Nine days before the full-scale invasion, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Kyiv Airport (Zhulyany), Denys Kostrzhevsky, left for Spain, leaving the airport and the company's staff to their own devices. As a result, the airport was not prepared for either defense or conservation, which led to its partial destruction.
Denys Kostrzhevsky's flight abroad on the eve of a full-scale invasion can be safely called official negligence, which led to particularly serious consequences. Let us recall that on the first day of a full-scale invasion, representatives of the local "terror defense" entered the territory of Zhulyany airport, who instead of "defense" actually robbed the enterprise and damaged the runway .
Of course, the looting of the airport property and damage to the runway could have been avoided if Denys Kostrzhevsky had remained in Ukraine and been personally at the facility. But after receiving information about the offensive, Kostrzhevsky immediately fled to Europe, although he had 9 days to prepare the airport for conservation and coordinate his actions with the military.
Denys Kostrzhevsky understands his guilt well, so he ordered a long interview in which he tried to justify his actions. In particular, Kostrzhevsky assured journalists that “the morning of February 24, 2022 was a shock for all of us.” At the same time, according to our sources, Kostrzhevsky, as the manager of the strategic facility, was among those who were informed in advance.
We inform you that Denys Kostrzhevsky fled Ukraine on a private Hawker 850XP aircraft, tail number TC-MFY. Earlier, Kostrzhevsky purchased a villa in Marbella, Spain, from Dmitry Firtash for $8 million.
Kostrzhevsky's purchase of expensive real estate in a fashionable Spanish resort should also interest European law enforcement agencies. After all, in 2016, the company "Master-Avia", which manages the airport (in which Kostrzhevsky owns 25% of the authorized capital), became a defendant in a criminal case about embezzlement of funds during the purchase of special-purpose vehicles by the airport "Kyiv".
The court believed that the agreement to sell cars, where the seller was Master-Avia LLC , controlled by Kostrzhevsky, involved embezzlement of airport funds.
The investigation also included LLC “AMC “Nika-Invest” , in which Kostrzhevsky owns 50% of the authorized capital. The audit, during the verification of these facts, established the inefficient use of airport funds in the amount of UAH 1.1 million, the profit from which was received by “Master-Avia”.
In addition, in the same 2016, the Prosecutor General's Office investigated the legalization of funds received by Master-Avia from the management of Kyiv airport: Kostrzhevsky's company transferred most of the funds to the accounts of Freelance-Trans LLC, which were subsequently converted through enterprises that had signs of fictitiousness and were actually used to embezzle funds from Kyiv airport.
At the same time, even after fleeing to Spain, Denys Kostrzhevsky found a way to continue his corrupt activities at Zhulyany airport. To this end, in October 2022, Denys Kostrzhevsky issued a power of attorney for business management and property management to a Kyiv lawyer with a dubious reputation , Zakorchemny-Spizhenko Oleg Orestovich, at the Consulate of Ukraine in Malaga (Spain).
Together with the power of attorney, Oleg Zakorchemny received the “green light” to manage finances and carry out transactions with airport property, such as concluding purchase and sale agreements and transferring to statutory funds six land plots with a total area of 1.52 hectares and two non-residential buildings with an area of 28.6 thousand sq.m.
While Oleg Zakorchemny manages Zhulyany by proxy, Denys Kostrzhevsky is attending specialized events in Europe and negotiating to attract international investment to restore the airport.
Given the string of criminal cases involving corruption and money laundering that are trailing Kostrzhevsky and Zakorchemny, they will be able to quickly absorb investors' funds.
