Real estate and property complexes: assets stolen in Kherson region work for the occupiers

Investigators investigated to whom the Russian occupiers transferred the assets stolen in Kherson region, including: Vodafone, Epicenter, Chumak and others.

Forty-five tasty real estate objects and property complexes were seized and transferred to Russian companies and legal entities illegally established in the TOT. This crime is proved by documents from the correspondence of the Russian occupation administration in Kherson region, which were provided to the Center for Public Investigations by the Ukrainian gaming community KibOrg, the Center for Public Investigations writes.

The list of civilian property in Kherson region illegally expropriated by the Russian occupation government and transferred to Russian companies and organizations. Photo: KibOrg

The documents are dated until the fall of 2023, but they are still relevant today. Firstly, they are evidence of war crimes already committed by the Russian Federation in the illegal expropriation of civilian property in the TOT of Kherson region, and secondly, these crimes are ongoing: none of the objects mentioned in the documents has been returned to their rightful owners and continues to be used by Russian companies or organizations designated by the "governor" Vladimir Saldo and the occupation government.

In June 2022, the occupiers transferred the property complex of the mobile operator Vodafone (PJSC VF Ukraine) in Kherson region to K-Telecom LLC, a Russian mobile communications company specially created to serve subscribers in Crimea after its illegal annexation in 2014. The Russian State Commission for Radio Frequencies illegally allocated it frequencies in the occupied Crimea, which were used by MTS-Ukraine.

In November 2022, the property complex of the mobile operator Lifecell (Lifecell LLC) in the Kherson region was transferred by the occupiers to the so-called DPR state enterprise Republican Communications Operator. The latter is also known to the residents of the occupied territories as "Phoenix": it was to this company that the Russians transferred the stolen capacities of Ukrainian mobile operators Kyivstar and Lifecell in Donetsk region.

The pharmacy chains of Avis-Pharm LLC were transferred to Renaissance Pharma LLC, registered in October 2021 in Mytishchi, Moscow Region. According to the Russian state register, its director and founder is Igor Nelubov. According to the occupation's public information, as of December 2022, the Renaissance Pharma chain in Kherson region had seven pharmacies in Henichesk, Rykov, Hola Prystan, and Skadovsk.

The Russians also transferred the buildings and premises of the Kherson-based PCF Medpreparaty LLC to Renaissance Pharma.

In September 2022, the Russians transferred the municipal pharmacies of Kherson and Kherson region to William Pai LLC. This company was registered in the Russian jurisdiction in July 2023, with a legal address in Hola Prystan. Its director is Tatyana Mikhailovna Kovaleva. This is the name of the wife of Oleksiy Kovalev, a traitor and former MP from the Servant of the People party who was liquidated in August 2022 and voluntarily took the position of "Deputy Prime Minister for Agrarian Policy" of the occupation government of the Russian Federation in the Kherson region. Kovaleva is the director of another pharmacy company, Dokfarm-Med, in occupied Simferopol, both co-founded by Russian Daria Borodina.

In November 2023, Tetiana Kovaleva appealed to the occupying governor of Kherson region, Volodymyr Sald, with a request to transfer 22 more pharmacies in the left-bank part of Kherson region to William Pai LLC, citing "constant appeals from citizens and heads of local administrations." This time, the appetite of William Pai LLC grew to six pharmacies in the Novotroitsk community, two in the Kalanchak community, eight in the Genichesk community, one each in the Askania-Nova, Velykokopanivska and Bekhterska communities, and three in the Skadovsk community.

Another illegal redistribution of property is also linked to the family of the traitorous former MP Oleksiy Kovalev. The property of PJSC Ukrnafta in the village of Chulakivka, Skadovsk district, at 21 Zhovtneva Street, was transferred by the occupiers to E-Neft LLC, a Russian clone of the Ukrainian E-Neft LLC. Currently, its director is Ivan Kovalev, born on October 1, 1953, and the founder is Volodymyr Trukhan.

Oleksiy Kovalev's father, 71-year-old Ivan Kovalev, is the director and owner of the Russian companies Neont LTD, LK-Agro, Green Group, DSD-Trade, which were illegally registered in Kherson region, as well as the head and co-owner of the Yuger farm.

On July 21, 2022, the Russians transferred the Kherson Danone plant (Danone-Dnipro LLC) to Edelweiss LLC for a year, but it has not yet been possible to reveal the owners of the company, as the document does not contain an identification code, and the name is very common. At one time, local publics were outraged that the "interim administration" appointed by the occupation government had looted the plant instead of distributing its products to people. Last year, the Russians squeezed out Danone Russia JSC (which owns 17 plants) and appointed Yakub Zakriev, the vice prime minister of Chechnya and nephew of Ramzan Kadyrov, as the new head.

Before the liberation of Kherson, the property of Epicenter K LLC and Nova Liniya 1 LLC was used by Stroycentr LLC from Luhansk. The same company trades in the seized Epicenter supermarkets in Luhansk and Melitopol. The head of Stroycentr LLC is Oleksandr Leonidovych Yakubovsky, a business partner of Konstantin Korolevsky, the brother of former MP Natalia Korolevska, who has been wanted since February 2023. Yakubovsky is a co-founder of the Russian company UBS, registered in Crimea.

In August 2022, the property of Kakhovka Protein Agro LLC was illegally transferred by the Russians to the Crimean Druzhba Narodov Krym LLC, registered in the same village of Petrivka as Druzhba Narodov LLC, which was sold to the Russians in 2017 by Ukrainian billionaire Yuriy Kosyuk. The head of the company is Viktor Holovko, and the founder is Yevhenia Nefidova.

The same Russians are the head and founder of Oliva Group LLC, which was given the property complex of Chumak PJSC in Kakhovka. The occupiers first registered this company in Simferopol, Crimea, and in October 2023 re-registered it in Yasne village, Melitopol district, Zaporizhzhia region. However, the Russians failed to resume the work of the seized Chumak.

The same Crimean "enterprise" was given the seized Kakhovka branch of Cargill JSC, along with the oil extraction plant, by August 17, 2025. The latter is one of the top ten crude sunflower oil producers with a processing capacity of over 500 thousand tons of sunflower seeds per year. It produces about 200 thousand tons of meal per year. JSC Cargill LLC is a subsidiary of the American corporation Cargill, one of the largest grain traders in Ukraine.

To the illegally created Kherson Commercial Sea Port, the Russians transferred the Kardashyn sand quarry in Skadovsk district, the Kherson Bread Products Plant, and the property of the Kherson Shipyard, the integral property complex of Alkon Agro LLC in Hola Prystan, the property of Dnipro Terminal PJSC, stolen boats, berths of port operators Agro-Transit-Service LLC, property complexes of Elita Dnipro LLC and Tukurui LLC in Kherson at 1 Ostrovske Highway. The latter was mistakenly named by the occupiers as Tukurui LLC.

Since the beginning of the occupation of Kherson region, the Kherson Commercial Sea Port has been managed by collaborator Andriy Kharytonov. In August 2024, he was replaced as "director" by a Russian from the Samara region, Vyacheslav Anatolyevich Stanotin.

The buildings of the recreation center "Yalynky" (54 Naberezhna St.) and the children's health center named after Ilya Kulyk (57 Naberezhna St.) seized in the resort village of Henicheska Hirka were transferred by the Russians to the occupation military commandant's office.

Ігор Льов