In the capital Pechersk, people from the circle of ex-deputy Dubovoy are demolishing temple buildings and laying claim to a valuable plot: parishioners claim a raider takeover
It’s not for nothing that the area in the capital’s Pechersk, overlooking the river and next to the “Fatherland Mother” monument, is popularly called “Tsarskoe Selo”, because the price of one hundred square meters of land here starts from 2.6 million UAH. Back in 2006, they began to build a Baptist temple for “Peace, Love and Unity” here, but several years ago the valuable site became a “bone of contention”: parishioners declared a violent takeover. And a group of people from the orbit of Deputy Dubovoy began to dismantle the temple buildings.
What is happening to church properties in the center of Kyiv? And what do the odious former parliamentarian Alexander Dubovoy and another famous politician, Alexander Turchinov, have to do with it?
The conflict over temple lands has continued for seven years. As Vladimir Kunets, pastor of the Word of Life ECB Church, said, church property is deliberately destroyed by young people from Dubovoy’s orbit, and law enforcement officers do not interfere with them.
“The Dubovoy titushki have already captured the temple, now they have climbed over to seize the chapel, office and the like. They say they have documents. All documents are fake. There are currently proceedings in court. The courts are delaying on purpose. The Pechersk district police were purchased by Dubov. They arrive in groups of five. The machines don't do anything at all! “, he claims.
So, what kind of temple is this and why do Dubovoy’s people lay claim to it?
Mostly a religious site on the street. Michurin is associated with Alexander Turchinov, a famous Baptist and politician, former acting. President of Ukraine. The media at one time reported that he often came to construction sites and attended services every Sunday.
We are talking about the Christian center “Word of Life”, which was engaged in the construction of the temple “Peace, Love and Unity”. But behind this huge building the church complex is much less noticeable. The pastor here and the author of the project for the same temple is Vladimir Yakovlevich Kunets.
In 2005, according to media publications, Kunets received the land where the temple now stands. Construction took place with donations from parishioners. Of course, the sums required for such a large-scale construction of a sacred place were no less large-scale. Therefore, the media wrote that it was precisely such influential parishioners as Turchinov and his associate, the odious Alexander Dubovoy, who allegedly contributed to the construction with astronomical sums.
But even taking into account such cosmic support, the construction of the temple needed additional funding. Therefore, Kunets, as the main curator and author of the project, turned to the All-Ukrainian Union of Evangelical Christian Baptist Churches. As part of this agreement, the following was determined:
The Union of Evangelical Baptist Churches undertakes the completion of construction, including the search for sponsors;
Kunets transfers the Temple of “Peace, Love and Unity” to the balance of the Union, remaining the head of construction, and upon completion, the temple will become a center for holding services for all interested Protestant religious organizations.
But then there was... a split.
According to Kunz, his partner never repaid the debt to the contractor in the amount of 1 million UAH. He also did not pay for the work of the builders, which is another 3 million UAH. But the Union accused the pastor of “disorderly actions, humiliating ministers, lying and spreading slander.” But they called on the church to expel Vladimir Yakovlevich from the organization.
As a result, in 2020, Kunz’s place was taken by a certain Ilyin Petr Anatolyevich, who had not previously taken direct part in the activities of the organization.
The parishioners who remained with Kunz, not accepting such changes, say that Ilyin did not conduct any service. Moreover, together with the guards, he allegedly prevented them from holding every Sunday service: either by not letting them into the church, or by playing loud music.
“Given Ilyin’s dubious activities as a church pastor, this all looks less like a fight for the organization itself, but, objectively, for expensive land,” the journalist notes.
So who is really the stewards of this land?
So, a huge plot was at one time given directly to Kunz’s religious organization, but when the first signals began to appear that he would be expelled from the organization, the pastor registered part of the land in the name of his son, so as not to lose the church complex, which he had been building for years before the construction of the large temple. Peace, love and unity."
According to the real estate registry, this plot actually had two owners: the religious organization “Word of Life”, where the documentary director is now the same Ilyin, and Alexander Vladimirovich Kunz, that is, the pastor’s son. But Kunz's part was seized, as a result of which he missed the opportunity to dispose of the property.
There are many court cases in this conflict, and they have been dragging on from the very beginning of the struggle: the case of Kunz for renewal as director of the organization, for the recognition of ownership of building materials acquired with donations from Kunz’s parishioners, the case for eviction from the territory of the church complex.
It was at the eviction hearing that a team of journalists came.
Reporters hoped to see both sides of the conflict at the meeting, but Ilyin was not at the meeting, and Kunets spoke about the illegitimacy of Ilyin’s election.
This is their charter. And then in the charter they write: the goal is to spread the Christian teaching, but how can non-believers, a gang, spread it? And they entered fake people. They listed seven people, and three of them testified that there was no meeting, that it was all mafia and the like. Look, there are seven people in their charter. They write: Smelik Oleg Olegovich, and he is Alexey Alekseevich, they write: Dunin Viktor Petrovich, and he is Viktor Pavlovich. – the pastor is indignant.
Trying to get Ilyin’s position on all the charges, the Stopkorovites turned to lawyer Ivan Dzhus as his representative, who did not want to communicate with the press at all. And the only argument that we managed to hear from him throughout the story is that Kunz doesn’t seem to need to be believed, because when he called the police on the territory of the church complex during the demolition of buildings, the police drew up a report on a false call.
But Kunets himself explains the so-called “false calls” somewhat differently. According to him, the Pechersk district police are playing along with the raiders.
What is the role of Alexander Dubovoy in this whole story?
As the StopCor team found out, Dubovoy’s house is located in a prestigious area of the capital, visually reminiscent of a palace or residence. Moreover, with the advent of this estate in the “Tsarskaya Village”, transactions for the purchase and sale of land intensified. The Dubov family bought plots en masse, and as of today, a significant amount of land in this area belongs to them. Representatives of society even went out to protest, because, according to them, the methods and tools used to acquire property were completely unlawful.
This is what our colleagues from the FakeOFF publication wrote : “In order to get this place and arrange it comfortably, our hero tried very hard. Remembering the methods he used in his youth, Dubovoy actually eliminated 70-year-old Ekaterina Kozlova from the world. At first they started to intimidate her. his assistants, and then in general, so that she understood the seriousness of their intentions, they set fire to her house. My grandmother had a heart attack, and her heirs lost all access to their own heritage.”
Next, the journalists recall the seizure of another site in Tsarskoye Selo. They wanted to recognize the owner of the land as mentally ill in order to take possession of his land, but the doctors refused to treat a healthy person. And then, according to media reports, the precious land was transferred to Dubovoy’s wife using forged documents. Later, the SBU allegedly recognized the owner’s signature as fictitious, but it was already too late - the grandfather’s house was demolished, as was the garden with trees.
Probably, the identity of the lawyer, Ivan Dzhus, also connects Ilyin and Dubovoy.
In 2018, a person with the same full name as the lawyer – Ivan Dzhus – received one of the land plots in Tsarskoye Selo. In 2021, another plot of land in a premium area was privatized. And a year later, a company was registered at this address, where Dubovoy’s wife, his daughter and the lawyer himself were among the beneficiaries.
» If you now look at the map of Tsarskaya Village, a huge number of objects here belong to the Dubov family. This is evidenced by data from the real estate register. It is impossible to even imagine what funds were used to purchase these lands,” comments Maria Vinnichenko.
Recently, they began dismantling the buildings of the church complex on the temple grounds again. The interests of the religious organization were allegedly represented by Anna, the daughter of Ilyin, who replaced Kunz as pastor. So the journalists asked her: where did the funds come from to maintain security, dismantle buildings and CCTV cameras? To which the girl replied that “she can afford it.”
It is noteworthy that there is no information about Ilyin Jr. in open sources, but parishioners say that she is only 22 years old, and she is a student at the Kyiv private university “KROK”. Therefore, the question of the origin of the funds remains open.
At the same time, the 22-year-old girl, surrounded by unknown men whom she called security, answered instead of her father. And Mr. Ilyin himself was not seen in the church even on Sunday, when services were supposed to be held. Mr. Ilyin’s lawyer confirmed to reporters that no one is holding the service, because Kunets allegedly interferes with their holding. Although it is not very clear how an elderly man can resist the security compartment and not allow Ilyin’s parishioners to enter.
The media also asked the lawyer about Mr. Dubov. To which Juice replied that he didn’t know that.
Note that after Kuntz was expelled from the organization, the leaders were replaced twice. At first it was Ilyin. But in 2021, for some reason, a certain Andrey Maksimovich Svinarenko was appointed head. As it turned out, this is also a person closely associated with Dubov. He is a participant in several companies where the beneficiaries were relatives of the ex-People's Deputy. But then Ilyin was returned to the position of leader, and Svinarenko disappeared from the radar.
The editors of StopCor tried to get answers from Alexander Dubovoy himself by sending him a request. However, the post office returned the letter, because during the entire preparation of the material no one took it. Therefore, the journalists decided to personally convey the request to the notorious philanthropist.
However, near the house that the media associates with Dubov, security reported that he does not live here. In the business center of Dubovoy’s wife, an unknown man said that we would not be able to come in. But security will not pass on the request, because the property is supposedly being rented out.
Let us remind you that in the Pechersky district of the capital on the street. Michurin, a group of unknown people began to dismantle the temple buildings - probably the unauthorized work was recorded on April 2 by the StopCor team. Parishioners claim a raider attack by the people of ex-member Dubovoy. Reporters called law enforcement to the scene.
