Anti-corruption “cleansing” in Kyiv: will it affect urban planning and the business climate of the capital?
13 March 17:22
On March 13, 2025, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko announced mass dismissals of officials of the Kyiv City State Administration (KCSA). This was the result of anti-corruption checks that revealed violations in the areas of land relations, urban planning, and landscaping, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports, citing the mayor’s Telegram channel.
According to Klitschko, such measures are necessary to clean up the city government, improve its efficiency and restore the trust of Kyiv residents.
Who was fired and why?
As part of the large-scale personnel changes, key KCSA officials and heads of utility companies have already lost their positions or will lose them in the near future. Among them:
Petro Olenych, deputy head of the KCSA in charge of the city’s land policy. His dismissal was one of the most high-profile, as he held one of the key positions in the field of municipal real estate management.
Oleksiy Mushta is the deputy head of Kyivblagoustrii. His unit has repeatedly been involved in scandals related to illegal construction and problems with the capital’s landscaping.
Yuriy Leonov is the deputy director of Spetszhilofond. This municipal enterprise is engaged in the construction of social housing, but often finds itself at the center of scandals over the distribution of apartments.
Mykhailo Terentyev is a member of the Kyiv City Council and head of the land commission. He submitted a letter of resignation from the position of director of the Engineering Center and will be recalled from the Kyiv City Council by the UDAR party faction.
The next wave of dismissals
Vitali Klitschko announced that this is only the beginning of a large-scale revision of the administration’s personnel policy. The following people will lose their positions in the near future:
- Ihor Dolynskyi, director of the Kyiv Institute of Land Relations, which coordinated city land transactions;
- Volodymyr Shariy, director of the municipal enterprise Spetszhilofond. His dismissal is linked to numerous complaints about construction projects;
- Valentyna Svyatina, Deputy Director of the Department of Urban Planning and Architecture.
In addition, Kyivzelenbud also underwent personnel changes. The following have been dismissed:
- Yuriy Bakhmat – General Director;
- Oleksiy Lukash – First Deputy Director General;
- Oleksandr Hora – Deputy Head of the Capital Investments Department.
What was the reason for the mass layoffs?
According to the city administration, the decision to make the mass layoffs was the result of investigations into corruption schemes in land use and urban planning. Klitschko noted that informal schemes had been operating in the city for a long time, causing the city budget to lose significant funds.
Especially many questions arose about the work of Kyivzelenbud, Spetszhilofond, and the Kyiv Institute of Land Relations. These institutions were responsible for key areas of the city’s infrastructure, but they have repeatedly been involved in investigations by anti-corruption agencies.
What to expect next?
Vitali Klitschko said that this personnel purge is only the beginning. He ordered to conduct:
- a full audit of the land plots involved in NABU investigations. If violations are found, the land allotments will be canceled;
- inspect all utility companies, especially in the construction and infrastructure sectors;
- introduce new standards for personnel selection in city authorities to avoid corruption risks in the future.
In addition, the city authorities are preparing a package of legislative initiatives to close loopholes that allowed corrupt manipulations in the field of land relations and urban planning.
It should be noted that experts believe that massive layoffs in the KCSA are a powerful signal of the beginning of a “reset” of the capital’s authorities. Klitschko has made it clear that he is ready to act decisively to cleanse the administration of corrupt influences. However, the next steps depend on the effectiveness of the reforms and the ability of the authorities to actually monitor the implementation of anti-corruption measures.
It is also worth noting that the Kyiv mayor’s decision to start “personnel purges” could have been influenced by the Bihus.Info investigation, which focused on land corruption in the capital.
Bihus.Info investigation: how land corruption schemes worked in Kyiv
In March 2025, Bihus.Info journalists published a high-profile investigation that exposed large-scale corruption schemes in the field of land relations in Kyiv. It turned out that a group of KCSA officials and Kyiv City Council members were involved in the illegal distribution of city land.
Key figures in the investigation
According to journalists, the following people were involved in the corruption schemes:
- Denys Komarnitsky, a former Kyiv City Council member who is called the “watchdog for Kyiv.” He informally led a group of officials who made decisions on land issues in the capital.
- Petro Olenych is a deputy head of the Kyiv City State Administration responsible for the city’s land policy. The investigation points to his involvement in the illegal allocation of land.
- Mykhailo Terentyev – Kyiv City Council deputy, head of the land commission, who participated in land misappropriation schemes.
- Olena Marchenko is a member of the land commission, who is also accused of involvement in fraud.
The journalists obtained audio recordings of negotiations in which the defendants talk about kickbacks and ways of making decisions on land distribution.
Legal consequences
According to the NABU, a corrupt group led by Komarnytskyi illegally appropriated a land plot in the center of Kyiv worth UAH 11 million and tried to take possession of six more plots worth more than UAH 83 million.
The OCG members used the so-called “toilet scheme”, which involved searching for attractive land plots and registering ownership of buildings in the name of controlled persons, which in many cases never existed on these plots. This allowed them to obtain priority ownership of the land under these ghost buildings.
Each participant in the crime performed a clearly assigned role to make the scheme work like clockwork, and an attractive piece of capital land fell under the control of its organizer.
The scheme of seizing community land in the capital: what details are known about it
In 2023, when identifying key priorities within the Kyiv City State Administration, it was decided to focus efforts on exposing the so-called “watchdogs” and schemes in the land sector.
As the NABU later found out, an organized criminal group led by a former member of the Kyiv City Council was engaged in the illegal acquisition of land plots in Kyiv. After the 2019 elections, the head of the organized group gained influence over a number of processes – on deputies and officials of the Kyiv City State Administration.
This allowed him to agree on a list of draft decisions of the Kyiv City Council that were to be submitted for consideration or blocked.
According to the NABU, in 2023-2024, the group illegally seized land plots worth more than UAH 11 million and tried to appropriate 6 more land plots worth more than UAH 83 million. In the best traditions of a criminal organization, its members used special means of communication, pseudonyms and counter-surveillance to conceal their activities.
Ten people have already been served suspicion notices. Seven of them have been detained, including officials of the Kyiv City State Administration and Kyiv City Council. Komarnitsky himself is currently wanted in Ukraine.
Pre-trial restraint in the form of detention with an alternative to bail was imposed on the active members of the organized crime group:
- a member of the land commission of the Kyiv City Council – UAH 50 million
- deputy Head of the Kyiv City State Administration – UAH 15 million;
- head of the Land Commission of the Kyiv City Council – UAH 20 million;
- deputy Director of the municipal enterprise Kyivblagoustrii – UAH 7.5 million;
- first Deputy Director of the municipal enterprise Spetszhilofond – UAH 4.5 million.
