Anti-corruption authorities are investigating the history of the land around the Stolitsa wholesale market in Sofiivska Borshchagovka. This is an area that once belonged to the state and was used by the Pushcha-Vodytsia agricultural complex. According to the investigation, in 2021, a chain of decisions and re-registrations allowed part of this territory to be transferred to private hands, and later to be re-registered to controlled structures. The focus is on the developer and co-founder of Stolitsa Group Vladyslav Molchanov, former MP Yuriy Ivanyushchenko, and officials of the State Geocadastre. According to prosecutors, all those involved have been notified of suspicions. This is reported by the KV publication.
The story begins with a plot of land with an area of over 157 hectares on the outskirts of Kyiv. At first, the land was in permanent use by a state enterprise, later — after the seizure — the Kyiv-Svyatoshyn District State Administration became the lessor, which in 2012 signed a lease agreement with a company operating the market. A few years later, the purpose changed in the documents: the massif was classified as land for residential and public development for the needs of the wholesale market and its infrastructure. NABU draws attention to the fact that such a change, in their opinion, was made without the necessary new land management package. And already in March 2021, the category was returned to “agricultural” — a step that opened the possibility of free privatization for citizens.
In parallel, rotations in lease relations took place: the rights of the tenant were transferred to another company, motivated by its acquisition of ownership of a small property on the same land. After that, the regional State Geocadastre agreed to the development and then approval of projects for the allocation of nine plots of two hectares each. Within a few weeks, these nine pieces changed owners - they became three companies, which later, according to the investigation, received a representative from orbit Yuriy Ivanyushchenko as beneficiaries. Investigators emphasize the speed with which the entire cycle passed: from the change of category to the sale, only a few months passed.
Against this background, a memorandum appeared in the summer of 2021 between Molchanova and Ivanyushchenko, who were competing for influence on market assets, - an informal agreement on the joint use of the land mass, including for development. Already in the fall, a representative of the ex-deputy became a beneficiary of the companies that own the newly acquired plots. Subsequently, as follows from the court rulings, detectives conducted a series of searches. In the house of Serhiy Korovchenko, Molchanova's common-law husband, a phone with correspondence was seized, where, according to the investigation, the registration of plots and the reformatting of a large mass after the "extraction" of nine pieces were discussed. The defense tried to appeal the seizure of the gadget, citing legal confidentiality, but in the end the attempt was unsuccessful. On Molchanova's own phone, seized around the same time, investigators recorded an exchange regarding a "memo" — an additional agreement to the aforementioned agreement. Back in September 2021, the court seized the disputed areas.
The positions of the parties are expectedly opposite. SAPO prosecutors and NABU detectives speak of an organized scheme with elements of appropriation of state property on a particularly large scale and subsequent legalization. Molchanova, on the other hand, publicly declares that the proceedings are ordered and artificially accelerated; she does not recognize the suspicion, emphasizes her many years of investments in Kyiv, charitable contributions to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and promises to prove her innocence in court. Yuriy Ivanyushchenko was reportedly served with the suspicion remotely, since he has not lived in Ukraine for a long time.
At the level of registers and proceedings, companies that operated the market, changed in the lease chain and became new owners of nine plots appear. Some of these legal entities at different times had connections with people from Molchanova's orbit, others with beneficiaries whom the media associate with Ivanyushchenko. Stolichny itself formally belongs to a structure of several Ukrainian and foreign founders; according to media estimates, actual control is attributed to the developer - a thesis that she does not publicly detail.
The proceedings were opened on June 7, 2021 and include a significant array of investigative actions. The Supreme Court of Ukraine for the Protection of Civil Rights, in addition to the land seizures, continues to consider the procedural motions of the parties. The final answers regarding the legality of the decisions of the land authorities, the reality of the alienation agreements and the roles of each of the parties must be given by the court. Until then, each of the parties remains in the status determined by the law - with the right to defense and the presumption of innocence.
