Kivalov Odesa Law Academy ordered media advertising from a regular contractor

Odesa Law Academy has signed a media promotion contract. The advertisement will cover the media until the end of April 2026, and only one company took part in the bidding.

This was reported by the Center for Public Investigations.

The National University "Odesa Law Academy" plans to conclude an agreement for almost UAH 1.9 million to advertise in the media in order to attract new students.

The procurement was made through an open tender with special features, and the expected cost of advertising was just over two million hryvnias. Only one company took part in the auction, Odesa-Press LLC, which offered to promote the academy until the end of April 2026. The agreement is currently being signed.

According to YouControl, the company has been operating on the market since 2019. Although the company's main activity is the rental of machinery and equipment, the list of services also includes advertising, mediation in the trade of food and beverages, and the rental of office equipment and real estate. Since May 2024, the company has been owned by Marina Zhigalyuk, and previously it was owned by former accountants Yevhen Nastychuk and Anna Shatilova.

The legal address of Odesa-Press coincides with the address of the South Ukrainian Media Holding, founded by Petro Galchansky, who is likely to still influence the company's activities. Galchansky is known as a businessman, publisher, honored journalist of Ukraine, and the head of numerous media and charity projects in Odesa.

Interestingly, at the end of 2022, the South Ukrainian Media Holding signed a seven-year agreement with the National University of Law on cooperation in the field of education and science. In total, since 2015, the academy has made more than twenty advertising purchases worth more than UAH 6.5 million, with about half of them concluded with Odesa-Press.

In February 2025, the Cabinet of Ministers decided to merge the National University of Law into the Mechnikov Odesa National University. The Academy reacted sharply to this and challenged the reorganization in court. In March, the Kyiv District Administrative Court suspended the merger process until the case was resolved.

The applicants of 2024 and 2025 who entered the "Professional College of the National University "Odesa Law Academy" actually found themselves in a private institution instead of a state institution. As Intent has found out, the new private college, which uses the name, structure and premises of the law academy, belongs to Serhiy Kivalov 's grandson, 26-year-old Serhiy Kosyanenko.

Анна Бальчінос