Mykolaiv deputies and officials bought foreign real estate during the war

Since the start of the full-scale invasion, Ukrainian MPs, officials and law enforcement officers have purchased foreign real estate worth at least UAH 2 billion. Among the new owners of foreign property are a member of the Mykolaiv City Council and relatives of local law enforcement officers.

According to Nikcenter, journalists analyzed almost three million declarations from the NACP's registry. In 812 documents after February 2022, the declarants themselves or their families indicated the purchase of real estate abroad. Among them are three residents of Mykolaiv.

The most valuable property among Mykolaiv residents belongs to Alyona Balahuta, a specialist of the city council's health care department. In September 2022, she purchased an apartment in Poland for over UAH 3 million. Her husband, Vitalii Mustiatsa, works at the Territorial Department of the State Bureau of Investigation and earned more than a million hryvnias in 2022. However, his declaration after 2020 is not in the NACP register.

At the end of 2022, Natalia Horbenko, a deputy of the Mykolaiv City Council, became the owner of two rooms in Bulgaria worth UAH 1.7 million. She was elected as a deputy from the Servant of the People party, and in 2022 she co-founded the Shchedryk Charitable Foundation.

In April 2024, the wife of ex-police officer Yevhen Volkova bought a 79-square-meter apartment in Estonia for 660 thousand hryvnias.

In total, more than 100 declarants from Mykolaiv region reported renting or purchasing real estate abroad after February 2022. Among them are MP Tetiana Dombrovska, whose daughter rents a house in Austria, and Hanna Nord, who rents an apartment in Berlin.

Earlier, the NACP reported on an undeclared apartment in Spain, which the mayor of Ochakiv, Serhiy Bychkov, and his wife purchased for UAH 5 million. It was found that during the war in 2022, the official and his wife acquired an apartment in Spain with an area of 122.31 square meters. In addition, he allegedly received gifts in cash from his mother worth more than UAH 12 million.

Recently, Mykolaiv MP Iryna Kormyshkina was served with a notice of suspicion of illicit enrichment worth over UAH 20 million. The investigation found that in the period of 2021-2022, the MP received assets that significantly exceeded her official income and savings. Her official income amounted to about UAH 2.7 million, which she used for other purposes. At the same time, she used this money to buy a house near Odesa, where she now lives.

The car of a Mykolaiv MP from the Servant of the People party was subject to a "luxury tax." In 2023, Valeriy Bednyi, a member of the Mykolaiv Regional Council from the Servant of the People party, became the owner of a luxury car. In addition to the new car, during the war, the MP became the owner of three apartments in Odesa. The total value of Valeriy Bednyi 's new real estate is over three million hryvnias. According to the declaration, the MP received ownership of all three apartments on the same day - September 19, 2022.

Анна Літман