Sergei Korovchenko: From legitimizing the occupation of Crimea to volunteering

“Everyone can look forward to returning home soon.” The head of the Main Intelligence Directorate, Kirill Budanov, spoke with such optimism in July 2023. Ukraine has indeed recently managed to advance more towards the peninsula than in all previous years.

Firstly, the Russian fleet was practically expelled from the Ukrainian Crimea, and secondly, the Crimean bridge began to be blocked more and more often due to danger. But if not a single conscious Ukrainian doubts the return of Crimea, the situation with its occupation still hides many mysteries. Who exactly surrendered the peninsula, who legitimized the so-called referendum, and who, even after contacts with pro-Russian minions, was able to get away with it and turn into a volunteer with the Order of Metropolitan Epiphanius? All this is about the former chief of justice of Crimea, now closely associated with Yulia Tymoshenko - Sergei Korovchenko.

The surname of Sergei Korovchenko is hardly familiar to the average reader. Born in the Lugansk region, but studied in Kyiv. Has a legal education and a lawyer's license. Legal practice brought Korovchenko together with the odious deputy of the Administration of fugitive President Viktor Yanukovych, Andrei Portnov. From 2006 to 2012, Korovchenko worked as his assistant in the Verkhovna Rada, when he had a deputy mandate from the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc. By the way, it is Tymoshenko who will play a big part in whitening Korovchenko’s reputation after the occupation of Crimea by the Russians. But more on that later.

According to Sergei Korovchenko himself, he first came to Crimea in 2011, when he was appointed assistant to the Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Crimea for patronage service. A year before the occupation, he became the head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine in Crimea. And they still had some time left after the capture of the peninsula.

For the first time, the name Korovchenko in the context of possible assistance in the occupation of the peninsula by Russians surfaced on the “Glazyev films.” Telephone conversations of Russian Presidential Adviser Sergei Glazyev were recorded by Ukrainian intelligence on March 1, 2014. From the transcripts of these conversations, you can learn a lot of information about how Russia occupied Crimea and which Ukrainian officials helped the enemy. The recordings were made public by the investigation into the case of high treason against Viktor Yanukovych. It was these films that formed the basis of the case about the possible betrayal of the already mentioned Andrei Portnov, who is considered the author of the resolution of the Verkhovna Rada of Crimea at the beginning of the occupation of the peninsula. A criminal case was also opened against Korovchenko.

Korovchenko is mentioned on the tapes as a person of Viktor Medvedchuk, discussed by Glazyev with Russian State Duma deputy Konstantin Zatulin. In particular, Putin’s adviser says that Sergei Korovchenko must be left in his position in the Crimean Ministry of Justice, because Medvedchuk recommends him. However, Korovchenko did not remain in office, but this does not mean that he was not aware of the events that were taking place.

Confirmation that Sergei Korovchenko was not only aware of the plans of the occupiers, but also took part in them, was found at the end of 2023. Obshchestvenny journalists received recordings of Andrei Portnov’s telephone conversations. On them he communicates with Korovchenko and former deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Crimea Lev Mirimsky. The records date back to the spring of 2014, when the occupiers were just forming the so-called government in Crimea and were busy rewriting Ukrainian property under Russian legislation.

From these telephone conversations you can find out that Korovchenko was offered to supervise some topics during the occupation of Crimea. Moreover, he and Mirimsky planned a trip to the already captured peninsula in April 2014. Korovchenko himself, in one of his whitewashing interviews, claims that he left Crimea in March 2014 and has never been there again.

The Ukrainian investigation conducted a criminal case against both Portnov and Korovchenko. But no charges have been filed at this time. In fact, the people who helped the Russians seize Crimea, thanks to the justice of Ukraine, which, as is known, was influenced by Andrei Portnov, got away unscathed.

Moreover, already in 2016, Sergei Korovchenko applied for the position of judge in the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, indicating in the declaration of a candidate who at that time worked as a lawyer. He was not allowed to participate in the competition, but this did not upset him too much, and he went into politics.

Here it is worth mentioning Yulia Tymoshenko, who was mentioned at the beginning of the publication. She plays a big role in Korovchenko’s political advancement. Thus, his sister Yana Nestor is married to the head of the Kyiv branch of the Batkivshchyna party, Vitaly Nestor. The reader may remember him from running for mayor of Kyiv in 2020.

Nestor and Korovchenko also have a common business. In particular, in 2017, the first was the director of Art-System LLC, the founder of which is Sergei Korovchenko. Now the real estate company is managed by Yana Nestor.

Among the beneficiaries of this company there is another very interesting person - Ivan Molchanov. This is the son of a famous developer, head of the construction company Stolitsa group, Vlada Molchanova. According to numerous sources, Korovchenko and Molchanova are common-law spouses. They were spotted together several times. For example, they became random participants in the plot about the wedding of Viktor Medvedchuk’s stepson. It is unlikely that they were invited guests, because the tracksuits they were wearing did not correspond to the dress code of such events. However, journalists were able to record the couple together.

Molchanov’s government is one of the main sponsors of Yulia Tymoshenko’s party and does not hide the fact that it sympathizes with Batkivshchyna. Probably, against the background of her political convictions, she could get along with Sergei Korovchenko.

In 2019, he was even a candidate for people’s deputy from “Batkivshchyna” in the constituency in Pryluky, Chernihiv region. True, he never got the victory. And potential voters were once again reminded of Korovchenko’s Crimean past and his telephone conversations with the occupiers.

In 2020, Korovchenko, together with Molchanova, appeared in documents that MP Geo Leros handed over to journalists as evidence in the case of the “supervisor” in Kyiv, Denis Komarnitsky. One of the files says that Vlada Molchanova and Denis Komarnitsky are agreeing on joint development of the territory of the Kommash plant on the street. Vasilkovskaya in Kyiv. Other documents mention Sergei Korovchenko’s sister, Yana Nestor.

After the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Sergei Korovchenko turned into a philanthropist and volunteer. Here they are, together with Vlada Molchanova and her son, handing over cars to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Here Korovchenko receives the Order of St. Archangel Michael, 1st degree, from the hands of Metropolitan Epiphanius for the restoration of the temple in Priluki. The Korovchenko and Molchanova charitable foundations were involved in the restoration of the building.

But the schemers would not have been schemers if they had not continued dubious activities during the war. In October 2022, the Department of Municipal Property of Kyiv put up for privatization a building at the address: st. Ivan Franko, 26B. The winner of the competition was the Association for National Patriotic Education of Children and Adolescents. It is difficult to understand where the association got the money to buy a building in the historical center of Kyiv. But, as they say, the devil is in the details.

The preliminary purchase and sale agreement states that Oleg Aleksandrovich Podnebenny signed it on behalf of the association.

A person with the same last name and first name headed Tibone LLC and Rhyolite Corporation LLC, which were part of Sergei Korovchenko’s informal group. That is, it is not difficult to understand who stands for a patriotic association that can afford to buy a multi-story house.

In the ten years that have passed since the annexation of Ukrainian Crimea by the Russian occupiers, Sergei Korovchenko has gone from an assistant to traitors to an order for charity. How a partnership with Andrei Portnov, who is not without reason suspected of working for the Russian Federation, and assistance from the Armed Forces of Ukraine can coexist in one person is difficult to imagine. And most importantly, will the new recordings in which Korovchenko discusses his work for the occupier affect the resumption of the criminal case of high treason? Punishment of those who helped the enemy should become an indispensable component of the return of Crimea, which Kirill Budanov talks about so vividly.