The family of the head of the Lviv regional state administration, Maxim Kozitsky, continues to cooperate with a European business partner associated with Russia in the third year of the Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. We are talking about a Czech millionaire with a Swiss passport, Karel Komárek.
The Kozitskys and Komarek are involved in oil, gas, solar energy and a bunch of other different businesses, the ends of which are lost in Cyprus offshores, but ultimately lead to Gazprom. The scheme is chaotic and has many components, but it deserves the attention of readers and the Security Service in particular.
The head of the family of Lviv businessmen, Zinovy Kozitsky, heads the Zahidnadraservice group of companies. It is engaged in exploration, drilling and production of oil and natural gas in Western Ukraine. It also has several solar power plants. Together with the head of the family, the companies are managed by his sons, Maxim and Stepan Kozitsky. The first has headed the Lviv Regional State Administration since 2020.
Zahidnadraservice LLC was created back in 2008. Among its founders is the company DV corporation limited, registered in London.
The registers make it clear that the British have been investing in Ukrainian companies since at least 2006. In the 2010 report, DV corporation limited is indicated as the owner of the Kozitsky company – Zahidnadraservice LLC.
At the same time, among the founders of the British DV corporation limited there was once a citizen of Belarus, Alexander Shila, and since 2016, the Russian Mikhail Kiriakidi has appeared in its structure. It should be noted that at that time Russia had already occupied Crimea and was conducting active military operations in the Donbass.
Subsequently, the British in the management of Zahidnadraservice were replaced by a company that also belongs to the Kozitskys - RSG. It, in turn, was managed by its full namesake, registered in the Netherlands - RSG BV. The last company, according to the registers of the Netherlands, is led by Stepan Kozitsky. This is important information, since it is through the Netherlands that the Kozitsky companies can contact the Russians.
One of the main companies in the Zahidnadraservice group is Prykarpattia Energy Company LLC. In the biography of the head of the Lviv Regional State Administration, Maxim Kozitsky, there is a record that he worked as its general director. It is 100% owned by MND Ukraine as with registration in the Czech Republic. The company is now jointly managed by Zinovy Kozitsky and the Czech Karel Komarek mentioned at the beginning of the material.
MND Group is the basis of Komarek’s business, in the structure of which the Cypriot company IVENA Limited is registered. The same company from Cyprus is present in the management of the Oriva wind farm and the Sambir solar station, which belong to the Kozitskys. Considering that the same Cypriots are registered in both Komarek’s and Kozitsky’s companies, their connections are extremely close.
As is often the case in offshore jurisdictions, IVENA Limited has a complex management system. In order not to go into details, it is worth focusing on the company that is formally its director - Omnium corporate and trustee services limited. Until 2013, this company was affiliated with the Russian Pharmsintez LLC. This data was stored in reports.
Also associated with the Russian Pharmsintez LLC was Maria Demetriou. This woman is the director of another company that manages Komárek-Kozicki’s offshore company.
And this is already the second Russian trace in the business, which is run by the family of the head of the Lvov Regional State Administration Maxim Kozitsky, who at the same time is the head of the Lvov cell of the Servant of the People party.
Note that Maxim Kozitsky at the beginning of his career also had interests in the pharmaceutical business. In 2007, he was deputy director of Ukrmedresurs LLC, among the founders of which his mother Tamila Kozitskaya is listed.
Czech businessman Karel Komárek is not just a famous millionaire, he has been cooperating with the Russian Gazprom for a long time, and it is simply impossible to hide this information. In particular, his company, together with the Russians, built a gas storage facility in the Czech Republic, in Dambořice. The project started back in 2013. This cooperation continued until the summer of 2024.
Despite Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine, Karel Komárek, who is a business partner of the Kozicki family, was in no particular hurry to buy out the Russians’ share in the Czech project. It was only in the spring of 2024 that official news appeared that the MND group was taking control of the entire Moravia Gas Storage facility in Dambořice. In fact, the Russians continued to manage half of the Czech gas storage until recently, despite sanctions and the official position of the Czech government, which expresses support for Ukraine.
Next - more. Karel Komárek's MND company, in exchange for Russian participation in a gas storage project in the Czech Republic, received control of the Samara oil terminal. Until October 2022, according to Russian registers, the founder of Oil Terminal Samara LLC was Komarek’s company MND Samara Holding B.V., registered in the Netherlands.
In 2022, the Russian terminal was transferred to Fratron invest BV. But the addresses of the Russian and Dutch companies are absolutely the same.
Komarek officially declares that he has stopped cooperation with the Russian Federation and condemned military aggression against Ukraine. However, registers and document analysis indicate that the joint business never actually stopped.
In addition to the oil and gas sector, Czech Karel Komárek owns several state lotteries in European countries. In 2022, his company won the competition to operate the UK National Lottery. Subsequently, as The Guardian wrote, the gambling control commission actively checked Komárek’s company for continued cooperation with the Russians, and the British authorities still have questions about him. Especially after it became known that the Czech company borrowed 640 million euros from the Russian state banks VTB and Sberbank two years before winning a lottery contract in the UK.
The business ties of the family of the head of the Lviv Regional State Administration Maxim Kozitsky with the Czech companies of millionaire Karel Komarek are very close. This can be seen, among other things, in the Cypriot and Dutch registries. At the same time, Russian tails continue to stick out from the Kozitskys’ Zahidnadraservice, and even more from the MND Group companies. The Western press is also actively writing about this. Why, in the third year of the war, the Kozitskys do not want to give up their partnership with Gazprom’s comrade is rather a rhetorical question. But this information should prompt Ukrainian law enforcement agencies to pay more attention to the business of the family of the head of the Lviv Regional State Administration.
