Land scandal in Kyiv: Klitschko announces layoffs in Kyiv City State Administration
28 February 2025 13:46
The Kyiv City State Administration will be purged due to a large-scale land scandal. Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko announced the dismissal of several officials suspected of involvement in corruption schemes, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports
Klitschko said that the deputy head of the Kyiv City State Administration Petro Olenych would be dismissed from his post. The decision was made after the court imposed a pre-trial restraint on him with the possibility of bail.
The mayor of Kyiv noted that the city authorities are providing all the necessary documents to law enforcement agencies and are cooperating with the investigation.
In addition to Olenych, the following people will be fired:
- yuriy Leonov, deputy director of Spetszhilofond,
- oleksiy Mushta, deputy head of Kyivblagoustrii.
The mayor also called on Mykhailo Terentyev, head of the Kyiv City Council’s land commission, to resign his deputy powers. According to him, Kyiv’s urban planning and land relations will be reorganized.
“Land case: what is known
As reported, on February 6, during Operation Clean City, NABU officers served suspicion notices to Kyiv officials, including, according to media reports, Deputy Head of the Kyiv City State Administration Petro Olenych, members of the Kyiv City Council – Head of the Land Relations Commission Mykhailo Terentyev and member of the Commission Olena Marchenko, as well as former Kyiv City Council member Denys Komarnytskyi, who is called the organizer, and others. In total, law enforcement officers detained seven people.
The scheme, according to NABU, consisted of searching for promising land plots and registering ownership of buildings that never existed on these plots in the names of controlled persons.
Subsequently, they submitted applications to the city council to grant them ownership of the land plots for the maintenance of these structures, which allowed them to avoid bidding.
According to the investigation, Kyiv City Council members and KCSA officials, some of whom were members of the criminal organization and some of whom were under its influence, ensured that decisions were made to grant the relevant land rights, for which they received undue benefits in the form of funds and real estate.
Law enforcement officers believe that as a result of the criminal organization’s activities in 2023-2024, land in the city center worth ₴11.6 million was illegally withdrawn from the ownership of the Kyiv territorial community. At the same time, the acquisition of six more land plots in the capital worth a total of ₴83.7 million was prevented.
Law enforcement officers also recorded an offer of an undue advantage in the amount of USD 100 thousand to a member of the land commission and a deputy of the Kyiv City Council for abusing her powers and influence in the interests of a criminal organization.
