovyova since August 23, 2023. In this position, Solovyova was replaced by Irina Chernenko, acting director of the department since June 10, 2023.
Since the beginning of 2021, the activities of this structural unit of the capital’s mayor’s office have been controlled by the deputy chairman of the Kyiv City State Administration for the exercise of self-governing powers, Vladimir Prokopov (secretary of the capital city council of the last 8th convocation, deputy of the current 9th convocation of the Kyiv City Council from “Eurosolidarity”, in the collage on the left).
